Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's Batman sequel is employing the same marketing tactics of slowly feeding us bits of information through the cunning use of the Internet. Last time, we had articles, websites and Joker riddles to keep us fans guessing and it appears it could be a similar approach with The Dark Knight Rises.
First of all, we have the two documents that purport to be CIA confidential bulletins which appeared earlier in the week on Empire and Wired. One of the memos is regarding Dr. Leonid Pavel, a missing Russian scientist. The other is a transcript of a conversation that looks to be about said absent nuclear expert. Naturally, crucial bits of information are blacked out but what we do know is that the six-minute prologue screening before Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol next week will be the introduction of Bane. Therefore, it's a fairly safe bet to assume that these documents have something to do with that.
(Higher Res found at Wired)
(Higher Res found at Empire)
The most intriguing part so far though has to be the introduction of Operation Early Bird in a third document which appeared online through the viral Twitter feed @thefirerises. This discusses the Operation itself, saying that it is due to go live today at "1000 hours PST", which is 6pm for us. Also, if you go to www.operationearlybird.com, you get presented with a rather a nifty countdown clock which is obviously ticking down to the same event.
(Higher Res found at Coming Soon)
If the previous marketing campaign for The Dark Knight is anything to go by, we can all expect more clues to start appearing on the internet to keep the momentum going right up until The Dark Knight Rises is released on July 20th next year. It's all very intriguing.
