On the heels of discussing trailers and such, Marvel and Universal put out the second trailer for THE INCREDIBLE HULK. If you haven’t watched in QuickTime or Hi Def, you need to go ahead and click here to do that. If you can’t wait to go to another site or you just want some quick fun of watching again there’s this….
Then, with all the frenzy that became the viral marketing fiasco by Warner Bros earlier this week, people who won those little reels of film finally started getting their findings up on the world wide web. The result? A “Jokerized” version of the trailer…which makes for some pretty funny moments.
As I write this, I am waiting on what will hopefully be a new Dark Knight trailer to make it’s debut online. Since early this afternoon (Eastern Time) the viral marketing machine which WB has been using quite effectively to promote this film has been in high gear with a really cool way of introducing fans to the trailer.
Fans were led to various locations through the whysoserious website where they were met with instructions to go to nearby theatres. They were then given raffle tickets and shown the newest trailer for the Dark Knight. Very cool. Cooler still was the raffle was for the actual reel of film that the trailer was on.
Uncool, however, was the security in the theatre for the trailer. Apparently they had people watching the audience with night vision to insure that no one was recording the trailer to place on youtube or some other website.
Why is that uncool? Well, I understand studios preventing piracy of movies. I understand cracking down on people who would try to profit off of films and keep those involved in making the films from being able to profit off of their own work. But consider this line of thinking…
1. A trailer is a commercial.
2. As a commercial, a trailer is meant to promote the film that it is previewing.
3. Normally, advertising costs.
4. If someone were to make a crappy home video of the trailer they are watching in a theatre and post it on the internet, thereby creating more buzz for a film that seems to me to be free advertising.
5. I thought studios liked free advertising.
Put it all together, and you’ve got one confused Big Honkin Steve. I’m not complaining mind you. I just would like it explained to me why it’s a big deal for the studios to have a free commercial on the internet. I honestly don’t think anyone can.
Maybe they see the benefits of free advertising. Apparently, the official trailer is coming Sunday, but this was first shown to me at around 1am. 9 hours later, it’s still there. Interesting…
And it’s gone….
As I continued pondering the above query, I can only come up with one answer. Best I can figure, WB wants to put geek butts in the seats when they release a film. So, if they tell us that a movie is gonna have a trailer attatched to it, if people see it online first, they may not go see the movie to which the trailer is attatched. For example, I went to see The Incredibles because of a Star Wars trailer. I enjoyed The Incredibles, but probably would have waited to see it on DVD. So, I guess I’m ok with companies not releasing their commercials online until they’re in theatres. BUT!
(There’s always a big “but.”)
The marketing gurus at WB did fans a disservice last night as everyone got in a frenzy to jump through geurilla marketing hoops only to be told….wait ’til Sunday. Granted a few thousand got to see the trailer and a handful of lucky people won the actual film reel of the trailer, but the truth is, there were thousands more people who were online, getting clues and racking their brains attempting to unlock the online secret only to get another advertisement. I’m not gonna whine too much, (there’s plenty of that going on)but it wouldn’t have hurt them at all to have things come to fruition late Thursday night and go ahead and post the trailer.
So, I guess that’s it. Nothing to see here, move along. Move along. (Star Wars reference)
I haven’t commented on the tragic death of Heath Ledger here on the site. Honestly, that’s because I don’t feel like there’s anyting that can be said on this website that either hasn’t already been said or that would add anything in anyway to enhance the memory of Ledger. I will say that his death was tragic and my thoughts and prayers continue to go out to his family and friends. I don’t know if we’ll ever know how much Heath Ledger’s talent will be missed, but I do know that those close to him will miss the person, not the talent the most.
The question raised not thirty minutes after the news about Ledger’s death was “What about The Dark Knight? Did he get everything filmed? While the timing for a lot of people seemed a bit insensitive, it was a legitmate question to be asked down the road.
The answer is, yes, Ledger finished everything he needed to finish for the Dark Knight. His portrayal of The Joker looks to be the one that will set the standard for the character for years to come. There is a lot that has been said about Heath, and a lot more that can be said and most likely will be said.
Businesswise, it now falls to Warner Brothers to continue to market The Dark Knight in a tasteful and respectful way that will still serve to get people genuinely excited about this film. One way they’re doing that is by shifting the focusing of the marketing from the Joker to the character of Harvey Dent.
In fact, Aaron Eckhart has come out and admitted that Harvey Two Face will show up in The Dark Knight. While we knew that based on earlier reports from Wizard World Chicago and leaked pictures of a Two Face action figure, it’s nice to hear someone involved with the film talk a bit more about the character of Harvey Dent and Two Face. You can read a great interview with him by clicking here, and since you can still google it and find it, I assume it’s ok to have the picture of the action figure here. If not…someone let me know.
Then there’s this rumor over at Comics2Film. Apparently someone heard there would be a new trailer for the movie with 10,000 B.C. When I read this, I felt like someone had been misinformed, I had heard this nowhere else. With four months to go before the release of the movie I figure it will be a month or so before we get a new trailer if at all. However, if there is a new trailer, I expect that it will focus more heavily on Batman and Harvey Dent. We may even get to see the shot from Wizard World of Harvey Dent talking to the bartender.
Also, there’s the release of Batman:Gotham Knights on DVD. This DVD will be an Animatrix styled series of shorts done anime style chronicling events that occur between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The shorts will feature villains like Scarecrow, Killer Croc, and Deathstroke. The presence of Deathstroke (Slade to fans of the Teen Titans cartoon) has led to some speculation that character may be in The Dark Knight. I wouldn’t expect it. This movie is gonna be so chock full of stuff from the Joker storyline and the backbone of the story, Harvey Dent’s journey, that if Deathstroke is even mentioned, it will be just that, a quick mention. Sort of like the nod to Star Wars fans when Obi Wan mentions Master Voss in Revenge of the Sith.
I think that the only speculation left about the movie now is just how good it’s gonna be. Just a little over four months and counting….
Before I get into the show description, I apologize that this took so long to get out. I have 50 different reasons why, but let’s be honest, I wouldn’t accept the excuses so neither should you, the listener have to. There are some things said that are a little dated. Like “Merry Christmas”, “Happy New Year”, ”How about that light bulb, what a great invention.” etc. But hopefully, you’ll enjoy it anyway.
On this long overdue episode of the podcast, Derek from Starkville’s House of El joins me as we talk about everyone’s favorite villain, Heroes - “Villains,” Infected villains, and the magnificent Dark Knight trailer. This is a long one, so grab some left over egg nog, and left over turkey sandwiches and settle in for a long winter’s geek out session.
If you want to check out that Heroes teaser click here.
While it’s not by best offering of a podcast ever, it is what it is. In this episode I talk a Smallville, the viral campaign that is underway for THE DARK KNIGHT, JUSTICE LEAGUE casting rumors, and I answer some questions about Heroes and assign a new name or two. Oh yeah, and David Hasslehoff comes to Geek Out Loud…sort of. I mention him…WHILE I’M TALKING ABOUT KNIGHT RIDER.
Here are the links you need to understand everything..
