From Rorschach to the Comedian, there's been no shortage of allies for the "Watchmen" -- but the masked vigilante squad is about to meet their newest partner in the war against crime.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has hooked up with Facebook in an unprecedented alliance to sync up friend networks on the social networking website with the interactive community-screening features on Warners' Blu-ray titles. "Watchmen: Director's Cut" will be the first Blu-ray disc to allow this new feature.
Just as Facebook users widely implement "status updates" to inform friends of their current activities, so too will the Blu-ray feature provide similar updates. In other words, the feature will allow Facebook users to provide live commentary on their "Watchmen" viewing experience.
Warners has previously implemented a system called BD-Live, which allows for community screenings by way of a buddy list function. Through this new partnership, however, the BD-Live buddy list can expand to include the purchaser's Facebook friend networks. As a result, the viewer can share his or her experiences with their entire Facebook network.
"We want to do this partnership with Facebook because research has shown that consumers want to have social networking capabilities with BD-Live," said Kris Brown of Warner Home Videos. "Previously, those possibilities have been limited to your friends within BD-Live and the general BD-Live community."
Neither Facebook nor Warners will exchange money as part of the deal, though the financial upsides could be enormous. For the social networking site, the move encourages Blu-ray owning Facebook users to provide frequent status updates while offering their own color commentary on films, generating more activity on the already high-traffic website.
On the flip side, Warners benefits by having news of this feature spread throughout Facebook -- an undeniably massive social outlet for internet users of all ages -- encouraging non Blu-ray converts to make the leap to the new entertainment platform.
Putting it in comic book terms, the Facebook and Warners partnership could be a brilliant move that the Machiavellian genius Ozymandias would proudly endorse.
The special edition "Watchmen: Director's Cut" is expected to hit DVD and Blu-ray on either July 21 or July 28 -- which puts it on shelves either right before or after this summer's San Diego Comic-Con.
Will you liveblog the "Watchmen"? Tell us what you think of Warner Bros. and Facebook's new partnership in the comments section!