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Check This Out: Dr. Manhattan Appears Over River Thames

by Alex Billington
March 5, 2009

As part of a final extravagant promotion for Watchmen, a gigantic 100 ft. tall Dr. Manhattan was project over the River Thames in London last night. This dramatic, one-off spectacle was created using the world's biggest water screen projector. The screen, moored especially for this occasion in the middle of the Thames between the London Eye and The Shell Building, created an enormous vertical screen of water on which Watchmen footage was projected in order to showcase Dr. Manhattan's translucent and shimmering form in dramatic and gigantic effect. I'm a sucker for unique one-off promotions and this was pretty cool.

We've added a few more photos below, including the projected version of The Comedian's badge, aka the smiley face, that also was shown. There are a couple of videos that can be watched here and here.

Dr. Manhattan Appears Over River Thames

It's kind of funny that Dr. Manhattan (as in, New York City) appeared up in London. Why not do something like this in New York, too? Anyway, I love these kind of elaborate promotions. Sure it may cost a whole lot of money and didn't get that much exposure, but it was fun and it was unique, and I'm a supporter of marketing that is both fun and unique. Plus at this point, I don't think I need to tell anyone that Watchmen hits theaters tomorrow. I'm sure everyone in England knows, too, because that's where Alan Moore lives, so it's not like they're not familiar with the graphic novel. Anyway, bravo to Paramount for this publicity stunt.

Explore tags: Cool Stuff, Hype, Opinions

Kaiser

I was there, it was AWESOME
Ganados

I like how you immediately assume that because Alan Moore lives in England, everyone in England is familiar with the graphic novel!
SYOCC

It was cold but I barely noticed because the show was wicked!
Mister_Bubbles

"I'm sure everyone in England knows, too, because that's where Alan Moore lives" The Manhattan projection is truly epic though o_O
Marcus

Ive been watching some of the Youtube footage, and I wasnt too impressed. Infact, the comments on Youtube from people who were there were all negitive, as in in was really small and not impressive. Would have loved to see it myself though.
http://www.freewebs.com/zsosahaal/index.htm Zso

"I'm sure everyone in England knows, too, because that's where Alan Moore lives, so it's not like they're not familiar with the graphic novel." Yeah, and that's why Led Zeppelin was such a huge hit when they debuted in England. :-\ (For those who are unaware, Led Zeppelin were completely ignored by the British so they left for America, became famous, and then the British wanted them back.) That was a pretty stupid comment, Alex. As far as this event goes, I've seen them project more impressive things by far.
troy

too bad it didn't turn out well, that doesn't look "awesome" at all.
http://www.eatsleepgeek.com melvis316

Even if it didn't look that great; and I agree the youtube footage is underwhelming to say the least, I'm totally willing to mark out just for what an awesome idea it was. I think this is cooler than the Batman symbol in NYC before The Dark Knight, although I imagine it didn't look as cool.
B Mo

Alan Moore lives and Dave Gibbons, the artist, is english and probably lives there also. Probably just as popular over there as it is here in the states.
http://www.themoviebanter.com Craig

Pretty cool marketing technique, not sure if people got the reference the way they would with batman though.
http://movieguyreviews4u.blogspot.com Ryan

That was awesome.
Dr. Manhatten

Thats no projection, i will be in New York tonight.
The Joker

Now THERES a Blue Man...
Francis

I hate blue lights.
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

#2 and #6 - Come on, I was half joking! What I meant to say is that there are certain very Americanized stories in pop culture that ONLY play well here, but Watchmen is NOT one of them. It's quite universal, and at least has Moore, who is British, involved with it...
http://www.myspace.com/deadbirdinc Stuart Mellor

Well i for one remember a frame of Watchmen being set in England anyway! So damn right it should come here. Although seeing as Moore totally disowned himself from anything to do with the Watchmen Movie, its not really appropriate. But thats everyone reading too much into it, i agree, it is DAMN COOL
Syphous

Who cares? Unless Dr. Manhattan killed off all those filthy fog-breathers, this isn't news. "Oh some British communists saw a light show." WOW EXCITING. I'm just kidding, that's pretty neat.
http://www.bluray-720p.com Jackie

Amazing, simply amazing, this is art more than anything. I envy you guys for beeing there