There's several ways to draw attention to a major movie you have in production. The most common is to launch an early teaser trailer, advertisement or poster campaign. Another way is to quietly build up word of mouth through leaking of material over the Internet or in college campuses (which means it'll end up online anyhow). Now however studios are using another form entirely - starlets.
It only seems fair that when much of the Summer movie marketing campaigns have relied on the well-toned torsos of a select group of buff male celebs, at least two Fall features are getting early word of mouth spread via two girls who figure in the fantasies of many a heterosexual male or lesbian. <a href="http://www.creature-corner.com/news4/jun03seedofchucky.php3" target="_blank">Creature Corner</a> reports that Jennifer Tilly is slated to appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" Tuesday, June 8th, and take a wild guess what she'll be talking about - "Seed of Chucky". With the film not due for release til October, this very early way to talk up a horror flick is already raising some eyebrows. In the film which just wrapped filming in Romania, Tilly plays not only herself but reprises her role of the mad doll Tiffany. It's expected the actress will show some behind-the-scenes footage from the film on the show, and Director Don Mancini will talk about the film whilst sharing a bed with the husky-voiced actress.
Meanwhile "Buffy" star Sarah Michelle Gellar is expected to be putting a show at this year's San Diego Comic Con in mid-late July to help promote her starring role in the upcoming Japanese horror flick American remake "The Grudge". Gellar is the first celeb announced for the convention which over the last 2-3 years has boasted appearances from the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McKellan, Elijah Wood, James Cameron and Sam Raimi.
Other studios are using more conventional approaches to marketing right now. Fox released the following storyboard from their "Alien vs. Predator" action flick which whets the appetite far more than the recent posters have:
Dreamworks has opened up its <a href="http://www.ring2-themovie.com" target="_blank">official site</a> for the much anticipated sequel to "The Ring" opening towards year's end, so far it's the first sign of publicity for the movie aside from the <a href="p-ring2.jpg" target="_blank">artwork</a> leaked last week.
Finally, <a href="http://www.captainhowdy.com/" target="_blank">Captain Howdy</a> confirms that cinemas will be receiving "Exorcist: The Beginning" trailers to start running soon - some as early as next week. Expect an internet trailer to surface before you know it. The movie is expected to stick to its August 20th target release date.
Thanks to 'Ryan' & 'Scott'
