Marketing
On December 25, 2008, a trailer was released on Apple.com, featuring The Knife's "The Captain" and Coheed and Cambria's "Welcome Home".
The trailer featured several machines up against the protagonists: the Cat Beast, a cat-like ambush predator that appeared in the original short film; The Winged Beast, a pterodactyl-like machine with movable blades in its mouth; the Seamstress, a hypnotic serpent; Steel Behemoths, large two-legged machines armed with a machine gun and poison gas missiles which can kill in a matter of seconds; the Fabrication Machine, a cyclopic, spider-like machine with many multi-jointed arms; and Seekers, aerial machines with searchlights. Later trailers also reveal the existence of several small spider-like machines.
Part of the film's marketing strategy was its release date of September 9, 2009 ("9/9/09").
9 is the second animated feature film to be released by Focus Features, the first being Coraline, written & directed by Henry Selick and based on the book by Neil Gaiman. The trailer for 9 preceded Coraline when it was shown in theaters and released on DVD.
A second trailer for 9 first appeared on G4's Attack of the Show and was later shown before Land of the Lost. It is an extensive trailer which includes a bit of the background story behind the existence of the creations.
In April 2009, the film's "Scientist" began making journal entries on a Facebook page called "9 Scientist", including essays about each of his nine creations. The "9 Scientist" Facebook page seemingly references events leading up to the release of the film.
A viral campaign promotional website for 9 was launched. It shed some light upon the background of the 9 world.
Since the work of The Scientist is ultimately responsible for the destruction of mankind, it is of some note that the actor who plays this role, Alan Oppenheimer is the cousin of scientist Robert Oppenheimer, the "Father of the Atomic Bomb".
The film was rated PG-13 for "violence and scary images".
NECA Toys released collectible action figures of 9 and 1.
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