Studios Set Up Internet Sites

Increasingly, cyberspace is studded with stars - the Hollywood kind.

Movie studios are seizing the Internet as a promotional tool, a trend evident in a line of tiny type appearing at the bottom of more and more movie advertisements. It’s an Internet address.

“Crimson Tide” has one. So do “Johnny Mnemonic,” “Casper,” “Die Hard With a Vengeance” and even the romantic adventure “Rob Roy.”

By tapping into these sites, Internet users can find everything from photographs of actors and production information to preview reels, songs, games and contests designed around the movie.

That is, presuming they have vast reserves of patience: It can take more than an hour for a user’s computer to download the moving visuals of even a brief movie clip.

Studio interest in the Internet “is exploding - it’s really exploding,” says John Hegeman, a vice president of marketing at MGM-UA.

“Now, almost every studio has a presence on the Internet,” Hegeman says. “There’s clearly something going on.”

One of the most elaborate movie-related sites yet designed is the one Warner Brothers is now using to promote “Batman Forever,” due June 16.

The “Batman Forever” site (address - http:/ /www.batmanforever.com) features animation, special effects, movie and audio clips.