“Khan!”
Star Trek fans will recognize that as William Shatner,
as Adm. James T. Kirk, screaming into a handheld
communicator at his far-away adversary, Khan Noonien
Singh, in the 1982 movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
It’s also part of multiplatform movie channel Epix’s
new “Shatnerpalooza” promotion. The channel encourages
fans to upload their versions of Kirk’s anguished
cry to a website (thelongkhan.com). The clips are being
stitched together into one really long “Khan.”
At press time, Epix said it ran about a half-hour, en
route to an expected hour.
Epix backed Shatner’s production of a new documentary,
The Captains, about the actors who have played
Star Trek captains over the years. Shatner and Avery
Brooks (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Capt. Benjamin
Sisko) appeared at a Comic-Con panel in San Diego on
July 22 that drew 2,200 people, with an unknown number
turned away. (Epix is co-owned by Viacom, which
owns the StarTrek shows and movies.)
Epix premiered the documentary the same day and
Shatner did an hour-long online Q&A that drew 20,000
fans.
EpixHD.com Webcast the Q&A live from the Cox
Communications San Diego production facilities with
Cox’s help. Cox has that material plus footage of the
Comic-Con panel to offer subscribers on video on demand.
“Star Trek fans are an amazing fan base, so passionate,
and Bill Shatner is emblematic of that and taps that
vein in a way that, to tell you the truth, took many of us
by surprise,” Epix chief of staff Nora Ryan told The Wire.
“Shatner embodies everything that the Trekkies are so
excited about in terms of the franchise.”
Epix staged other The Captains screenings, including
one this past weekend at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space
Museum in New York City. Along the way, the channel
has offered thousands of fans a two-week free trial of
the network online. Affiliates will use that data for direct
marketing of the channel later.
Overall, the message was targeted to 10 million people
on fan sites and social media. Epix said EpixHD.com
tripled its traffic over the July 23-24 weekend.
‘Head in a Jar’ App
Is Top of the Charts,
Comedy Central Says
At press time, Comedy Central said its new “Futurama
Head-in-a-Jar Creator” app was among the top five
downloaded free apps for the
iPhone and iPad.
The cable network and Futurama
creator Matt Groening
announced the release of the
app July 23 at a show panel at
Comic-Con in San Diego.
The head is a recurring theme
in the animated series. Famous
people, including Leonard
Nimoy, continuing to live long
and prosper, and the current
Futurama president, Richard
Nixon, have been kept alive as
preserved heads under glass.
The app, developed in association with Rough
Draft Studios, gives users a chance to customize a
head and place it in a museum, categorized by exhibit.
Users can upload their creations to Facebook,
share them via Twitter or make them into wallpaper
or icons.
To promote the app, Comedy Central last week featured
the Head Museum in last week’s episode and
touted the app on-air throughout the show.
