Despite The Dark Knight climbing to $400 million, Hollywood is not the place where cash is guaranteed to be made. Major studios like Paramount are begging foreign banks for capital, to no avail.

But Tinseltown is still a shiny playground for those with cash to toss around — and still glossy enough to attract the inexperienced.

This week, Time Inc. announced that it would be extending its brand by making films from Sports Illustrated, Time, Fortune, and even Life articles; SI's April piece "Breaking the Bank," about the alleged criminal exploits of a Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor, is first up. With a seven-figure investment fund from XYZ Films, the publisher will option its own stories with big screen dreams.

And while a media giant like Time Inc. moving into film might not be too much a stretch — it does have parent Time Warner to fall back on, for the time being — what happens when the idea of making a feature film sounds appealing to … a fragrance company? Something worse than a Guy Ritchie flick, most likely.

But it's what Prada intends on doing.

Hoping to "distance itself" from the regular mechanisms of perfume advertising — namely, stinking up your magazines — Prada has commissioned nine short films for the web and in-store displays. (A shot of one is pictured here.) The movies will be combined for a full-length film that will debut to promote the launch of the new scent for men Infusion d'Homme.

This is a whole new way of thinking about movies. While we're living in an era of product placement, where big budget films don't get made without Audi or Burger King signing on, Prada's movie will be about showcasing its fragrance, with the storyline a secondary criteria.

On the upside, Prada's move isn't really about making a successful film. It's about getting its brand in front of viewers inside a script it has total control over. It's a marketing effort, not a stab at making art. And they've done this, to some degree, before: