The Island - Sneak Preview

The Deadbolt is locking down the latest on a nation-wide sneak preview for The Island, open to the public Saturday July 9, 2005.

If you've been living on an island for the last few months, The Island is a futuristic sci-fi action thriller about human cloning, directed by Michael Bay (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys II), starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. The film centers around Lincoln Six-Echo (McGregor) and Jordan Two-Delta (Johansson) and the events that unfold after both are selected for The Island, reportedly the last uncontaminated spot in the world following an ecological disaster that took the lives of everyone on the planet.

Here's more from the production's latest press release:

"When the original screenplay for “The Island” was brought to the attention of producer Walter F. Parkes and executive producer Laurie MacDonald, they had already been trying to develop a very different story about human cloning. Parkes offers, “What immediately intrigued us about this script was that, instead of taking the perspective of a researcher or outside observer, ‘The Island’ took the point of view of the clones themselves. That struck us as a great way to tell the story in a much more emotional and personal way, because on one level, this is about science gone awry, but it is also about seeing the world through these innocents’ eyes.”

As the project gears up, the online marketing campaign has been largely underground thus far. However, as the film draws near, the hype machine has kicked into full gear in a very creative way with the creation of two fictional websites in an attempt to generate fan interest.

The first site is an impressive flash destination designed for an organ cloning and transplant company called Merrick Biotech, which is the same company featured in the film.

The second site is for a non-profit organization called Clone Watch.org. In a clever and creative way to market the film, this site has been specifically designed to resemble a true to life watch dog group for human cloning. If your a sucker for replication and surveillance, this techinically adept location showcases a wide array of altered clips from the film mostly shot using an undercover hidden camera.

But wait... there's more. If you're eager to explore The Island and participate in the production on an interactive level, there is also an online petition agaisnt Merrick Biotech that has been leaked to blogs and message boards, resulting in a ton of online buzz about cloning and the origins of the sites.