While he’s been pushing the idea of 3D in his Spy Kids films for a while now, it would seem that there is no interactive cinema gimmck Robert Rodriguez won’t employ to drum up interest in the franchise. And for the latest, Spy Kids: All The time in the World, he wants us all to be able to smell along with sight and sound, launching “Aromascope.”
It sounds like a fancy new technology, but boiled down it’s basically scratch ‘n’ sniff cards that will be handed out to the cinema goers with their tickets. Numbers will flash on screen during the movie (yeah, that won’t be distracting at all) and audience members will scratch off the matching panel to experience whatever olfactory delight the director wants them to.
"Families are going to love the interactivity of this new addition to the movie going experience. And best of all, you won't have to pay extra for 4D Aromascope, which will be provided to every theatre whether it be 2D or 3D,” said Robert Rodriguez in a statement picked up by Coming Soon. We're really, truly hoping there are no fart jokes it in film.
It’s hardly a new technique – the use of scents dates back to the start of last century and was most famously employed as Smell-O-Vision by producers Mike Todd and his son, who used the technique created by Hans Laube for their film Scent of Mystery in 1960.
There’s no word yet on whether it will make its way over here, but it’s not like they need any special technology to make it work…
Spy Kids: All the Time in the World will be out on August 19. If it’s not good, Rodriguez will need to be ready for an awful lot of “it stinks!”-style headlines…