In The Beginning, there was to have been a movie called Crossroads. It was to have dealt with the social issues attendant upon the interaction of science and religion.
At least, that's what the producers claimed when they induced members of the scientific community to be interviewed for the production.
To the surprise of the interviewees, the production ended up being called EXPELLED - No Intelligence Allowed.
Oddly enough, however, the producers of Expelled registered various Internet domain names related to the "new" name of the project BEFORE they persuaded the interviewees to participate.
One example of this is the domain expelledthemovie.com. Public records show:
mdr@lusz ~ $ whois expelledthemovie.com Whois Server Version 2.0 Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net for detailed information. Domain Name: EXPELLEDTHEMOVIE.COM Registrar: TUCOWS INC. Whois Server: whois.tucows.com Referral URL: http://domainhelp.opensrs.net Name Server: NS1.FILMPR.COM Name Server: NS2.FILMPR.COM Status: ok Updated Date: 16-feb-2008 Creation Date: 01-mar-2007 Expiration Date: 01-mar-2009 >>> Last update of whois database: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:23:33 UTC <<<
Now, a reasonable person might suppose, if the original project had been titled "Crossroads", that they would similarly have nailed down crossroadsthemovie.com early in the piece.
In fact, the domain did not exist until I registered it myself, when this soap opera had run on for over a year:
mdr@lusz ~ $ whois crossroadsthemovie.com Whois Server Version 2.0 Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net for detailed information. Domain Name: CROSSROADSTHEMOVIE.COM Registrar: WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC. Whois Server: whois.wildwestdomains.com Referral URL: http://www.wildwestdomains.com Name Server: NS0.DNSMADEEASY.COM Name Server: NS1.DNSMADEEASY.COM Name Server: NS2.DNSMADEEASY.COM Name Server: NS3.DNSMADEEASY.COM Status: clientDeleteProhibited Status: clientRenewProhibited Status: clientTransferProhibited Status: clientUpdateProhibited Updated Date: 13-apr-2008 Creation Date: 21-mar-2008 Expiration Date: 21-mar-2009 >>> Last update of whois database: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:28:09 EDT <<<
Those interested in the entire story can visit Expelled Exposed for the latest information and links to more detailed narrations.