Chappaquiddick

Picking Up the Spare – Chappaquidick, I Feel Pretty, The Post

This is a good example of a wave of interviews in the last week or so with the movie’s screenwriters where they talk about how they first heard about this story and began developing it into a feature film.

Rampage

I missed it but on the movie’s official website you can play an online version of the game the movie is based on.

Great piece at The A.V. Club at Hollywood’s favorite part of Chicago to destroy through battles between giant animals, robots or other creatures.

I Feel Pretty

Star Amy Schumer continues to push back against criticisms of the movie’s marketing, pointing out that it’s not just about a woman who can only feel she’s pretty after she’s suffered head trauma. I understand that, but it doesn’t change how that’s *exactly how the film was sold, so the problem is with the marketing, not necessarily people’s reactions to it, as some of the filmmakers seem to believe.

On a more positive note, there’s finally a feature on Busy Phillips, the “Freaks and Geeks” alum who plays one of the friends of Schumer’s character. And Schumer has been named as one of the hosts of the final episodes of this season of “Saturday Night Live.”

Seems the movie was one of the first to use a new ad format offered by Snapchat, one that’s more clearly an ad and not meant to look like anything else on the app.

The Post

Fox has released a really, really odd TV commercial to promote the movie’s home video release that adds a CNN-like news ticker across the bottom. For such a serious movie this skirts the line of almost being tongue-in-cheek. Also, it’s not the best call to create the appearance of something being news when we’re having such a serious conversation about the false or misleading stories, especially when the subject of the story is journalism itself.

Super Troopers 2

The journey the sequel took in the 17 years since the original is shared by the Broken Lizard team in this extensive feature interview.

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

Picking Up the Spare: Game Over Man, The Last Movie Star and More

Game Over, Man

I’m not sure what the point of this “VR Experience” for the Netflix-original movie was other than to show what stoned losers the main characters are, but it’s kind of amusing in and of itself.

The Last Movie Star

There’s a new music video featuring footage from the movie for one of the songs off the soundtrack by Stranger Friends, one of the 12 the young band has on the album.

Love After Love

Another interview with Andie MacDowell about her career and taking on the role in the movie.

Blockers

Leslie Mann has done a few additional press stops including an appearance on “Late Night” to promote the movie and talk about John Cena’s butt.

Director Kay Cannon has given a couple of post-release interviews like this one where she continued talking about creating a raunchy but also emotional comedy.

This is a great example of the kind of story that’s been common throughout the movie’s publicity cycle, one that focuses on rebranding Cena as a comedy star.

Lean on Pete

Director Andrew Haugh speaks here about how he worked to tell the story of working-class residents of the Pacific Northwest in an authentic, respectful and non-cliche way.

You Were Never Really Here

A joint interview here with Joaquin Phoenix and Lynne Ramsay about the working relationship they developed and the story they were trying to tell in the movie.

Annihilation

Great points here at Indiewire that if Paramount found the movie was going to be too tough a sell, that’s partly because of a system that emphasizes IP-based movies and other blockbusters. And if audiences are upset by the movie heading (in international markets) quickly to Netflix, it’s partly because they’ve failed to turn out for difficult, complex movies and made studios question their commercial viability.

Pandas

While I didn’t cover the campaign for the documentary, I couldn’t not mention that an AR app was launched by IMAX that allowed users to see a anthropomorphized panda in the real world they could ask questions to. You can see the trailer here.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Screenwriter Tony Gilroy has made comments about the troubled state of affairs he inherited prior to the much-discussed reshoots the film underwent. I’m not a huge fan of people throwing others under the bus like this, but that was a significant part of the movie’s pre-release media coverage.

A Quiet Place

The movie’s sound design has been a major topic of conversation in the press coverage and reviews, so it’s good that the team behind that work has finally gotten a profile of their own.

Director/star John Krasinski and costar/wife Emily Blunt talk here about what, if any, political messages the movie has for audiences.

Outside In

Star Edie Falco has done a bit more press than she did prior to release, including this “Late Night” appearance where she joked around with host Seth Meyers.

Chappaquiddick

Also getting in on the late night circuit is Jason Clarke, who still oddly dominates the press cycle for this movie over costar Kate Mara. I guess that’s the advantage of playing a Kennedy.

The Death of Stalin

Writer/director Armando Iannucci talks about the need for dark comedy and gallows humor in the midst of a slightly depressing reality.

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

Chappaquiddick- Marketing Recap

For decades Ted Kennedy served in the U.S. Senate on behalf of the people of Massachusetts. He did so largely under a cloud of controversy stemming from an incident that took place in 1969 that always remained shrouded in mystery. Those events are revisited and retold in this week’s new film Chappaquiddick, named after the island where they transpired.

Jason Clarke stars as Ted, the scion of one of America’s oldest and most politically-powerful families and the one anointed as the next to ascend to high office after the deaths of his brothers John and Robert earlier in the decade. After an event honoring the women who worked on Robert’s presidential campaign, Ted and one of the women, Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara) go driving. When the car he’s driving skids off a bridge and into the river he escapes but she drowns and dies. Concerned about how this looks, Ted seems to be less than forthcoming with the truth while the rest of the family circles around him to protect what remains of the Kennedy name and legacy.

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