Sony’s “Elysium” Gets New Viral Website and Sneak Peeks

Elysium is an upcoming sci-fi action film from writer/director Neill Blomkamp. In the future, the rich live on a luxurious space station that orbits the desolate Earth, but one man (Matt Damon) has to find a way up there to get the medicine he needs. We’ve seen the film’s studio Sony start up some viral marketing in the past, but nothing has stuck. Now it looks like they are back at it again, but this time with a real treat for fans. Get the details after the break.

The first time we saw viral marketing for Elysium was at San Diego Comic-Con in 2011. Signs linked to Armadyne.net, which is the company behind the space station. That website has been recently upgraded to be a much more detailed look at the company, which makes buildings, robots, and much more.

At last year’s Comic-Con, the Elysium booth directed us to It’s Better Up There, which was a website where you could test to see if you were worthy of being sent up to the space station. That website has now changed to a homepage for the film.

The newest update is website called Welcome to Elysium. This website goes into more detail about the Elysium space station, including showcasing Elysian President Minister Patel (played bty Faran Tahir) and Defense Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster).

When you enter the new website, you’ll see that you can sign up for “Exclusive live demos of Elysium” in the cities of Berlin, Los Angeles, New York, and Sao Paolo, all on April 8th. Unfortunately, most of these are already filled up, but the Los Angeles one apparently still has tickets left. The event promise a sneak peek at the movie with Blomkamp and Sharlto Copley attending at least the one in LA with Matt Damon on satellite.

Elysium opens in theaters on August 9th.