bright

Picking Up the Spare: The Last Jedi, The Post and More

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

A great feature on the women of Lucasfilm who are integral to the franchise’s ongoing success. That’s a nice touch considering how important female characters are to the revitalized series and culture as a whole, particularly in light of all the terrible men who have been heralded as “geniuses” over the years.

The Greatest Showman

Part of the pushback to the movie (which didn’t impact box-office very much, it seems) has been that the portrait of P.T. Barnum it paints isn’t super-realistic. Features like this show the true story of one aspect the movie takes liberties with.

All The Money In the World

A new trailer came out shortly after the movie was released highlighting the tension between the elder J. Paul Getty and the pressure to pay the ransom to release his kidnapped grandson and uses some of the positive reviews the film has garnered.

Director Ridley Scott talks more here about the speedy reshoots he undertook when he cut Kevin Spacey’s performance from the film and brought Christopher Plummer off the bench.

The Post

A new series of TV spots like this have come out since the film hit theaters that position the Washington Post reporters in the story as being on a high moral crusade to save lives and expose corruption.

The New York Times is poking a thumb in the eye of the Washington Post with a full-page ad for the book based on the “Pentagon Papers” based on the Times’ reporting, even name-dropping the film while doing so.

Nice profile here of costar Bob Odenkirk, who’s having a great year, including a substantial role in the film.

A new featurette strongly leans into how the movie is about a woman who takes charge of not just a company but also a movement, as well as focusing on the women who helped make the movie on all levels.

Molly’s Game

Another profile of the real-life Molly Bloom where she talks about the journey depicted in the film.

Though Netflix, as always, disputes the numbers, Nielsen reported the movie was watched by over 11 million people in the first three days of release. It’s worth noting that Netflix has a point and Nielsen’s measurement techniques for streaming content are far from comprehensive. Netflix apparently has faith it was a hit, though, and has already announced a sequel despite the critical beating it took.

Chris Thilk is a freelance writer and content strategist who lives in the Chicago suburbs.

Picking Up The Spare: The Last Jedi, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer and More

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

An outdoor campaign run in conjunction with Twitter rotated pictures from the movie and fan Tweets about it on giant billboards in Toronto and New York.

There’s a game called “Porg Invasion” that can be played within Facebook Instant Games, a feature the social network has been eager to promote since it means working within an environment many young users are increasingly preferring.

Director Rian Johnson gives credit here to the technical team he brought together to oversee the massive production. And he spoke here about how he made it a priority to make the movie the most inclusive of characters who were other than white males.

Costar Laura Dern has been making a few media appearances to talk about joining the series and what it was like to join such a massive production.

According to a story on MediaPost, the movie’s promotional partners spent over $27 million to help market their tie-ins.

Kelly Marie Tran continues to enjoy her moment in the sun and get a lot of mainstream attention with this interview. That she’s been seen as such a breakout by audiences and critics both for her performance and her position as a welcome bit of inclusiveness has not gone unnoticed by Disney, which released this short featurette on her casting.

The movie’s Rotten Tomatoes score has become a serious subject of debate, particularly in light of claims made by those within the alt-right movement that they’ve used bots and other tools to artificially lower the score because they’re upset at all the women in the story. This should serve as a reminder that sexism is as much a core philosophy of these jackweeds as racism.

The Killing Of A Sacred Deer

A24 is out with a slightly disturbing holiday-themed spot promoting the movie’s upcoming home video release.

Bright

Bryan Bishop at The Verge has a great piece on how Netflix used its own recommendation system and user profile targeting to display trailers and other promotions for the movie on the site itself, an effort that ran alongside the external campaign. That kind of targeting is one thing when it’s done on the wide web, it’s another when it’s contained to a platform and has a clear call to action.

Despite what has been widespread negativity from critics, Netflix is so committed to producing films on par with theatrical releases it’s already ordered a sequel. For what it’s worth, I pegged the movie as being the best chance to be the first streaming-original franchise last month.

The Post

Members of the cast talk about production here, with Hanks talking about the nerves of shooting his first emotional scene with Meryl Streep and Bob Odenkirk talking about how Hanks helped costars get used to the unconventional set director Steven Spielberg runs.

Wonder

While the movie hasn’t been the subject of much debate or conversation online, it’s been quietly consistent at the box-office, currently sitting at $111 million in sales. That shows strong word-of-mouth. Lionsgate is hoping to goose that and take advantage of the lack of “inspirational” fare in theaters right now with a new TV spot positioning it as a great holiday choice for the whole family.

The Greatest Showman

Seems James Mangold, who had experience working with star Hugh Jackman on a few different films including the last two Wolverines, came in to provide advice and support to first time director Michael Gracey as well as manage some reshoots.

Chris Thilk is a freelance writer and content strategist who lives in the Chicago suburbs.

Bright – Marketing Recap

Director David Ayer reunites with his Suicide Squad star Will Smith in the new Netflix-original movie Bright. In the movie, Smith plays Daryl Ward, a police officer in an alternate world where mythical creatures like elves, orcs and others coexist alongside humans and have since forever. Now, Ward is the first human cop to be paired with an orc, Jakoby (Joel Edgerton).

While they’re still learning how to get along they discover the existence of a magic wand, a powerful magical weapon that can do whatever the wielder wishes. There are various very bad people – and plenty of others – trying to get their hands on the wand but it’s up to Ward and Jakoby to keep it out of dangerous hands and make sure it can’t do any more harm.

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