Moviegoers to Hollywood: Don't mention the War
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - One of the biggest challenges in marketing "Rendition," which stars Reese Witherspoon as a young American mother whose Egyptian-born husband mysteriously disappears, has been differentiating the film from other recent movies set against the backdrop of the Middle East.
New Line Cinema, which releases the film Friday, has been insistent on one point: The movie is not about the Iraq War.
Trailers, TV spots and posters have tried to position South African filmmaker Gavin Hood's movie as an engaging thriller whose cast also includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep and Alan Arkin.
The goal is to convince moviegoers that the film stands apart from a recent string of war-related films that have been a disappointment at the box office. In "Rendition," Witherspoon's character discovers that her husband, who disappears on a flight home from South Africa, was secretly flown to a prison overseas where he is tortured under a controversial U.S. anti-terror policy called rendition.
"One of the biggest challenges beyond the topicality of these different movies is their sheer number," said Chris Carlisle, New Line president of domestic theatrical marketing. "It becomes a muddle for the consumer. But 'Rendition' is very different. Despite its Middle East backdrop, it doesn't take place in Iraq. We played up our cast and the thriller aspects of the story line. This film is an engaging, entertaining and emotional story, and that's where we focused our campaign."
The marketing challenge faced by "Rendition" also will be confronted by other movies about the Iraq War, the war on terror and the politics of the war in Washington.
Even "Redacted," the controversial Iraq war film from Brian De Palma that focuses on a group of U.S. soldiers who rape an Iraqi girl and kill her family, depicts no footage of soldiers, war or weapons in its trailers. Instead, Magnolia Pictures' campaign emphasizes De Palma's track record and the film's festival awards while taking advantage of its theme of images of the war being redacted or withheld. For nearly one entire trailer, only text appears on the screen with voice-overs from the movie.
"We're marketing 'Redacted' not as an Iraq film necessarily but as a film that is going to provide an experience that is going to be rich for moviegoers," said Jeff Reichert, Magnolia senior vp publicity and marketing. "That's why we went with this trailer, which we feel is intriguing and powerful. You're given a certain amount of information and you probably assume the film is about the war, but you don't see a soldier, anyone in fatigues or a weapon. The only image you see at the end is a man in a suit crying with his wife in a bar."
Partly because of the abundance of war-themed films, the Weinstein Co. recently pushed back the opening of "Grace Is Gone" by two months to December 7. John Cusack stars as a widower struggling to raise his two daughters alone after his sergeant wife is killed in Iraq.
"Fortunately, 'Grace Is Gone' is not a typical Iraq movie," said Gary Faber, executive vp marketing at the Weinstein Co. "It's a movie about family. Its setting against Iraq makes it timely, relevant and, sure, somewhat controversial. But because the main theme, while serious, is ultimately emotional and uplifting, it should easily be able to separate itself from the heavier and medicinal Iraq/war on terror fare that the marketplace has seen recently."
The first films in the current wave have demonstrated the hurdles such movies face.
"A Mighty Heart," starring Angelina Jolie in the adaptation of Mariane Pearl's best-selling book about the kidnapping and murder of her journalist husband Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, has grossed slightly more than $9 million at the U.S. box office. Studio executives said the June release amid summer blockbuster fare and the fact that Jolie's superstar status overshadowed the theme of the movie were at least partly to blame for the lackluster results.
"In the Valley of Elah," directed by Paul Haggis and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon, also has disappointed, earning only $6.4 million in the U.S. since its September 14 release. The film is about a war veteran and his search for his son, a soldier who mysteriously disappeared upon his return from Iraq. It too was marketed not as an Iraq War movie but rather as an investigative thriller.
With a production budget of $70 million, Universal Pictures' "The Kingdom" also has fallen short, earning nearly $41 million since its September 28 release. The Jamie Foxx-Jennifer Garner movie was marketed as an action thriller.
"Any time you deal with the current war situation anywhere in the Middle East, you risk U.S. audiences just glazing over," Picturehouse president Bob Berney said. "They look at movies as an escape and they want to be entertained."
Many studio marketers noted that such successful Vietnam War movies as "The Deer Hunter" and "Apocalypse Now" were not made until years after the war ended. "The Iraq War is so present right now, and it's too early for people to want to run out to the theater on a Friday or Saturday night to see a movie about a really tough subject," one studio executive said.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
