Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Warner Brothers, Family Films, Home Entertainment, Movie Marketing, Harry Potter, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

When I saw the name of Warner Brothers' new website for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I was concerned. I worried that JoinDumbledoresArmy might be some sneaky plan by the Bush administration to draft our youngsters into fighting overseas. But after closer inspection, the site appears legit. It allows you to enroll alongside Harry, Ron, and Hermione to fight the Dark Arts and also to send messages to Dumbledore's Army that will appear on the website. The messages that have been left so far range from the heroic -- ("We must band together against the Dark Lord," says Larry R.) to the cryptic --("I'm of Brazil, yeah!!! LOL," says Eder F.) to the profound -- ("EEEEEEEEEEEE!" says Katie A.)

Once you enroll in the Army, you can download wallpapers, skins, banners, images, and buddy icons. I must admit, I did not enroll -- I fear a 26 year-old man signing up for "Dumbledore's Army" would surely put me on some sort of pedophile watch list -- but I did play the site's game: "Dark Arts Defense." The object of the game is to master spells. I won my school's spell-ing bee three years in a row, but alas, those skills did not translate. You have a wand, they give you symbols and you're supposed to trace them out in the air to defeat your opponent. There's a training course, but I got cocky and skipped right over it, which was a mistake. I must say, the game was a lot of fun, but playing it was quite a blow to my self-esteem. The current high score: 318,071. My score: 6.

Filed under: Action & Adventure, Drama, Deals, Noir, Universal, Movie Marketing

The movie may not be due until November, but JoBlo's Movie Emporium has the posters now: Ridley Scott's American Gangster has officially begun the promotional lifecycle. The film -- which was slated to be directed by Antoine Fuqua until he fell off the project and Ridley Scott stepped in -- revolves around the New York drug trade in the '70s -- and features Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. (And the director's chair wasn't the only switcheroo: Originally, Benicio Del Toro was cast in what would become Crowe's role.) The plotline revolves around an ex-dealer who actually has a change of heart and works with a NYPD narcotics officer to try and stop the flood of heroin that hit New York in the '70s -- but with Scott attached to direct, look for great action and more than a little grit (as well as smoke-filed rooms, venetian blinds and rain, too).

The posters look great -- there's one for Washington and one for Crowe -- and to me the most interesting things about the posters are first, the observation that Universal's marketing department doesn't even have to show all of Washington and Crowe's faces for us to know who they are -- and if that's not proof of super-stardom on their part, I don't know what is. The second thing -- which leapt into my mind unbidden as I looked at Crowe's poster, as seen here -- is that between the black-and-white look and the focus on well-dressed men packing heat, I got a real Scarface vibe off these posters. Time will tell if American Gangster is fit to fill Tony Montana's elegant, blood-soaked shoes; the film is currently set to open November 21st.

Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Images