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.

Picking Up The Spare: mother!, War For The Planet of the Apes, Rogue One

mother!

  • There’s finally a feature profile of Michelle Pfieffer that includes this movie as one of a few recent or upcoming projects marking a return to regular work for one of the great actors of her generation.

The Florida Project

  • Now that it’s in theaters I’m seeing a lot more online advertising for the movie that uses the key art to drive ticket sales.

War For The Planet Of The Apes

  • TV spots like this one have highlighted the drama and tension in the story as the movie comes to home video.

Baby Driver

  • Kevin Spacey’s inspirational speech about being brazen and bold with a bank robbery scheme is used in a TV spot promoting the digital home video release of the movie, which is nice because it basically describes the movie as well.

The Emoji Movie

  • A commercial promoting the movie’s home video release has a Halloween theme, framing it as a “spook-tacular” good time. A bit of a stretch, but what are you going to do?

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

  • Disney World and Disneyland were both announced as the home for Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, a “hyper-reality” experience set during the time of the early Rebellion, allowing park visitors to strap on gear and work with K-2SO to complete a mission. You can view the trailer here.

Picking Up the Spare: Hidden Figures, What Happened to Monday, Patti Cake$

Catching up on recent marketing moves from films including Hidden Figures, Wind River and others.

Hidden Figures

  • The movie and its message of promoting STEM education for girls and women has inspired the “#HiddenNoMore” campaign from the U.S. State Department bringing female professionals in those fields from around the world to the U.S..

What Happened to Monday

  • Noomi Rapace gave an interview where she talked about taking on a role requiring her to play seven siblings, how that role was originally written for a man and more.
  • Tommy Wirkola also talked about how, despite “Orphan Black” being an obvious point of comparison for the story, he didn’t seek out or watch that show so as to avoid any influences or unintentional repetition. He was also interviewed about filming action sequences, what he hope audiences get out of the story and more.

Patti Cake$

  • A well-known verse from a 1998 rap from Big Pun was apparently instrumental in star Danielle Macdonald getting into character.
  • Rolling Stone goes in-depth on the making of the movie and the journey it took from script to festival to release.
  • Meanwhile Jason Bailey at Flavorwire asks if being a feel-good crowd-pleaser that accumulates some decent buzz at festivals is all there is and if it’s enough to call a movie a success.

Fun Mom Dinner

  • Star Toni Collette gave a recent interview talking about how much fun the set was as everyone was having a great time telling the story.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

  • IDW is publishing a new graphic novel adaptation of the film’s story. The new edition is scheduled to come out this December.

Alien: Covenant

  • Fox has continued to spend big on TV ads for the movie to keep up interest in its home video release.

Logan Lucky

  • Very cool new poster for the movie that has some great visuals and sense of style.

Ghost In the Shell

The Hitman’s Bodyguard

  • Karen Gomez at Film School Rejects calls attention to the meta turn later TV spots for the movie took, including having Reynolds and Jackson snipe at each other through narration in the commercials.

Wind River

  • TWC released another “online” trailer for Wind River that dispenses with much of the intrigue around the secrets being hidden and just focuses on the tension of the investigation into the killing.