Previously, Slashfilm lashed into Sony Pictures Classics for releasing a full-length trailer for The Wackness, a fave upcoming flick of the site, that shamefully sold the film as just another navel-ring piece of garbage starring an Olsen twin. Knowing full well who was in the movie, I still anticipated a cornrowed Bijou Phillips popping up and shaking her ass in the trailer at any second. Today, Cinematical received the new one-sheet for the little indie that should send director Jonathan Levine (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) trail blazing a la Jason Reitman, and thankfully it’s not a complete disaster.
One of the marketing aspects that SPC needs to stress and failed to with the trailer is the film’s 1994 time period. The poster clearly does a better job of this with the taglines, the retro color scheme and the appropriately corny off-kilter cityscape. I’m not sure the cassette title design could be worked in here, but I hope it’s played up more in the weeks up to come. While this one-sheet could always benefit from a “Don’t believe the trailer, this movie’s really great!” Slashfilm pull quote, at least Mary-Kate isn’t hovering over skyscrapers frozen in a dance routine like a malnourished Mick Jagger. The Wackness opens July 3rd. Click the poster above to enlarge.
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It must be really hard to cut a good movie trailer, especially for a bad movie. But it always amazes me when great films sometimes have such horrible movie trailers. I’ve now seen Jonathan Levine ‘s The Wackness three times. And since January the film has held strong on the list of my favorite films of 2008. When Sony Pictures Classics purchased the film at Sundance, a lot of the people that loved this film were bummed out. Bloggers were outraged. You see, Sony Pictures Classics is where good movies go to die. The only way they can market a movie is if it wins an award (ie they let the award do the heavy lifting). And the guys at SPC promised that they knew how to handle this film, and two trailers later, I really really really don’t want to say I told you so, but…
The second teaser trailer is a mishmash of good moments from the film, which play well to someone who has seen the movie, but to the unknowing onlooker, it comes off as an urban “Step Up” or Finding Forester. Sure you have some good interaction between Ben Kingsley and Josh Peck, and the moment with Peck playing classic Nintendo, but I challenge anyone who hasn’t heard of this movie to explain to me what this movie is about. Because after seeing this trailer, you really have no idea.
You can watch the trailer below and see for yourself, but I highly recommend you stay away from any of the marketing from this film. I say this because if I had seen either of these teaser trailers, I probably wouldn’t be interested in the slightest. And it’s too bad, because this film is great. It won the audience award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. People love this film. I love this film. Even critics love this film. But none of that is enough to sell this film to you the audience. I understand that. You want to be sold by the trailer. You probably won’t be sold by this one. Maybe the next one will be better. We can only hope.
I’ve now seen Jonathan Levine’s The Wackness three times – twice at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the Dramatic Audience Award (which explains why I screened the film a second time during award day), and again at a secret screening during the South By South West Film Festival in Austin Texas. You may have noticed me calling American Teen my favorite film of 2008 (so far), but The Wackness holds a spot in the top five along side Assassination of a High School President. You probably want to know what this movie is about right? Here is the official plot synopsis:
“Set in New York in the sweltering summer of 1994, THE WACKNESS tells the story of a troubled teenage drug dealer, who trades pot for therapy sessions with a drug-addled psychiatrist.. Things get more complicated when the kid falls for one of his classmates, who just happens to be the doctor’s daughter. Set against the backdrop of the greatest year in hip hop history, THE WACKNESS is a coming-of-age story about sex, drugs, music–and what it takes to be a man.”
Sony Pictures Classics has finally released a teaser trailer. And while I love the graffiti re-do of the Sony logo, the music, and the way everything was cut together, I’m just not sure the moments used accurately give you any real indication what this film is like. For example, I don’t think you get any idea what kind of relationship Josh Peck’s character and Ben Kingsly’s character have. And their relationship really is the core of this film. Watch the trailer and tell me what you think in the comments below.
You can watch the new trailer in High Definition on MTV.com. Sony Pictures Classics plans to release the film in New York and Los Angeles on July 3rd 2008.
Cinematical has premiered two new images from Jonathan Levine’s The Wackness, one of our favorite films os 2008 so far. Which reminded me that we’ve never posted the production photos which were released at the Sundance Film Festival. You can check out those photos after the jump. The Wackness won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival, and was quickly snapped up by Sony Pictures Classics who plan to release the film in New York and Los Angeles on July 3rd (I’ve seen the tagline “The 4th of July is gonna be WACK”, which just goes to show you how lame SPC’s marketing department is).
Here is the official plot synopsis:
“Set in New York in the sweltering summer of 1994, THE WACKNESS tells the story of a troubled teenage drug dealer, who trades pot for therapy sessions with a drug-addled psychiatrist.. Things get more complicated when the kid falls for one of his classmates, who just happens to be the doctor’s daughter. Set against the backdrop of the greatest year in hip hop history, THE WACKNESS is a coming-of-age story about sex, drugs, music–and what it takes to be a man.”
The film stars a Harvey Keitel-looking Ben Kingsly, Josh Peck in a career making performance, the beautiful Olivia Thirlby, a hippy-fied Mary-Kate Olsen, Famke Janssen and Method Man.
Olivia Thirlby is such a huge part of this film, so why are they holding back on her in the marketing materials? If I were Sony Pictures Classics, and I had a movie that featured one of the stars of Juno, one of the biggest independent films of all time, I’d be playing that up just a little. I mean, releasing a photo that shows her face might be a start. I don’t understand why they are playing up the Ben Kingsly/Mary-Kate Olsen kiss when it has little to do with the overall story.
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At Sundance, a bunch of the movie journalists covering the festival and myself were extremely shocked and disappointed to learn that one of our favorite films of the festival, Jonathan Levine’s The Wackness, had been sold to Sony Pictures Classics. We really love this film and want to see it succeed, but Sony Pictures Classics is known as the place where “Good Movies Go to Die”.
The only time Sony Pictures Classics is able to make money off a film is when the award buzz handles the publicity for them. They just aren’t good at marketing films, plain and simple. I could impress on you the fact that in 2007, Sony Pictures Classics made only $39 million off 23 films, compared to other mini major specialty divisions like Picturehouse which made $60 million off 9 films, and Fox Searchlight made $216 off only 6 films. SPC couldn’t even make $1 off Francis Ford Coppola’s first film in ten years (good film or bad, that line should have sold itself). Only one of the 24 releases Sony Pictures Classics had in 2007 made over $10 million, and that’s likely only because that film won an Oscar (ie the free award buzz translating into ticket sales).
In response to our criticism, Co-President of Sony Pictures Classics Tom Bernard told indieWire, “We’re Not Looking For Home Runs”. Which is stupid, because they have a potential indie grand slam on their hands. The Wackness has huge generational cult classic potential on the level of Zack Braff’s Garden State, which took in $26.8 million in the U.S. The Wackness is not the type of film that Sony Pictures Classics is use to releasing.
So what date did Sony Pictures Classics choose for The Wackness? According to Olivia Thirlby, who talked to our friends at Collider, the film will be released in the middle of the summer movie season on July 3rd 2008. Note: we believe that Olivia probably meant to say July 2nd 2008, as the 3rd is a Thursday, and all the other films either hit theaters on Wednesday the 2nd or Friday the 4th. Either way, the point is – it’s not a good date to release an indie film.
Disney/Pixar’s WALL-E and Universal’s comic book adaptation Wanted hit theaters less than a week earlier. The Wacknness will go head to head with Sony’s Superhero comedy Hancock starring the unstoppable box office drawing power of Will Smith, followed up the next week by Hellboy II, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, and the Eddie Murphy comedy Meet Dave. The rest of July features a bevy of huge releases including The Dark Knight, Mamma Mia!, X-Files 2, Step Brothers, and The Mummy 3 on August 1st. Not to mention Fox Searchlight’s 2008 big bet – Clark Gregg’s adaptation of Chuck Palahnuik’s Choke, which also opens within the month.
Releasing an indie like this in the dead center of Summer will not allow for the film to build and expand. Fox Searchlight, a company which knows how to handle these type of platform releases, launched Little Miss Sunshine in late Summer (nearly a month later), a time when all the big summer movies had already had a chance to cool down. The Wackness is the type of film which needs to catch the eye of the College crowds, and might have been better off with a date like this which would have allowed for an expansion in early fall. But the last Friday of July/first Friday of August is Fox Searchlight’s magic date. They’ve had some incredible hits on that magic date. And unforutunately for Sony, they basically own the date (this year’s release is Choke).
Well, it came and it gave without takin’, and two years later we’re still waiting for All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, the highly regarded teen slasher from director Jonathan Levine. You’ve seen his name around because Levine followed up Mandy with The Wackness, one of the most buzzed-about films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Why the delay? Well, the Weinstein Co. and Levine had a falling out after he refused to cut the gore (fight the power!), but all seems to be well as Mandy is finally seeing a release in the states this year on March 7th through Senator International, and on February 15th in the UK.
The film’s first 10 minutes are now online, and set up an Aaron Spelling-ish pool scene with an eerie something’s-off undercurrent. Worth watching, but don’t expect to glimpse any of the rumored brilliance or unrumored wackness.
Watch the first 10 Minutes now on Yahoo! UK
Please someone tell me this isn’t true. THR is reporting that Sony Pictures Classics has closed a deal for Jonathan Levine’s The Wackness. The deal is said to be in the low seven figures.
The Wackness is one of my favorite films of the festival. The buzz around Park City on shuttles and in lines, is that this is THE film of Sundance 2008. I’ve found it very strange that no studio deal has yet been announced. And while I’m very happy to finally hear that The Wackness has a deal possibly in sight, I’m torn over the mention of the potential buyer. Why? Well because Sony Pictures Classics sucks. Don’t get me wrong, they have some great films in their catalog. But it seems to me that many of these films are buried at the box office with lackluster promotion. If only every mini-major could be more like Fox Searchlight!
Let’s take a look at some of the recent Sony Pictures Classics releases, and how well they faired at the box office:
Youth Without Youth – $196,000: I don’t care how experimental or how badly reviewed this film was, Sony could have slapped ads up touting “Francis Ford Coppola’s First Film in Ten Years” or “From the Director of The Godfather”.
Persepolis – $913,000: Nominated for an academy award, but dumped in to art houses with little to no press and advertising.
My Kid Could Paint That – $229,000: One of the best documentaries of 2007 with huge free marketing appeal (in news shows, newspapers…etc)
Junebug – $2,680,000: Amy Adam’s oscar nominated break-out performance dumped.
Layer Cake – $2,340,000: A lighting quick gangster film with major cult appeal starring announced Bond replacement Daniel Craig.
In fact, the nine films which were released theatrically last year [From January 1st 2007 to December 31st 2007] by Sony Pictures Classics, made a grand total of $6.5 million in the 2007 calendar year. That’s an average of $725,000 per picture. The fact that their highest box office take was The Jane Austen Book Club, which took in $3.5 million, yet cost over $6 million to produce. Compare this to Fox Searchlight, which made almost twice that of the total SPC with The Darjeeling Limited alone, which never played on more than 700 screens. Actually, only one of the eight films that Searchlight released in 2007, made less than the combined sum of Sony Pictures Classic’s 2007 catalog.
I understand that the sex and drugs themes inherent within The Wackness might pose a challenge to market, which explains why The Wackness probably settled with Sony Pictures Classics. But Levine would have had a better chance by selling the film to Fox Searchlight for $1 and taking a back-end deal. At least then maybe the film would have a chance.
I hope that Sony pictures Classics proves me wrong. I hope they market the hell out of this film. The Wackness has huge generational cult classic potential on the level of Zack Braff’s Garden State, which took in $26.8 million in the U.S. One thing is for sure, as much as I dislike Sony Pictures Classics, I will be giving this film an abundance of free marketing.
More from our Friends:
Neil at FSR: “This is probably one of the worst things that could have happened for the film.” “They are a studio that wouldn’t know what to do with a great film even if it came with a set of instructions.”
Alex from FS.net: “Sony Pictures Classics really needs to learn from Fox Searchlight if they’re going to market The Wackness and Baghead correctly, and I wish them the best of luck, because both of these need to be huge hits”
Edward Douglas of CS.net: “It’s a fun movie and could find a big audience, though it’s not the kind of movie Sony Classics usually releases, though it would be a huge turnaround for the company if they’re able to learn something from the Fox Searchlight marketing model”
Josh Tyler from CinemaBlend: “With the right marketing campaign and the right people promoting it, The Wackness could have easily opened in 1000 theaters and made millions. With Sony Pictures Classics behind it, we’ll be lucky if it ever plays anywhere outside of New York or LA, and forget about Oscar consideration.”
Anne Thompson of Variety: “Some folks seem to have an issue with SPC distributing Wackness.”
Peter Martin of Cinematical: “The complaint is that Sony Classics has had a poor track record over the past couple of years and someone like Fox Searchlight would do a better job with marketing a film that critics think needs to be seen.”
Every year at Sundance I see a film during the first weekend that I absolutely fall in love with. Because it’s only the opening weekend, I try not to claim that a film is the best of this year’s festival. But usually my emotions win out and I make such a claim in a non-direct kind of way, which may explain this opening paragraph. Because this year The Wackness is that film.
Jonathan Levine’s second feature is set in the hot summer of 1994, when gangsta rap was beginning to penetrate into mainstream culture and a young depressed drug-dealer named Luke (Josh Peck in a career making performance) sets off on a journey to get laid before he goes off to college. Problem is that Luke is a combination loser/loner (what I like to call – “Loneser”). His only friend is his oddball psychiatrist Dr. Squires (a Harvey Keitel-looking Ben Kingsley) is suffering from a late-middle age crisis, and takes pot for trade for therapy sessions. Luke falls in love with Squires’ step-daughter Stephanie (Juno’s sexy supporting star Olivia Thirlby), while Dr. Squires makes out with a hippied-out Mary-Kate Olsen (yuck) in a phone booth.
The Wackness has the polish of a hip music video with the rawness of a gritty documentary. Imagine if Michael Bay shot a dramatic indie film. The Squid and the Whale for the NES generation, filled with Sex, Drugs and Rap music. The film perfectly captures the mood of the early to mid 90′s, referencing anything and everything from gameboys to Biggie Smalls, Giuliani’s overhaul of New York City to the fantastic 90′s compilation soundtrack. Levine takes chances, intercutting fantastical dream and musical sequences with a realistic dramatic story.
The Wackness is such a refreshing take on the coming-of-age story. Jonathan Levine has solidified himself as a solid next gen filmmaker, following in the talents of Paul Thomas Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, and Wes Anderson. See Kingsley like you’ve never seen him before, and Olivia Thirlby in her first breakout leading role. While this movie might not be as easily accessible as Little Miss Sunshine or Juno, the film will strike a strong connection with it’s targeted demographic (which I just so happen to fit into). The Wackness is the film to see at this year’s Sundance, and is already an early contender for this year’s top 10.
/Film Rating: 9 out of 10
