John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Go, and Charlie's Chocolate Factory, spent 30 minutes in Second Life on August 20th, answering questions about his upcoming film, The Nines. The movie plot explores the intersection between the real and the virtual, while the promotional methods are heavily using transmedia to engage fans into alternate reality games. August announced that he is hoping to release a version of the movie that would allow fans to re-edit it.
The premiere for the The Nines is set for August 31st in New York and Los Angeles, and September 28th in Austin, TX.
Our host, in the shape of avatar JohnAugust Tomorrow, greeted the handful of media guests in a replica of his real-life home, also used as movie set for The Nines. Regarding the autobiographical aspects of this film and his past creations, August offered, "Honestly, a lot of my work has big autobiographical elements. This is just a little more honest about the source". The atmosphere was informal and pleasant, although there was a lingering feeling of surreal coming through from the light outside. Looking around, apart from furniture and beautiful artwork on the walls, all objects seemed to hide a story or clue, waiting to be unveiled by a keen eye.
The conversation revolved around virtual mediums, how August would have integrated the Second Life medium had he known about it earlier, etc. He explained, "I was more of World of Warcraft addict, so I didn't do a lot of socializing online. But I definitely found myself getting lost in the world." He ventured that a good place for Second Life in the production of a movie would be in creating better storyboards and pre-visualizing scenes. August was also enticed by the possibilities of machinima, but he was swamped with questions before he could expand more on these thoughts.
For those interested in participating in the alternate reality game, Metaversatility, the company who brought The Nines to Second Life, offers some hints as to where you may wish to start. There are clues in the YouTube trailerof the movie, on the movie blog, inside the house on the Meteversatility sim, and in various forums and blogs around the web, tagged with "look for the nines". Exclusive clues have also been revealed on UGO.com and Comingsoon.net.
Info at a glance:
The Blog
The First Clue
About the Movie
1. whoa that is cool. i want to see a fusion of real and virtual facet in this side of movie. can't wait to see it released
Posted at 3:35PM on Aug 27th 2007 by erikko