Other examples of how Hollywood has interacted - successfully and not-so successfully - with bloggers and online fans over the past decade:

 The Blair Witch Project (1999): A Sundance Film Festival entry that became a mainstream sensation thanks to a website that made folks believe the eerie tale of three young filmmakers who go missing in the woods was real.

 The Lord of the Rings (2002): Few directors are as fan-friendly as New Zealand’s Peter Jackson who addressed readers of the books online throughout the trilogy’s production, demonstrating the kind of interactivity few directors embrace even now. When Jackson debuted the trailer for Fellowship of the Ring online, it received 1.7 million hits on the first day alone.

 28 Days Later (2003): Newspaper and television ads are so passe. At least that’s what Fox Searchlight thought when it spent a then-shocking $1 million US in online advertising for Danny Boyle’s zombie thriller. The movie ended up earning close to $50 million US.

- Serenity (2005): Letter-writing campaigns saved Star Trek a generation ago, so it was no surprise when online chatter - and robust DVD sales - prompted Universal to bankroll a big-screen version of the cancelled sci-fi series Firefly. In a lesson to all executives who think having fans online is a licence to print money, however, Serenity raked in a measly $26 million US at the box office.

 Superman Returns (2006): After the disastrous reception Warner Bros. received for 1997’s campy Batman & Robin, executives started paying attention to what fans craved from their comic-book adaptations. One example of how much power the online community exercises came in 2002 when a script for a proposed Superman revival written by J.J. Abrams (Lost) was leaked online and subsequently bashed. Lex Luthor’s an alien? Krypton didn’t blow up? Superman gets his powers from his costume? Fearing a Batman & Robin repeat, Warners pulled the plug on the project and hired X-Men’s Bryan Singer to helm a movie much more in keeping with the character’s traditions.