Ok, as super sexist as this is going to sound, despite my vagina, I'm going to have to go with a no. From a marketing standpoint it makes less sense to go with a female narrator, because people are more inclined to pick a movie pitched to them by a guy. Not saying that's a good thing obviously, but yeah. Just like there aren't as many female film critics. Although there are a few, and they're not as under represented as in this field, people are just more likely to listen to the opinion of a dude.

In a world ruled by men!
One women defies the odds!
and fights for what she believes!

When everything you know is wrong!
When everyone is against you!
You just have to be yourself!

Janeane Garofalo stars in a Ron Howard film

"Trailer"

Rated PG.

I think the only reason even women appear to listen more to the male voice on trailers is that we have been programed for decades to associate a 'legit' movie trailer with Don's and other men's voices. This could change if only women were given a real chance in the field

I wouldve loved a female voice on the Australia trailer.

Quite frankly, it's simple.

Male Voice = Epic
Female Voice = Sexy

They're both good but in they're own way. And yeah that may sound sexist, but think really hard about a woman's voice saying "The Dark Knight".

Dude goes to Dark Knight, chick goes to desperate house wives.

Then again, I prefer trailers without narration, but that's just me. =P

Oh but if they made a "Portal" Movie, gotta use a broad for the trailer! (G.L.A.D.O.S.)

Another trailer with a female narrator is that for Resident Evil.

MTV regularly uses a female narrator for commercials about upcoming shows.

In an odd way, I've never really noticed it and the female voice is somewhat soothing. Almost subliminal.

We all became familiar with a female voice first (our mother's, while in the womb), so perhaps there is something there.

Watch MTV and pay attention; it's surprising how much they use a female narrator.

I think it can be done, but not necessarily with every movie. To be honest, I'm not sure if LaFontaine's voice worked for EVERY single trailer he did.

I also think that if a female voice actor entered the mainstream, it would need a concurrent change in trailer convention. The same way gravelly male voices get stuck with dozens upon dozens of "In a world..." narrations, a female voice would require a different style of writing trailer narration.

How could they record narration with women when they don't make sound booths in kitchens?

When you said Don LaFontaine's successor could be a woman, I immediately thought Kathleen Turner, LOL

I wouldn't call the female voice in the 60 Seconds trailer a narrator. She does a setup at the beginning and then says the movie's title, that's hardly narration.

A think it's all about time and place. The 60 Seconds girl had a sexy voice which might work well with an Apatow-type comedy, or maybe a sex-heavy drama like Basic Instinct.

The woman in that trailer sounds like she's in a phone sex commercial.

I typically find every voice over for a trailer to be distracting regardless of the sex. Trailers that work for me are the ones that feature coherent pieces of dialogue from the characters themselves that give me a sense of what the movie is about. When you have a voice over touting that the film is "from the producers of one five year old movie," and the "director of a movie from a totally unrelated genre!" I start to drift off.

This may be because I've grown up in an age where if I want to know about a movie I can just jump online and find out such minute details as who brings the director his coffee in the morning. Really, I think the internet now allows us to follow our favorite directors, producers, etc. and know what projects they have coming up. When I see the trailer I want to get a glimpse at what the story will be like and that's best served by some more internal narration.

There are two things I always think of as great commentaries on how ridiculous movie trailer voice overs can be. The first is Pablo Francisco's routine about Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman movies. Though he himself is offering more of a commentary on the actors, I think there's good satire on the trailers themsleves.

Similarly, South Park spoofed a series of a trailers for Rob Schneider movies (they were recently linked to over on Film Drunk) that, while ostensibly spoofing Rob Schneider himself, really do a great number on the ridiculolus trailers.

Minimize the voice over in general. I've never once seen a movie because LaFontaine's voice was featured so prominently.

LOL @ Go Goya... I SO want to see a trailer that actually says "From the producers of a five year-old movie... and the director of a movie from a totally unrelated genre" LOL that'd be awesome :D

And the South Park/Rob Schneider trailer is awesome... "Durp durp a-durp durp durp!"

It should be noted that female voices are used almost universally for AI or the voices for machines, computers, etc. Is that sexist against males? We associate deep voices with one thing and soft voices with another. It's mostly nature. You don't hear a wide variety of male narrators, so it's not just gender-based.

I think that Gone in 60 Seconds trailer was just the right mix on voice introduction and character dialogue. That being said, I agree that the first thing that came to mind was sex and how the female voice was selling it for that film. I, like many, have come to associate a strong, male voice pitching me my movies. But that isn't to say that it wouldn't at least make sense to have a woman pitch female geared movies types (i.e Sex in the City, The Women, etc).

I can't believe nobody referenced the comment from "september 11th." Well played, sir. Made me laugh.

From a personal perspective, I don't like the narrator but prefer the male voice for a film. The female voice I prefer for commercials, ads, etc. I don't know if it's conditioning or what but the voice itself seems to appeal to different parts of our brain.

Kathleen Turner's smokey sex voice > Some old dude.

i like the woman on the phone in Eagle Eye. she would be good for this. Queen Latifah did voice work for some commercials and Cher would be good too.

Remember that Simpsons episode where Marge writes an erotic historical romance novel and the book-on-tape version is read by the Olsen twins?

Yeah.

no

If you have ever played Gears of war one of the top selling games anywhere you would notice there that the narrator voice is a women granted this is a video game but it makes the game stronger I think.

The voice in Eagle Eye is Julianne Moore. She's too big to be doing trailer voiceovers.

good!!!!!!
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