Mall pig pen.

New England-style barns don't usually qualify as an advertising medium, but spiders aren't usually movie heroes, either. Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, through its upcoming "Charlotte's Web" film, wants to overturn both stereotypes.

Paramount has signed a deal with mall operator Westfield Group to erect "Zuckerman's Barn: 'Charlotte's Web' Interactive Experience" at eight shopping centers across the country. The locations include Westfield Century City in Los Angeles and Westfield Topanga in Canoga Park.

The toy barns have peepholes in the walls that allow a view of characters and scenes from the movie, which tells the story of how a spider writes words in her web to save a pig from the slaughterhouse. Kids can view plasma screens, framed as barn windows, that will display trivia games and images of Charlotte weaving their name. Other parts of the barnyard feature the "Charlotte' s Web" game on Nintendo DS and a theater (with bales-of-My seating, of course) showing how the movie was made.

The campaign tries to reach families inside the mall during the biggest shopping season of the year. For movie studios, the on-location strategy "turns two-dimensional promotions into a fun three-dimensional interactive experience," said Todd Putman, Westfield's executive vice-president of marketing. He added that Westfield plans to work with Paramount on future campaigns.

"Charlotte's Web" opened in theaters on Dec. 15.