Suicide comedy ad campaign painful for groups

By Gregg Goldstein

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Suicide prevention groups are dead set against the proposed ad campaign for the comedy "Wristcutters: A Love Story," which plans to bill itself with posters showing people killing themselves.

The images will depict people jumping off a bridge, electrocuting and hanging themselves. The acclaimed film follows a group of people that have committed suicide (including stars Patrick Fugit and Shannyn Sossamon) as they take a road trip through purgatory.

"You don't see people making fun of other causes of death, but you see it with suicide and mental illness," Robert Gebbia, executive director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), wrote in a letter to the film's backers.

But Courtney Solomon, co-owner of After Dark Films, said the posters will be displayed as traffic-style stop or yield signs with a bar and circle over the illustrations, along with hearts to reference the film's romantic story line. He said the campaign may change before its mid-July rollout.

"The movie takes place in purgatory, and its message is that love is better than suicide," Solomon said, adding that the film may even help prevent suicide.

"Our job is to get people into the theater in a way that's accessible to them. There are many different ways to skin a cat. God forbid someone was considering committing suicide. This film may change their opinion."

It's just the latest controversy for After Dark, which last week removed billboards and taxi signage for the upcoming film "Captivity," after complaints over depictions of star Elisha Cuthbert being tortured and killed.

After reading earlier this month about the "Wristcutters" signage, the R-rated film's target audience of 17- to 30-year-olds, and Solomon's comment that he hopes the signs "don't cause too many accidents," the AFSP wrote a separate letter to Solomon, along with 14 other groups, contending that the marketing campaign was overkill.