Making a “sweded” version of his own film’s trailer seems like such an obvious next step in Michel Gondry’s viral marketing of Be Kind Rewind. I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming. What’s next, self-”sweded” trailers for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, Human Nature and Block Party?

In case you haven’t been following the promotions for Gondry’s latest post-modern surrealist fantasy film and have no idea what “sweded” is, it refers to the cheaply produced remakes of Hollywood movies that Jack Black and Mos Def’s video clerk characters create in Be Kind Rewind in order to restock their store’s rental library after they accidentally erase all the originals. OK, that was a long sentence, and is probably confusing if you’re not at all familiar with this movie. So, check out the real trailer here, and acquaint yourself. (Then check out Karina’s November clip-of-the-day post about “sweded” trailers and posters and her early January BlogNosh post about fan-made “sweded” trailers.)

If you hadn’t seen that original version of the trailer before you watched the video embedded above, then you were likely already confused anyway. Gondry himself is playing all the parts and using cheaper special effects to recreate already cheap special effects, which makes his “sweded” trailer a big mess. Even having seen the real trailer, I wasn’t all that clear on what was going on. So, yes, it’s a neat idea. But can you imagine if New Line thought it funny to put this thing out to theaters for actual advertising purposes? I wonder if anyone would show up on February 22, when the film comes out.

Thanks to Chris at MovieMarketingMadness for bringing this trailer to my attention.