‘The Dark Tower’ Viral Marketing Reveals Hidden Secrets All Around You
The Dark Tower won’t hit theaters until next February, but the viral marketing campaign for the long-awaited adaptation has officially kicked off ahead of Comic-Con 2016 (which starts this week; yes, really). Following this week’s huge batch of sneak peeks, Sony has released a downloadable app for The Sombra Group, which book readers will instantly recognize as the nefarious corporation used by sinister forces to keep a foothold in our world and aid them in their quest to destroy the titular tower.
If you head to TheSombraGroup.com, you’ll see a link to download the site’s official app. Once opened, you can explore a few different pages:
Book readers will also recognize the names listed here, which are all titles of businesses connected to Sombra — the mega-corporation used by Matthew McConaughey’s Man in Black and his group of low-men to keep tabs on things in our world:
If you go to the “Employees” screen, you’re asked for a username and password — which will surely come in handy later.
Here’s where things get a bit more involved. There’s a camera tool that scans your surroundings and it doesn’t do much of anything until you point it at certain images, like the Entertainment Weekly cover:
When pointed at a special image, you’ll hear what sounds like a clock chiming and the image will begin to distort. Above, you can see a red rose that blooms on the screen — just like the roses that surround the tower in the books.
Heading over to Stephen King’s Facebook page, you’ll see that the author just added a new Comic-Con event for a Charlie the Choo-Choo book signing with author Beryl Evans. The book is a key part of Roland (Idris Elba) and Jake (Tom Taylor)’s journey, but one that doesn’t figure heavily into the story until subsequent books. Here’s what happens when you point the camera at it:
Something similar happens when you check out this photo McConaughey shared on Twitter, which depicts the symbol of the Crimson King:
Here’s a teaser photo from last month that says “Remember the face of your father” — a reference to an oft-repeated phrase in The Dark Tower:
And finally, the teaser photo that first clued us into director Nikolaj Arcel’s brilliant plan for The Dark Tower, which, as he recently confirmed, will function as a sequel of sorts to King’s novel series.
There’s sure to be even more hidden easter eggs lurking in our world, and we can’t wait to see what fans dig up at Comic-Con later this week. The Dark Tower hits theaters on February 17, 2017.