Smell-O-Vision
Admittedly, bringing back the ability for the audience to smell a movie as well as see and hear it would have to be used sparingly; I doubt that many people would pay money to live the oily odor of Michael Bay's Transformers 3-D or whatever. But now that 3-D has proven itself to be reborn thanks to new technology, it's probably only a matter of time before some studio goes back to the well that brought us Scent of Mystery and the "Odorama" version of John Water's Polyester. After all, Japanese audiences have suffered through the scent of Colin Farrell as recently as 2006, so it's not as if the technology isn't there...

Percepto
It's the ultimate in audience participation; terrifying your viewers through physical means. William Castle created Percepto and made the one and only movie that used the gimmick, The Tingler. Unknowingly for the audience, the director had seats in theaters wired with small vibrators that, at a particular point in the movie, would make the seat shudder as if the person sitting in it was being attacked by the Tingler themselves. True, this idea may have limited use for horror movies today - not so much tingling being offered by today's monsters, after all - but I'm sure some enterprising producers somewhere can think of exciting new uses for chairs that vibrate on cue.

(A completely pointless, personal, aside; I was convinced that the UK theater release of the original Battlestar Galactica had some similar gimmick, when I was a kid; I remember the seats vibrating when the Vipers were launched. Years later, someone pointed out a more obvious solution: That the sound of the launch made the rickety seats shake because it was a crappy theater. Somewhat heartbreaking.)

Illusion-o
Another William Castle invention, "Illusion-o" used something similar to oldschool 3-D technology to change the movie you were watching. Viewers who watched 13 Ghosts with the special glasses provided could see ghosts that were otherwise invisible to those watching without the glasses. I have to admit, I'd love for someone to bring this one back for modern audiences, because I love the idea of audiences in the same theater being able to experience entirely different movies for reasons other than they had read the original graphic novel or not.

Multiple Endings
No, I don't mean in the Return of The King sense where you just wanted the movie to be over already; I'm talking about actually having different endings available to an audience in a theater. Clue, famously, used this trick when in theaters, offering three different endings depending on what theater you were watching in. William Castle (again!) went one better with Mr. Sardonicus, which let audience members choose whether or not a particular character died, with different endings available depending on their decision. Considering all of the technology available now - not to mention the various "alternate endings" that appear on DVDs - I can't believe that this one hasn't made it back to theaters yet. Give me a chance to see Kirk die at the end of May's Star Trek, dammit!

Silent Movies
It may seem counter-intuitive in the era of THX surroundsound and all of the other technology that tries to convince your ears that you're actually in the middle of the movie and that Seth Rogen is actually right behind you, but think about it for a second; how many times have you seen a movie that's had a decent plot, amazing special effects and absolutely lousy dialogue or performances? Silent movies would solve that problem by removing the need for dialogue altogether. You don't even need to have a really silent movie; you could keep in all the sound effects, and just remove the dialogue (or push it onto subtitles or caption cards at appropriate times). You're thinking it's a stupid idea right now, but go and watch the start of Wall-E before coming back to admit that, just possibly, it might work after all. After all, what's the alternative for a more involving cinema experience? Building an even bigger IMAX screen?

You may be sick of superhero movies this summer, but don't worry, the zeitgeist is already shifting. What started with the success of last year's Transformers movie - and will continue with next year's GI Joe - is just the start of what Hasbro are hoping will be the next big movie trend: Toy Movies.

The effects of last year's Michael Bay explosionfest were definitely felt at Hasbro, America's second biggest toy manufacturer: International revenues were up 33% (and US revenues up 15%) in 2007, compared with the previous year, a fact that many within the company attributed directly to the Transformers movie (Some analysts even predicted 2008 profits would fall. as a result of the lack of Transformers movie). No surprise, then, that the toymaker has decided to try and see what other products they can get turned into movies ASAP.

First up are the two you already know about for next year: Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen and GI Joe. Both of these are generally expected to be successful for obvious reasons - not only the success of the last Transformers movie, but also the in-built audience for both franchises who played with the toys, watched the cartoons and read the comic books when they were kids - but they're also the only two franchises of that nature that Hasbro happen to own. Is there really a hardcore fanbase out there clamoring for the big budget, live action My Little Pony movie, for example? Or George Clooney's Visionaries?

Not that that's stopping Hasbro, however; earlier this year, the company unveiled a deal with Universal Pictures for "at least" four movies based upon their toys and games. No actual titles were announced at the time, but some names bandied about included Stretch Armstrong, CandyLand and, for the second time in its career, Clue (It won't be able to reach the heights of the Tim Curry original, mind you).

Hasbro isn't the only company looking to get in on this action, either; Mattel have movies in various stages of pre-production for both Masters of The Universe (with John Woo attached) and Hot Wheels, and we've just seen (or, more likely, stayed well away from) the release of Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, based upon the peculiar and expensive American Girl line. On the one hand, it makes sense; having exhausted the television and comic books of your youth, why shouldn't Hollywood move into your toy closet? But if we ever find ourselves reporting on the announcement of the Big Jim's PACK movie, then it really is time to get worried.