Director X has been out there giving more interviews, including how he sought out Future to curate the movie’s soundtrack in part because he wanted to follow in Curtis Mayfield’s footsteps. He also shared the story of how he got involved when the project was kind of a King Lear adaptation but which eventually came back around to being a remake/update of the first Super Fly.
Boundaries
More from director Shana Feste as well as star Vera Farmiga about the genesis of the story, shooting the movie with so many dogs, the relationships each have with their fathers and thoughts on the current conversation around the demographic representation of the film critic community.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
There’s been a wave of opinion pieces about whether or not the 1993 original Jurassic Park needed any sequels at all. That position is exemplified by Matt Singer’s thinking that a scene from the first movie negates any possibility of additional stories and Clara Wardlow’s take that there simply aren’t that many narrative threads in this universe to pull on.
Star Wars
Borys Kit at THR does some digging and gets to the heart of the matter regarding Lucasfilm’s reaction to Solo’s underperformance, offering that while yes, the people there are taking fresh looks at everything there are still non-Saga projects moving forward.
Uncle Drew
Lil Rey Howery has been the subject of more profiles like this as release has drawn closer, which makes sense given the prominence he appears to have in the story but which marks a change from the NBA-heavy emphasis of the campaign to date. Costar Nick Kroll has also made a couple late night talk show appearances.
Set It Up
The writers and other filmmakers have been making the media rounds in the last week, resulting in stories like this feature and this profile of director Claire Scanlon. As I stated before, this level of earned media activity is unusual for Netflix except for prestige releases, a sign it’s both listening and responding to the buzz around this movie and trying to further own the mid-tier movie market.
More from Future on the soundtrack he produced and curated, which was a big part of the marketing campaign, here. Director X has also been giving interviews like this now that the movie is out.
Also recommended is this compare/contrast of this album with that of the original.
Tag
Star Jeremy Renner’s broken arms are part of this interview with director Jeff Tomsic where he talks about all the challenges he had making the movie.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Star Thandie Newton talked more here about the dress she wore to the premiere featuring the faces of the characters of color in the franchise to date.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
More on the Kellogg’s promotion for the movie here.
The movie is the next release to get the AR treatment from Moviebill, which is once again handing out periodicals to Regal Cinemas audiences that can be scanned using the Regal app to unlock exclusive content, including interviews (in print and AR format) with star Bryce Dallas Howard and director J.A. Bayona, a welcome message from star Chris Pratt, an interactive “dino-lab” and a sample of the dinosaurs available in the Jurassic World Alive, the location-based AR mobile game developed by Ludia.
That game is built on location and other data from Google Maps, which is helping to promote both the game and the services behind it.
Daniella Pineda has received a few profiles like this after being identified as the breakout newcomer – or at least largely unknown – in the movie. That makes the reports that a scene clearly identifying her as LGBTQ was cut, the latest instance of that happening in a major studio franchise film, somewhat awkward.
There’s also a bit of extra attention coming to co-star Justice Smith.
Director J.A. Bayona was never the focus of much of the press in advance of the movie’s release, but there was an interview with him here and another one here.
First Reformed
More from director Paul Schrader on the film’s disturbing characters and situations as well as his feelings and thoughts on God.
Gotti
The campaign for this is one I let go by me because it seemed like a terrible mess and the post-release developments have only reinforced that decision. Here are some examples:
The studio, along with MoviePass (which invested in the film), published a really weird and insulting Tweet positioning critics giving it a negative review as enemies of the common folk.
That same message was conveyed in push notifications to MoviePass mobile users and is what the movie’s marketing team is selling as they float the idea Rotten Tomatoes is artificially keeping its score down.
There’s speculation that the disconnect between that score and a strangely high audience ranking could be because of a bot/fake account campaign being mounted, something the studio denies.
Wonder Woman
As the marketing for the sequel ramps up, Turner Ignite placed a paid article on Ad Age about how Turner networks and shows helped sell the first movie to audiences.
Lady Bird
Amazon promoted the movie’s availability on its streaming service with a Father’s Day clip featuring some of Tracy Letts’ wonderfully-delivered lines from the movie.
The Incredibles 2
More from costar Holly Hunter in this brief interview.
A Wrinkle In Time
It seems Disney used the tactic of pairing this movie, which is already on home video, with The Incredibles 2at drive-in theaters around the country to help it eek past the $100m mark.
Avengers: Infinity War / Deadpool 2
Josh Brolin is interviewed about how popular he is right now and how that kind of bothers and worries him.
Boundaries
OK, I’ll grant you that co-star Peter Fonda’s Tweet about Bannon Trump was in poor taste, but right now the last person who should be asserting any sort of moral highground on literally any issue at all is Donald Trump Jr. Indiewire has the whole recap, including Sony Classics’ position on the matter.
Christopher Plummer’s character was based in part on the real life grandfather of director Shana Feste.
An exhibit of the movie’s costumes will be on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Dundee
No, it wasn’t a real movie, but the campaign for Tourism Australia that sure looked like a movie’s marketing push just won multiple awards at the Cannes Social Lions.
Youngblood Priest (Trevor Jackson) has come up through the ranks of the Atlanta gang he belongs to in the new movie Superfly, a remake of the 1972 classic. He’s used the power he’s attained to help the people in his city, especially those who can’t help themselves, and is a respected figure in the community.
A series of events, including the appearance of a violent upstart contender to the throne, lead Priest to conclude it’s time for him to retire. But to do that he needs to pull off one more score. To do that, though, means double-crossing his mentor, a prospect that has tremendous upside but also tremendous risks.
The Posters
Jackson as the title character is the sole figure on the first poster, shown in a black and white photo with only a small pop of gold used on the head of the cane he’s holding horizontally, a city balanced on either side of his hands. That tells us this is a powerful figure who in some way is fighting for control of the city. The tagline “Redefine the hustle” reinforces that idea.
The theatrical poster zooms in so Jackson’s face is seen only partially, looking down introspectively. His long black leather trench coat is covered in images both peaceful – birds and flowers – and violent, including guns, scenes of bloodshed and more. It’s an image meant to convey the dual aspects of his personality and show the conflict within him.
The Trailers
Interestingly, the first teaser trailer is preceded by a full minute of cast and crew interviews about the history of hip-hop, the style of the movie and more. Once the footage starts we get shots of Atlanta as we hear Youngblood narrate how he’s worked hard every day of his life to achieve the kind of power he has now and will keep working hard to keep it, not getting caught up in the trappings of success. He’s got money and women and luxurious possessions, but danger is around every corner.
I kind of dig this idea of featurettes as teasers. Outside of that this looks like a compelling story that’s been updated to say something new using familiar characters. Also note the specific callout of the soundtrack being produced by Future, another sign that these albums are just as important as the movies themselves in defining and reflecting the culture they’re released into.
The official trailer gives us a better idea of Youngblood’s history as well as his ambition. He’s out there as a service to his community as well as to provide a lavish lifestyle for himself. All of that is threatened when a new, ruthless crew comes in and starts going after him and those around him. So he sets out for one last score before getting out of the life, quickly getting in over his head.
Online and Social
Sony launched a pretty decent official website for the movie. When you pull up the site the splash page offers links to the film’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles and the chance to buy tickets. Also prominent on that page is mention of the Future-produced soundtrack.
That soundtrack gets even more play here in the “Music” section of the site, which offers links to buy or stream the album on your platform of choice. That comes after “About,” where there’s more information on the filmmaking talent than the actual story, but before the “Gallery” of a handful of production stills.
Finally on the site there’s a link to “Create a Superfly Photo,” a tool that lets you pick something about yourself that “makes you fly,” upload a picture and generate a downloadable image you can use on social media.
Advertising and Cross-Promotions
There have been a number of paid social ads that have used the trailers when they were released. Online ads have used the key art of Priest holding the gun. Sony also ran a few TV spots like this that boiled down the value proposition of the movie to a story of ambition and violence with a sympathetic anti-hero. The studio also arranged for sponsored content on Vice that included an interview with Director X.
Media and Publicity
Sony brought footage from the film to the industry trade show CinemaCon, where it was called out as being part of the studio’s increasingly diverse slate of films. At the same time a substantial profile of Director X allowed him to talk about the story he was aiming to tell with the movie, how he got involved with the project and lots more. The movie was later announced as the opening night title at the American Black Film Festival.
Director X was really the focal point of the publicity campaign, with him appearing at CinemaCon to hype up the movie, talking about certain choices he made, the approach he took when updating a classic of the “Blaxploitation” genre of the 70s and more.
Jackson and other members of the cast did make the rounds, of course, to talk about fashion, his tattoos, and other topics including the movie itself. He and costar Michael K. Williams showed up on “Drop the Mic” to engage in a rap battle, too.
There was also a lot of attention paid, particularly in the last two weeks, to the news Future was curating and producing the movie’s soundtrack. In that effort he enlisted a lot of heavy hitters of the hip hop and rap genres. His music is heavily featured in the trailers and, as we saw, a big part of the official website. He released a video for “No Shame” shortly after the announcement.
Overall
There’s a really good vibe to the campaign, helped immensely by the consistent use of Future’s music in most every aspect of the push. Even beyond that, though, Jackson is a substantial presence on screen and sells a Priest that is both sure of who he is and torn between his darker and better angels, wanting to use the power he has to help people but also aware of what it takes to attain and retain that power as well as how it will always put a target on his back.
Right now the movie is projected to open somewhere in the $10m range, but if some good word of mouth comes along it could go higher than that, though it’s up against significant mass audience competition with The Incredibles 2 this weekend. The studio clearly hopes this does well and unlike something like Proud Mary earlier this year I don’t think you can accuse Sony of trying to bury it. We’ll see if it catches on and with whom.
PICKING UP THE SPARE
Director X has been out there giving more interviews, including how he sought out Future to curate the movie’s soundtrack in part because he wanted to follow in Curtis Mayfield’s footsteps. He also shared the story of how he got involved when the project was kind of a King Lear adaptation but which eventually came back around to being a remake/update of the first Super Fly.
More from Future on the soundtrack he produced and curated, which was a big part of the marketing campaign, here. Director X has also been giving interviews like this now that the movie is out.
Also recommended is this compare/contrast of this album with that of the original. Apparently star Trevor Jackson initially rejected as the lead because it was felt he was too young. More about how he got involved in the movie here.
New interviews with both star Shailene Woodley and director Baltasar Kormákur offer insights into the story and process of making the movie, though the latter contains significant spoilers so beware.
American Animals
The narrative that’s emerging of how MoviePass, which partnered to release the film as its first move into film distribution, helped the film succeed is that it used its own platform to heavily promote the film, utilizing the user data it has to target ads. If I’m *any* other distributor right now I’m pretty honked off.
Both the cast and crew and the real people the actors are playing are interviewed here about the blurring of fact and fiction in the movie.
Girls Trip
Details on a creative campaign for the movie involving Snoop Dogg were shared here by Viacom, which ran that campaign across some of its networks and platforms.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
To the surprise of [looks around quickly] literally no one, a Wall Street analyst has blamed the marketing for the movie’s lackluster box-office results. He’s like 27% right, in that the marketing campaign was dictated largely by the release schedule, which was dictated by the other Star Wars movies coming out before and after it.
There’s a trailer for the Solo-related material coming to Star Wars: Battlefront II.
First Reformed
Ethan Hawke continues to make the press rounds to talk about the movie, which keeps getting positive reviews and buzz.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
All of you jackweeds who have hijacked Star Wars fandom to disseminate your backwards-thinking, anti-women, regressive worldview and mindset: Please get off my franchise. There is no place here for you and never was. Leave. Now.
Ocean’s 8
More from Anne Hathaway and others in the cast here about how they hope the movie will help burst the myth that female-led movies are question marks theatrically.
Another quick profile of breakout star Awkwafina here. And Helena Bonham Carter is finally getting some attention with a profile where she talks about how fun it was to work on a light caper movie.
Hearts Beat Loud
Nick Offerman has done a bit of press in the last few days to promote the movie, which is nice to see.
Tag
Jeez, even Annabelle Wallis has been forced to talk about Jeremy Renner’s broken arms during her portion of the publicity cycle. Hamm and Helms have also done a bit more publicity.
A clip from the movie was played in an episode of Machinima’s “Inside Gaming” to try and reach that crowd.
Apparently star Trevor Jackson initially rejected as the lead because it was felt he was too young. More about how he got involved in the movie here.
The Kissing Booth
I know I didn’t give this movie a full campaign review, but that’s largely because it didn’t get a full campaign from Netflix. That’s too bad since it seems like the story’s origins on story-sharing website Wattpad seems like it would have been a decent hook for the press.
Youngblood Priest (Trevor Jackson) has come up through the ranks of the Atlanta gang he belongs to in the new movie Superfly, a remake of the 1972 classic. He’s used the power he’s attained to help the people in his city, especially those who can’t help themselves, and is a respected figure in the community.
Jackson as the title character is the sole figure on the first poster, shown in a black and white photo with only a small pop of gold used on the head of the cane he’s holding horizontally, a city balanced on either side of his hands. That tells us this is a powerful figure who in some way is fighting for control of the city. The tagline “Redefine the hustle” reinforces that idea.
Cinematic Slant 