Through one of the smartest film promotions I’ve seen in awhile, Disney has already sold 500,000 advance tickets to its little nature doc-for-kids, Earth, by promising to plant a tree for each audience member who pays to see the film during its first week (starting tomorrow and ending Tuesday, April 28). Never mind that all those people could just plant a tree themselves, and that families may ultimately be disappointed to find the movie is less focused than the ads would have them believe (the “three animal families” narrative is often abandoned for a broader look at the planet’s ecosystems) –– the fact that Disney managed to come up with such a successful marketing gimmick, and incentive, that has no necessary web-related elements is extremely commendable in these mostly viral-campaign-obsessed times.
Of course, there’s nothing at all wrong with online movie marketing, and it’s worth pointing to another new film opening this week, Obsessed, which has a fun little gimmick utilizing personalizing technology we’ve seen in plenty of prior viral promotional tools. It may not help save the planet, but we actually had more fun making this video, in which we made Ali Larter seem to be obsessed with SpoutBlog editor Karina Longworth, than we did watching Disney’s Earth. Then again, we at least saw the documentary, primarily because of its promotion, yet we probably won’t be seeing the very banal-looking Obsessed.
Ignoring whether or not they were successful, we picked ten other favorite viral gimmicks, many of which were more enjoyable than the movies they promoted: …Read more
We lost two great men last weekend, Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes. So, in a timely promotion of the upcoming film Soul Men, which costars Mac and features Hayes in a cameo, MTV has posted four new clips, including the one seen above of Hayes’ appearance (the clip won’t embed properly, so head to MTV to watch). Seeing the two late stars together (with Samuel L. Jackson) somehow doesn’t bring tears to my eyes, but I guess their deaths still haven’t hit me. Perhaps when Soul Men actually arrives in theaters November 14, or maybe when they’re included in the memoriam montage at the Oscars, I’ll appreciate this scene more.
While this clip is relatively short, the other three at MTV.com are pretty substantial, especially considering The Weinstein Co. (via Dimension) still haven’t released a trailer for the movie. My favorite is the first clip, which features an entire performance from Mac and Jackson at a country western bar. Of all the cool scenes that Samuel L. has been in, this one of him line dancing takes the cake. He may not be swearing or beating the crap out of anyone, but he’s the only person I’ve ever seen that doesn’t make the dance seem lame. It almost makes up for his other clip this week, in which he makes The Spiritlook really lame.
Finally the infamous toilet scene from The Spirit, shown last month at Comic-Con, has been leaked online. And it’s just as bad as I imagined. Actually, it’s worse. Our own Kevin Kelly, who liveblogged the clip, described the setting as “extremely muddy and watery,” but I’d go so far as to say that stuff looks like shit. Considering the fact that a toilet is involved, I’m sure it is indeed shit, literally. I don’t think there’s been so much excrement in a movie since Trainspotting.
Now that I’ve seen the clip, I have to believe the makers of The Spirit actually mean for it to be humorous, but I wonder if those on stage (writer-director Frank Miller, producer Deborah Del Prete and actors Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson and Jaime King) realize that the audience is laughing at the scene, not with it. OK, maybe some of the panel attendees seem to actually be enjoying the footage, but I definitely hear some awkward reactions in there, as well.
As you surely are aware by now, over the weekend, both 50 year-old Bernie Mac and 65 year-old Isaac Hayes died. The former succumbed to pneumonia after several weeks of speculation over his health; the latter apparently collapsed whilst exercising at home. At first, the news––especially in regards to Mac––was greeted with shock. But by late Sunday, the two deaths had been conflated into a meme of jokes about how Samuel L. Jackson should, as one Tumblr put it, “head to his doctor tout de suite.”
Surely, some of the jokes were of the spontaneous, “Quick! Think of another middle-aged black man in the entertainment industry!” variety. But pretty much any of that was cut short when a number of bloggers received a press release from Daryl Toor, “CEO & Chief Awareness Officer” for AttentionPR. The subject of the email: Is Samuel Jackson Next? Death Comes in Threes.
The Obama Movie: so inevitable, it’s as if it is already among us. You know that Will Smith will play Obama and that Oliver Stone will write and direct. John Williams and Quincy Jones will tag-team the musical score, a soulful, all-American gumbo that samples gospel, Aaron Copland and snap music. Kerry Washington will essay Michelle Obama.
No, Steven Spielberg will direct, with Chiwetel Ejiofor as Obama, same composers. Twelve Nobel, Pulitzer and Oscar winners write the screenplay. Special afro effects by Industrial Light and Magic. Spielberg intercuts between Barack cumming and Blackwater snipers pinned down in Mosul.
After seeing the sleek teaser trailer for The Spirit, Frank Miller’s adaptation of the classic Will Eisner comics, it’s hard to believe that this new leaked trailer (originally posted on Film School Rejects, where it may still be available) is for the same movie. It begins with an arty, perfume-ad sort of misdirected marketing angle and then evolves into a goofy mix between the campy Batmanseries/movies, Sin City, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Brenda Starr(remember that piece of crap?).
And I’m not alone in thinking it now looks pretty terrible. Bloggers and commenters around the web are mostly critical of Samuel L. Jackson’s look. Personally, I think Gabriel Macht, as the lead, looks about as lame as Billy Zane in The Phantom(is it possible domino masks are never cool on an actor?). For a roundup of what others are saying, since you probably can no longer see the clip out yourself, check out some links after the jump.
In case you were like me and didn’t stick around after the credits of Iron Manthis weekend, you may be in luck. If one of a number of YouTube clips is still up by the time you read this post, then you can kind of see (in a bad quality video capture) Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. approaching Tony “Iron Man” Stark about something called “The Avengers Initiative.” (If the clip above is down, try this one, or try Movieweb’s video, or else find one I’ve missed … or, of course, go see the movie again).
Some non-comic fans who may have stuck around may have wondered who this guy is and what he’s talking about. So, just in time to coincide with the box office news this morning, Marvel Studios officially announced its lineup of adaptations through the next few years. And The Avengers is among the titles, coming to theaters in July 2011.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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