Entertainment Weekly has a good sit down interview with Steven Speilberg and George Lucas. The most interesting part of the interview is where the two legendary directors talk about the effect that the Internet Spoiler has had on cinema. Here is a short excerpt:
Spielberg: It really is important to be able to point out that the Internet is still filled with more speculation than facts. The Internet isn’t really about facts. It’s about people’s wishful thinking, based on a scintilla of evidence that allows their imaginations to springboard. And that’s fine.
Lucas: Y’know, Steven will say, ”Oh, everything’s out on the Internet [in terms of Crystal Skull details] — what this is and what that is.” And to that I say, ”Steven, it doesn’t make any difference!” Look — Jaws was a novel before it was a movie, and anybody could see how it ended. Didn’t matter.
Spielberg: But there’s lots and lots of people who don’t want to find out what happens. They want that to happen on the 22nd of May. They want to find out in a dark theater. They don’t wanna find out by reading a blog…. A movie is experiential. A movie happens in a way that has always been cathartic, the personal, human catharsis of an audience in holy communion with an experience up on the screen. That’s why I’m in the middle of this magic, and I always will be. … Yes. I think [the sanctuary of the dark theater] is being eroded, by too much information and too much misinformation, especially.
Lucas: But look, it’s like sports. This isn’t new. When March Madness gets started with the NCAA [basketball tournament], there are thousands of blogs out there. Rampant speculation. If you follow it enough, you go crazy. [With Crystal Skull], you don’t know what’s actually gonna happen till you walk into that theater. I don’t care if you know the whole story, I don’t care if you’ve seen clips. I don’t care how much you’ve seen or heard or read. The experience itself is very different, once you walk in that theater.
Spielberg: Well, here’s my debate on that. I’ve always been stingy about the scenes I show in a teaser or a trailer. Because my experience has been — and my kids’ experience has been, ’cause they talk out loud in theaters, like everybody else does today — that if a scene they remember from the trailer hasn’t come on the screen yet, and they’re three quarters of the way through the movie, they start talking. ”Oh — I know what’s gonna happen! Because there was that one little scene they haven’t shown yet in the movie I’m experiencing, and it’s coming up!” And it ruins everything.
Read the full interview on EW.com.
Discuss: Is the sanctuary of the dark theater is being eroded by internet spoilers?
April 17th, 2008 at 1:29 am
No
April 17th, 2008 at 2:13 am
Not really, shitty movies and shitty theaters erode the sanctuary of darkness. Spielberg is right about the trailers though. SO here a solution bros - stop making trailers that give away all the plot of a movie.
April 17th, 2008 at 3:13 am
Half as much. Mostly, like smokey said, it’s the shitty movies and shitty theaters with dumb people running it. But he is right. The internet went fucking crazy over Cloverfield. Seriously, I know. That’s probably the biggest example of how the internet ruined everything mostly.
Oh, and the people who made Anchorman were geniuses. They created a trailer that drew people in, but had next to none of the scenes from the trailer which were later put into that second movie but still. They had tons of scenes they didn’t use which made people wonder where that scene was and stuff until it finally was there on DVD.
Oh, again, another example was Funny Games. It was a remake but a ton of Americans never saw it but when in the trailer or clips online there was a bloody scene that was important, people kept thinking it was a huge fucking spoiler and I saw it and it wasn’t at all. It included a gun and a huge wall BTW if you didn’t know the scene I was talking about
April 17th, 2008 at 3:52 am
i love how they fight! it’s hilarious! lucas all like: spoilers? who cares?! and spielberg the total opposite…funny stuff.
i know exactly where both of them are coming from too, if you show last act scenes in your trailer, everyone is waiting for it because they saw it in the trailer… and if it’s based on a book people that have read it are waiting to see if you coveresd all the beats and what you changed. so it that sense there have ALWAYS been spoilers.
April 17th, 2008 at 6:00 am
Spielberg is right.
is anyone here old enough to remember the excitement when you saw one of his trailers? for example: raiders of the lost ark, back to the future, jurassic park?
raiders trailers showed some quick shots and then the cryptic title. “what the hell was that?” “i don’t know but i wanna see!”
the back to the future just panned across the delorean, talked to MJF, then blam! fiery trails and then the title.
jurassic park didn’t show you one jot of the dinos just had people look in wonder.
when i watch BSG i fast forward the opening clip sequence because i want to be surprised.
as much as i love tracking the movies coming this summer, i doing what i can not to have these summer flicks spoiled. I LOOOVEE NOT KNOWING WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN IN A MOVIE. that’s what makes it engaging for me. if a movie is predictable, isn’t it then boring?
April 17th, 2008 at 6:06 am
I don’t think so. Most bloggers are really good about putting ***SPOILER*** tags before stuff, and if it’s for a movie I’m interested in I avoid it.
April 17th, 2008 at 6:44 am
No. DVD rentals and sales have killed the movie theater. Duh.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:06 am
How dare you erode the sanctuary of the dark theater!
How dare you Peter!
April 17th, 2008 at 8:22 am
You know what erodes the sanctuary of the dark theater more than internet speculation?
-Little bastards who talk during the movie
-Fat bastards who make a ton of noise shoving gross food down their puffy throats.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Spielberg is SPOT ON about the Teaser/Trailers.
I wish trailers would not reveal the whole movie and what was going to happen.
Half of the movies that are in theaters these days you can already tell what is going to happen without going to the theater.
Directors/whoever should only take material from the first half or if they must, first 2/3 of a movie to make a trailer.
Just set up the premise of the movie and let us enjoy it.
I realize that these trailers are important for the public mass of people to go see these movies, but for people that really want to experience the movie it sucks.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:11 am
I’d like to see some exit-polls on movies, to find out how many visitors actually went online to seek out spoilers before they went to see the movie. If more than 10% did, i would be very surprised.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:45 am
When a trailer comes on in the theater for a movie that I already know I’m going to watch, I plug my ears and close my eyes. I do think that most trailers, especially the ones in the theaters, show way too much of the movie.
Some people like to know what’s coming and that doesn’t seem to ruin their movie experience at all. For me, I want everything to be a surprise.
I don’t find it all that difficult to avoid spoilers on the internet though.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:54 am
I’m with Mr. Lucas on this one, but the trailer thing is very true too.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Yes, seems thats what this blog is all about.
Am I just noticing it recently or has this always been a fanboy blog?
April 17th, 2008 at 10:32 am
It’s a catch 22. I mean you don’t show anything but you try to entice people and you go see and the movie turns out to be shit. Whereas you see trailers like for Iron Man and you pretty much get the jist of it, but hell, you’re still gonna be there. I’ve watch those trailers over and over and I know that even if they mess it up, that movie is gonna look great. So I’m always wary of trailers that don’t show enough of the story to know what it’s about.
April 17th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Spielberg’s got a good point. A recent example bieng the trailer for the Hulk which gives away the whole plot and ending of the film.
April 17th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
There is always a happy medium that tends to be overlooked. I need enough info to pique my interest and some trusted critics to weigh in on the quality of the movie for me to determine if I’m going to see it. But plot details, production shots, spoilers ruin it for me.
April 17th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I think in the case of Cloverfield, the excesive internet propaganda ruined the movie for me, because it elevated my expectations of the movie and I resulted utterly dissapointed
April 17th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I think in the case of Cloverfield, the excessive internet propaganda ruined the movie for me, because it elevated my expectations of the movie and I resulted utterly dissapointed
April 17th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Based on the secrecy surrounding the Star Wars prequels’ production I’m amazed that George Lucas takes the position that spoilers and leaks don’t matter.
I agree with him — they don’t ultimately detract from the movie — but it’s a shame he didn’t take that to heart with the prequels. Many of the actors didn’t get their scripts until the day of shooting, simply to guard against the plot being leaked out on the internet. In my opinion, this is partially why the performances are so stiff and void of emotion. The characters don’t have enough time studying their characters because so much of the details are kept secret.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Mutt is indeed Indy’s son. CONFIRMED.
http://www.theraider.net/news/fullstory_indy4.php?id=696