Dnevnoy Dozor

I saw this weird billboard in Moscow yesterday. This is an ad of “Day Watch” movie, the sequel to “Night Watch”. In the day light it looks very ordinary – Дневной дозор on white background. But in the dark when the backlight is lit it looks scary. According to Adme the billboard was designed ORT Dizayn studio and placed by News Outdoor.

“Night Watch” movie was a huge success in Russia. Actually before “Company 9” (Девятая рота) was released it was #1 having collected 16.2 million USD. Not bad for a 4.2 million USD budget movie. It also had moderate success in Europe (e.g. 28.7 million USD). The release date for the US is set for the 17th February 2006.

“Night Watch” is also the most heavily advertised movie in the history of Russia (incl. the Soviet period). ORT Channel (major national TV station) bombarded us with tons of ads – it seemed to me that every block of commercials started and ended with a NW trailer. Incidentally ORT is also a producer of the movie so they could afford not only trailers but NW talk show, interviews, book promotion (the movie is based on Lukyanenko’s SF novel). The country was covered with thousands of posters. One month before the release almost all magazines came with NW pictures on cover pages.

I personally didn’t want to see the movie but ORT was so importunate and intruding that I could withstand its attacks. Summary – in comparison with the novel the movie is a disappointment. And its low-budgetness shows notwithstanding some nice computer animations.

Picture via Adme

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