This profile of Colin Farrell frames the actors’ resurgence in the last 10 years to his embracing of small and quirky roles instead of the big-budget nonsense he was leaning toward pre-2006.
Wonderstruck
Another look here at the casting of Millicent Simmonds, the deaf girl who plays the lead in the movie and how she got to know her costars.
And here’s another profile of director Todd Haynes that focuses on how he took the turn into making a movie about and starring children.
The Meyerowitz Stories
While Stiller and Sandler dominated much of the pre-release press, co-star Elizabeth Marvel, who plays their sister in the movie, is finally getting a moment.
Only the Brave
Michael Phelps at the Chicago Tribune asks the same question I did about movies like this, which is whether audiences are interested in seeing stories that are too damn similar to those dominating the news cycle.
Novitiate
Writer/director Maggie Betts finally got an interview of her own where she talked about developing the story and avoiding certain topics that are too often the central focus of other movies. She also talked here about her long-standing obsession with nuns and how it influenced her and what it was like working on a female-dominated movie set.
It
Fandango’s MovieClips has offered up the movie’s opening scene as a way to try and reach the last few people who haven’t seen it.
The Florida Project
Another interview with the movie’s young star about how she got ready for such a demanding part and handled the insanity of production.
The best option moviegoers could think of over the weekend was to see IT, either for the first time or again. The Stephen King adaptation took in another $17.3 million, driven by little but word-of-mouth and continued press coverage that’s been trying to dig into every nuance of the movie and its story to unearth new clues and hot takes to get people’s attention.
That meant Tom Cruise’s true-life drug running caper American Made was relegated to the second position. Apparently, audiences weren’t that eager to see Cruise not playing a super spy in a movie featuring a generic title. There may also have been an adverse reaction to the fact that the movie features a rather “down” ending that doesn’t involve Cruise’s character retiring peacefully.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle tied for second place with $17 million, continuing a relative success that seems driven both by positive word-of-mouth and by the continued release of new TV spots like this one that keeps playing up the over-the-top violence of the movie.
The LEGO Ninjago Movie survives in the fourth slot despite poor word of mouth by virtue of it being basically the only family-friendly release in theaters right now.
Taking up the rear of the top five is Flatliners which, despite a campaign that eschewed cheap nostalgic appeals, didn’t resonate with anyone, scoring terrible reviews that kept audiences away.
My latest post at Adweek dives a bit more deeply into some aspects of the IT marketing campaign I didn’t focus on last week to see what it was that helped make the movie a success.
Home Again
More here on how director Hallie Meyers-Shyer leaned on her famous mother for support during the writing and filming of the movie.
mother!
Some new details on the movie’s mystery-shrouded campaign, including details on how Paramount used trailers as a call-to-action and didn’t bother with testing some of the ads and other promotional materials.
Some form of ancient and pervasive evil stalks the town of Derry in It, the new theatrical adaptation of the book of the same name from author Stephen King. Local kids disappear at a rate that would put Sunnydale to shame, but no one knows what causes it or how to stop it.
Eventually, a group of kids have had enough and decide to investigate following the disappearance of one of their younger brothers. What they find is that this evil is embodied in the form of a clown that lures kids to their doom. Incidents involving this clown date back centuries. The kids will have to dig deep in their effort to put an end to this terror.
The Posters
The first poster will creep you out and contains some key iconography from the story. Pennywise reaches out from the foggy darkness as he hands a small child dressed in a yellow raincoat a big red balloon, the clown’s face seen only through the film of the balloon. “You’ll float too” is the promise of the copy that’s just above the title. The whole negative space design here is meant to emphasize the terror of the characters that appear, making them a very small part of a bigger space and showing just how isolated they are.
A special Comic-Con-exclusive poster shows the group of kids walking through the fog toward the camera. In the back at the center of the group is Pennywise, his balloon drifting above him.
The Trailers
The first trailer starts with George sailing his homemade boat in the rain gutter before it goes down the sewer grate, which is where he meets Pennywise. After the credits, we hear that this is a dangerous town to live in, with a murder and disappearance rate that far exceeds norms. A group of friends meets to talk about the creepy clown they’ve all seen and theorize it lives in the sewers. It gets creepier from there as the danger starts to close in around them and George reappears to his brother.
Yikes. It’s a pretty effective horror trailer as far as these things go. Pennywise is shown quite a bit but is always obscured, adding to the terror of his character. The kids, though, don’t really make an impression other than being likely fodder for the murderous clown. Also, the line about how the town has such a high murder rate reminds of the couple times they nodded to such things in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
The full official trailer starts out with Bill explaining that everything does not revolve around you, a realization that is sometimes very harsh. Talk of how the monsters see individuals as weak but that groups can provide strength comes just before we meet Pennywise and hear about how some think the town is cursed by something evil. Bill sees the vision of his dead brother George and things start ramping up as he rails against how everyone in town just pretends like there’s nothing strange going on. The kids fight back against Pennywise, hoping a group effort will mean fewer of them die.
More creepy than I can handle. It shows just enough of Pennywise to freak audiences out but not so much that he overstays his welcome.
Online and Social
The Tumblr-based official website opens by playing the full trailer before giving way to an image of Pennywise luring Georgie with a bright red balloon. On the front page is a big prompt to “Discover the VR Experience” and to get tickets. There are links to the movie’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles in the other corner.
That VR experience, titled “It Floats,” allows you to jump into the world of the story and brings you face to face with Pennywise.
Moving over to the left there’s a drop-down menu where the first option is “About” which gives you a brief story synopsis along with lots of information about producers and others involved in the movie’s making. After that is a “Gallery” with lots of shots of the kids but only a handful of Pennywise. Both trailers and a First Look spot are in the “Videos” section.
There are no less than three links here related to tickets; one just for yourself, one for groups and one that takes you into a whole experience involving searching the sewers to find a theater near you.
“Fan Art” contains a bunch of submissions that show just how creepy people can represent a clown, an effort that was tied to a contest. There’s another link here for the VR experience as well.
Unexpectedly there are a bunch of games and other more entertainment-oriented activities for you to play on the site. “Enter the Sewer Game” has you controlling a paper boat down the sewer like you’re playing Enduro. “The Loser’s Club” is a slideshow that provides some backstory on the kids and their town. Finally “Escape Derry” is an interactive feature that has you scrolling deeper and deeper into the sewers to learn more about the story.
Advertising and Cross-Promotions
TV spots like this one began running about a month out from the release that upped the tension and the danger. There wasn’t a whole lot that hadn’t already been seen in the trailers, but it works harder because of the condensed running time to pack in the jump cuts and scares.
Online and social ads used the videos and key art, respectively. The trailers were also used for pre-roll spots on YouTube.
Media and Publicity
The movie’s publicity campaign kicked off with a first look at Pennywise that didn’t add much detail but certainly made it clear a creepy clown would be involved. An even fuller – and creepier – look at the clown’s full costume followed a bit later.
A clip debuted during the MTV Movie and TV Awards that starts off by showing the good times this group of friends is having. Things quickly turn ominous, though, as they explore a drainage tunnel and find the shoe of someone who went missing.
Skarsgard was interviewed by his older brother Alex about the movie, his experiences as the creepy clown he plays and more.
New Line gave it some promotion at San Diego Comic-Con, making it part of an overall horror-themed event and using that to show off some exclusive footage to hopefully get people talking. Two new images, including a creepy look at Pennywise, were released in EW’s fall movie preview issue.
WB recreated the house that’s featured in the story as a haunted house that people in Los Angeles could visit.
The movie’s common name caused some issues with the marketing since “it” isn’t exactly easy to search for. Still, that didn’t seem to be a problem, with the movie still scoring substantial awareness and engagement before release. Also on the business-oriented front was a story about how this fits into New Line’s overall support for horror films and nurturing of talent on that front.
Skarsgard talked more here about how he got into the mind of the terrifying character he plays and how he didn’t want to be too mannered in his performance and risk comparisons with Heath Ledger’s depiction of The Joker.
Overall
I kind of like that New Line decided to go for broke and not worry about keeping Pennywise concealed until the last possible minute. First looks at the character were among the first images released and he appeared early in the other marketing assets, a stark departure from the marketing of other movies where new takes on old characters are kept out of sight as long as possible. That’s enabled the campaign to fully utilize the clown’s terrifying image and persona, which has only increased the creepiness of the whole effort.
What also stands out here is New Line’s commitment to experiential marketing, which makes sense given the tactile nature of the threat in the story. From Comic-Con events to the VR execution to the haunted house in L.A., the studio obviously felt immersing the audience in the story was a good way to get them excited for the movie. That’s paid off with decent tracking ahead of release, but we’ll see if people can get over the fear of clowns they already have (or the fact that they’re still traumatized from the 1990 TV miniseries version starring Tim Curry) to actually turn out to theaters.
Chris Thilk is a freelance writer and content strategist who lives in the Chicago suburbs.
Cinematic Slant 