Operation: Basterd Tweetup is set to advance tonight, when you can follow the exploits of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds as they storm Hollywood’s Chinese theater, all from the safety (and front row seat) of the internet. Yeah, we’re living in an age where one can follow events in real time on the net more closely than actual guests at the actual events.
The Flickcast’s Chris Ullrich reports that The Weinstein Company and Twitter are partnering up to give us the first ever movie premiere tweetup Monday night at the Chinese for the Hollywood unveiling of the much awaited Quentin Tarantino World War II flick, Inglourious Basterds. While a tweetup is a group of socially networked twitterers meeting up IRL, this seems to be something larger as it’s an invitation to anyone and everyone on the net to follow the premiere via Twitter. It’s also the first Red Carpet Tweetup. Ever. Assuming Operation: Basterd Tweetup is a success, expect more red carpet tweetups.
Guests at the premiere will be able to watch Twitter updates on large screens set up at the Chinese as well as the after-party. Anyone in the world following this event on Twitter will be able to interact via the micro-blogging service.
The official Twitter hashtag for this event is: #basterds
And here are some twitterers that you can follow at tonight’s premiere:
@TheRealBasterds – Official Basterds Twitterfeed
@TheFlickcast – Chris Ullrich for The Flickcast
@QTArchives – Greatest online resource for anything and everything Quentin Tarantino
@AMCnews – Covering the event for amctv.com
@biz – Twitter co-founder Biz Stone
@sammlevine – Basterd Private First Class Gerold Hirschberg
@omardoom – Basterd Private First Class Omar Ulmer
@FuMikechu – me ; )
The premiere’s scheduled to start at 7pm Pacific so be sure to follow before hand for pre-event coverage. The early start time is most likely the function of the film’s running time of 2 hours and 32 minutes. Expect relative Twitter silence re: Basterds Premiere once the film actually starts unspooling and anticipate it to start up again 152 minutes later, after 9:32pm Pacific.
Assuming the film actually starts at 7pm. Which it won’t. Let me throw out a prediction start time of 7:17pm and I think that’s being rather conservative. Just a prediction. A little game I like to play at premieres. Perhaps someone can tweet when the film actually starts running and barring any missed reel changes (like that actually happens anymore, what with platter systems) count on a 2nd wave of Basterds Tweets 2 hours and 32 minutes after the actual start time of the film.
See you tonight!
Sources: The Flick Cast, @TheRealBasterds
UPDATE: Update: You can watch the premiere live via webcam here.