Posts Tagged ‘ movies ’

The Ultimate Search for Bourne

July 19, 2007
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Last year, Google teamed up with Columbia Pictures to promote The Da Vinci Code with an online puzzle game.  This year, Google has teamed up with Universal Pictures to promote the new movie The Bourne Ultimatum, with an online puzzle game called The Ultimate Search for Bourne.

For the game, you take on the role of an agent trying to find Jason Bourne.  You do this with the help of tools provided by Google.  The game has you searching fake web sites for information on surveillance agents and the like.  Successfully playing the game each day allows you to place surveillance cameras in different locations with the hope of spotting Bourne on one of them.

The prizes for the game are similar to last years prizes for the Da Vinci Code Challenge.  They include, cash, a car, and trips to the major cities featured in the movies.  There are also additional daily prizes of $1000 gift cards.  And a special sightings prize of an iPhone for which anyone with over 25 sightings of Bourne is eligible.  The prizes this year are given out in sweepstakes fashion, so it’s really all luck whether or not you win.

The game has been only running a few days, and the challenges so far have not been terribly challenging, though there are some very interesting tools on the game display that have not yet been used.  All in all, a little less puzzley than last years game, but still worth a look.

Cloverfield

July 9, 2007
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Since this past weekend, there’s been a lot of buzz about a trailer for a movie codenamed Cloverfield (the real name is, as yet, unknown.)  The movie is being produced by J. J. Abrams, who is known for creating the TV series Lost, and the screenplay was written by Drew Goddard, who was a writer for Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Many sites are posting about this.  Here’s one that provides only the basic information, and here’s one that goes into a little bit more depth.  There appears to be an Alternate Reality Game in motion to build up hype around the movie.  Currently, the game involves two sites ethanhaaswaswrong.blogspot.com and ethanhaaswasright.com.  The latter is where you’ll find the puzzles.  So, check it out and have some fun.

Volvo treasure remains unfound

June 5, 2007
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Here’s a quick update on Volvo’s treasure hunt.  Apparently, the final puzzle was so hard that none of the finalists were able to solve it and the treasure remains unfound.  There will be a rematch today with a new puzzle to see if a winner can be found.  The final puzzles will be posted The Hunt web site, when the treasure is found.

Another Volvo Treasure Hunt

April 26, 2007
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Last year, in connection with the release of Pirates of the Carribean: Dean Man’s Chest, Vovlo buried one of their cars and set up a series of puzzle games for contestants to play.

This year, in connection with the release of Pirates of the Carribean: World’s End, Volvo has dumped a chest full of gold (and a set of car keys) in the ocean for a lucky contestant to find. There will be online puzzle games again. And, of course, a quest to your local Volvo dealer will be a requirement, just like last time.

The contest begins next week, but the sign up page is already live.

Win a Wordplay DVD

November 8, 2006
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There are no puzzles involved, but puzzle lovers might be interested to know that Movies Online is giving away a copy of the recently-released Wordplay DVD.  Entry requires sending an email to the site.

Crossword Puzzle Stalker Movie

October 16, 2006
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It appears that Hollywood is becoming more interested in cruciverbalists… at least, in an odd sort of way.  According to the site Cinematical, Fox 2000 will be making a movie called All About Steve starring Sandra Bullock.  The one sentence plot description is as follows:

Written by Kim Barker, the broad comedy revolves around a “brilliant but eccentric crossword-puzzler” who stalks a TV cameraman across the country.

Hmmm… not exactly Wordplay 2.

GPS, The Movie and The Game

September 14, 2006
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I recently came across this press release about an upcoming indie film called GPS and a game that goes along with it.  The film seems to be truly independant, in the sense that there will likely be no one you’ve heard of involved with making it.  It’s being billed as a suspense thriller about people who us GPS trackers to find treasure.

The game allows you to get involved.  There’s some treasure hunting involved, but there are also online puzzles and what seems like an ARG-style mystery involving the characters in the film.

Wordplay on DVD

September 13, 2006
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The DVD release of Wordplay has been announced for Novemver 7th of this year. There will be over 85 minutes of bonus features and something called “The Five Greatest Puzzles Ever Made.” Apparently, there will also be some DVD-ROM material, including printable puzzles.

Wordplay Scavenger Hunt is up

June 9, 2006
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The scavenger hunt is indeed up on the Wordplay site this morning, and it is an empty crossword grid with no clues. And nothing else for that matter, nothing to even help find the clues. Anyone who read my post from yesterday, knows the location of at least six clues. Happy hunting!

Update: OK… my browser wasn’t showing the puzzle correctly. There are no down clues, but there are across clues. Also, the sites where the down clues are located are given.

Wordplay Scavenger Hunt

June 8, 2006
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An article has gone up at Movieweb about a crossword scavenger hunt to promote the movie Wordplay.  The article directs you to the Wordplay movie site for complete instructions, but notes that complete rules will not be posted until tomorrow.  Currently, I can find nothing about this on the Wordplay website.  However, there are a couple things that can be deduced from the Movieweb article.

The article has 6 crossword clues in it and suggests that others will be scattered among other sites on the internet.  From this, I would guess that a crossword grid with no clues is going up on the Wordplay site tomorrow.  Instead, we will get a list of sites where clues can be found, or perhaps hints as to where the clues can be found.  I’ll post more tomorrow when the official rules go up.

Find a buried volvo

June 8, 2006
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To promote the upcoming film Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest, Volvo is having a treasure hunt competition called “The Hunt.” The goal: find a Volvo XC90 V8 buried somewhere in the world. Oh, but this is not just any Volvo XC90, from the press release:

The buried one-of-a-kind, pirate-themed Volvo XC90 features a variety of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest-inspired elements, including menacing graphics from the film, black leather seats, custom painted 20 inch wheels and more.

The contest begins next Monday and will require a map available from Volvo dealers. There will then bea series of online puzzles to solve leading to the car.

Update: For anyone interested in seeing what this car looks like, visit this site.

Da Vinci Code Cryptex

May 15, 2006
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My Da Vinci Code cryptex arrived today and it’s much nicer than I was expecting.  I knew they said that it had a retail value of $30, but somehow I was still envisioning something made entirely out of plastic.  Quite a bit of it is metal and it’s fairly heavy.  Here’s a picture:

cryptex

The code for opening it was on on the bottom of the box.  Now, we’re all set for the final round.

Da Vinci Code Puzzle 24

May 10, 2006
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And the final puzzle of the quest could be solved in minutes.  The final “observation” challenge was particularly easy if you had read the book, which would have given you the answer to the final question.  It also wasn’t hard to figure out which video on Google videos would be used today and watch it before the challenge was released.

Now, if you’re done, it’s time to sit back and wait to see if you’re in the top 10,000.

Da Vinci Code Puzzle 23

May 9, 2006
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The penultimate puzzle is a “geography” challenge meaning that is the final round, the puzzles are played in order from top to bottom. I already had a strong feeling about which city would be featured today, and the four cities featured formed the set that I was expecting.

The final challenge was, however, not as difficult as the last two. The final question was a mathematical one and not a geographical one, which made it easier for me. They also manage to tie all of the geography puzzles together which is pretty nice.

Tomorrow, the final puzzle.

Da Vinci Code Puzzle 22

May 8, 2006
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For all that’s been said about helpmates and such. The “chess” challenges still baffle me. I played a couple different boards today. I am convinced that some of the boards have multiple solutions. Further, for one board I played, a wrong answer on the first trivia question resulted in what I thought was a valid first move for the helpmate. If we do indeed see helpmate puzzles like these in the final challenge, I hope that there is a single solution or that all valid solutions will be accepted.