The Dark Knight WB to go with new marketing plan

[Hole Shot]

its true. i don't think the crow would have had the sales it did if what happened to brandon hadn't happened. not that its not a great movie, i mean i love it but ppl are just like that sometimes.

I agree. I didn't have any idea what the Crow was or why they were making a movie about it until the news of Brandon Lee's death. His death sparked my interest in the film, no doubt.


Another example of death being used to market a film but very different from The Crow and TDK. River Phoenix died right before production of Interview with a Vampire. Christian Slater filled in for him without pay. That was mentioned countless times during the promotion of the film.

 

[jtfaria]

Now, I do think the viral marketing is basically over. I don't see them doing any Joker viral stuff anymore because of this.

Maudlin and cynical as it may sound, there's no need for any viral marketing anytime soon, because Ledger's death exceeds anything they could have done in terms of placing the film at top-of-mind among the public. WB may as well just shut down the publicity machine until about a month before the film opens, with the exception of the Super Bowl ad if that has already been locked-in.

I predict WB will recycle some of the saved money into a few 'memorial' ads for Ledger. Some (not all) of these may show some of the roles he played, including you-know-who. (In fact, WB's Super Bowl ad, if they run one, may well be a memorial Ledger-clips ad. WB knows full well that such a 'magnanimous' ad will spur more talk about TDK.)

 

[FlawlessVictory]

Maudlin and cynical as it may sound, there's no need for any viral marketing anytime soon, because Ledger's death exceeds anything they could have done in terms of placing the film at top-of-mind among the public.

Unfortunately, this is true.

 

[Diablo101]

with the exception of the Super Bowl ad if that has already been locked-in.

Superbowl is the one thing they should NOT do. It's too soon for that. If they already had a spot, they should use it for a different movie that needs it.

 

[jtfaria]

Superbowl is the one thing they should NOT do. It's too soon for that. If they already had a spot, they should use it for a different movie that needs it.

FYI, I edited my post with regards to what type of SB ad WB might run. I actually think they are more likely to do a memorial-type ad than hawk another film. Not every film lends itself to SB exposure (it has to appeal to a broad audience, etc.), and besides, the ad needs to be made ready, approved by the NFL and the network, etc. Unlike a new movie ad, a memorial ad could be put together quickly and should have no trouble getting approved considering the sentiment surrounding Ledger's untimely death.

 

[3goldens]

FYI, I edited my post with regards to what type of SB ad WB might run. I actually think they are more likely to do a memorial-type ad than hawk another film. Not every film lends itself to SB exposure (it has to appeal to a broad audience, etc.), and besides, the ad needs to be made ready, approved by the NFL and the network, etc. Unlike a new movie ad, a memorial ad could be put together quickly and should have no trouble getting approved considering the sentiment surrounding Ledger's untimely death.

OMG yet another stupid post. first some bull about reficusing the advertising and there is no source listed and the guys body hasnt even left the morgue yet. where do you all get off spreading these lies?

Warner has barely had enouh time 'to digest this trajic situation let alobe refocus their ad campaign. They actually have to go to work unlike some of the "ive got nothing better to do" kinda posters that have all come out of the woodwork claiming to be these great know it alls and have the inside tract. I say its all a bunch of made of dog do!

 

[jtfaria]

OMG yet another stupid post. first some bull about reficusing the advertising and there is no source listed and the guys body hasnt even left the morgue yet. where do you all get off spreading these lies?

It's called an opinion, and was clearly stated as such. And WB was almost certainly planning a TDK Super Bowl ad. It's their biggest film of the year. Grieving or not, that IS their business, and they are certainly attending to it, because the time is coming soon, with or without Heath, myself, or you.

 

[batgirl2119]

It's called an opinion, and was clearly stated as such. And WB was almost certainly planning a TDK Super Bowl ad. It's their biggest film of the year. Grieving or not, that IS their business, and they are certainly attending to it, because the time is coming soon, with or without Keith, myself, or you.

who's keith?

 

[SuperBatman]

I think he meant Heath

 

[Victarion]

They could switch gears to the vigilante angle from the GPD pov.

 

[Anita18]

Superbowl is the one thing they should NOT do. It's too soon for that. If they already had a spot, they should use it for a different movie that needs it.

TDK is their summer blockbuster. They should do it, if it was already planned. Make it clear that it's about celebrating Heath's Joker, not mourning him.

 

[jtfaria]

I think he meant Heath

Yes, indeed. How soon they forget. Well, me, anyway. (Now fixed in original post.)

 

[bcgvh]

Seriously, I don't believe this because it doesn't make any sense. Why would they change the marketing? Heath's death does not affect this movie. It might affect the next movie, but it doesn't affect this one, I mean, his role has been completed. They're still releasing the movie. The Joker is still the main villian. Why change anything at all? It doesn't make any sense.

 

[batgirl2119]

Seriously, I don't believe this because it doesn't make any sense. Why would they change the marketing? Heath's death does not affect this movie. It might affect the next movie, but it doesn't affect this one, I mean, his role has been completed. They're still releasing the movie. The Joker is still the main villian. Why change anything at all? It doesn't make any sense.

they may change a few details in the marketing out of respect for his memory and his family.

 

[SuperBatman]

Well in a Interview before this happend Heath said he was done filming for the Joker however that doesn't mean WB wasn't planning on maybe having him show up like on TV in full make up gear and doing Marketing things does it. I mean we really do not know what WB had planned as far as Marketing went.

 

[Visionary]

I say they put Batman back in the forefront of the advertising... crazy idea right?? I remember them saying during filming BB that they wanted these to be Batman's movies, and not villain centric like the old ones. So... makes sense, focus on batman and his cool new ****, and back the shots of the joker down a little bit in the new trailers.

It's much too late for that now, unfortunately, Ledger's death is now being used as a ratings boost. Again I say, the media loves dead celebs.

 

[bcgvh]

they may change a few details in the marketing out of respect for his memory and his family.

Well, assuming Heath's role was totally completed as the Joker (marketing included), why change it? This is what worries me because this is a Batman movie, not a Heath memorial film. And I'm not saying that to disrespect Heath Ledger, but it's the truth. The Dark Knight should not be a memorial service for Heath. I understand where they're coming from, but I think it's a little overboard.

 

[P.B.&Chocolate]

Warners has a different predicament with "The Dark Knight." Production on Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" sequel is believed to largely completed -- principal photography concluded in the fall -- but the initial marketing campaign focuses on the ghoulish Joker character.
To complicate matters further, the studio has just restructured its marketing operation. International marketing topper Sue Kroll now oversees all marketing for the studio in the wake of the exit of former domestic marketing president Dawn Taubin, who developed the "Dark Knight" campaign.
Kroll will likely have to move quickly to rejigger the studio's current phase of the marketing campaign for "Dark Knight," focusing on Ledger's Joker character. This phase of the campaign had been set to run until March.

from this Variety article http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117979535.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&nid=2562

 

[FCEEVIPER]

From the Wall Street Journal:

Will Marketing Change After Star's Death?

By MARSHALL CROOK and PETER SANDERS
January 24, 2008

For nearly nine months, Internet-savvy movie fans have been tantalized by a Web marketing campaign to slowly unveil the new look for one of Hollywood's most popular characters: the Joker, nemesis to Batman and a central figure in the next installment of the Warner Bros. film franchise based on the Caped Crusader.

Tuesday, however, Warner Bros.' careful online campaign, which still has months left to run, took an unexpected turn when Heath Ledger, the 28-year-old actor playing the Joker in "The Dark Knight," was found dead in a New York apartment.

The tragedy will force the studio to ponder how or whether to continue the elaborate Web campaign that was already generating buzz for one of its most important movie properties. That question is made even trickier by the fact that the campaign, to date, has been largely built around Mr. Ledger's Joker, even though Christian Bale returns as Batman. The Joker character became film legend in an earlier incarnation of the Batman series, when Jack Nicholson won praise for his deranged take on the comic-book villain. Mr. Ledger's eagerly anticipated portrayal is, if anything, said to take the character to a new level of violence and intensity that is darker than Mr. Nicholson's Joker.

A spokeswoman for Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc., said the marketing campaign was continuing but declined to comment further.

The viral campaign of "The Dark Knight" began to appear out of nowhere in May. That's when an inaugural political advertisement for Harvey Dent, aspiring Gotham City district attorney, appeared online without mentioning any movie. IBelieveinHarveyDent.com featured a photo of the candidate and was "Paid for by Friends of Harvey Dent." By following clues sprinkled on Internet message boards, fans then were led to a second site: IBelieveinHarveyDentToo.com. The page was the same, but Mr. Dent's picture was defaced with blackened eyes and a ghastly red grin.

The site was a fake, the candidate photos were of actor Aaron Eckhart, and the Web pages were the beginning of an elaborate attempt to stir up interest among fans. Throughout the summer and fall of 2007, the campaign served up a labyrinthine adventure set in an alternate-reality Gotham City. The drive of the campaign was the slow reveal of the Joker as played by Mr. Ledger. The actor's death puts into question the future of the Joker-centric marketing push for "The Dark Knight" and whether Warner Bros. will change tactics rather than risk a negative public response.

At the defaced Harvey Dent Web page, fans could get a code that allowed them to remove a piece of the overlying image. As more fans participated, Mr. Dent disappeared pixel by pixel, displaying the first official photo of Mr. Ledger's Joker: a grim white face appearing out of the darkness with dead eyes and an erratic, ruby smile carved into his cheeks.

With a playful but psychotic tone, the Joker character kept movie fanboys guessing for months. In late October, he requested that they participate in a nationwide scavenger hunt. Fans took photos of letter-shaped landmarks all over the country. The letters formed a message: "The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules," which then dissolved into a fresh Joker image. In November, the Joker encouraged fans to submit images of them and friends painted with white faces and red smiles. Each game resulted in a new image of the Joker or a new site with a new quest. Fans were updated on viral developments by editors of popular film news sites like www.superherohype.com and aintitcool.com, among others.

In late fall, fictional newspaper the Gotham Times launched its Web site, www.thegothamtimes.com, where fans could read up on Batman's exploits or Mr. Dent's war on corruption. Readers then discovered a second newspaper, the HaHaHa Times, at www.thehahahatimes.com, which was a frightening version of the original paper with edits made by the Joker himself.

In December, the campaign subsided when "The Dark Knight" prologue was screened before IMAX showings of "I Am Legend" and the first full-length trailer for "The Dark Knight" made its debut. Both featured footage unveiling Mr. Ledger's performance.

Such campaigns aren't new, of course. "The Blair Witch Project" in 1999 established that young movie fans could be enticed by online games that hold their interest for months before a film's release. Online campaigns have now become a standard feature of the marketing for certain films, especially comic-book fare like Batman.

Mr. Ledger isn't featured just in the online campaign. The movie's current poster includes a ghostly and haunting image of Mr. Ledger in his Joker getup, with the tag line "Why So Serious?" scrawled in red. In recent interviews, Mr. Ledger said the Joker was the most-fun role he had ever undertaken but was taxing physically and emotionally.

The movie's viral campaign is the work of 42 Entertainment, a Pasadena, Calif., independent producer of alternate-reality multimedia environments. The goal was to create a multiplatform story bridging the 2005 film -- which cost $150 million to produce and sold about $370 million of tickets world-wide -- and its sequel.

Untimely deaths have interrupted movie marketing before -- from James Dean's 1955 death before "Giant" was released, to the accidental shooting of Brandon Lee on the set of "The Crow," to the murder of director/actress Adrienne Shelley in the run-up to "Waitress" last year.

Web movie campaigns often rely on movie fan sites to whip up and maintain interest in the online initiatives. "We usually help kick off campaigns by spreading the word, and fans take it from there," said Mirko Parlevliet of Coming Soon Media LP, which operates sites like comingsoon.net and superherohype.com.

Mr. Parlevliet said the viral campaign for "The Dark Knight" "was very detailed and got a great response from the fans," adding that fans were rewarded for participating by gaining access to trailers, posters and photos. Still, he says, "I personally don't think these games reach an audience beyond the Internet-savvy fans. ... Also, [the studios] should concentrate more on a world-wide audience instead of just the U.S. fans."

Warner Bros. released a statement yesterday expressing its condolences on Mr. Ledger's death but didn't comment on the status of the film, which is in post-production in Los Angeles. It is possible that some of Mr. Ledger's sound-recording work was incomplete.

An executive at a rival studio said that while "The Dark Knight" is basically a big-budget movie with tragedy now attached to it, it would be unwise to change the marketing strategy or campaign at this point. "The best thing that could happen is that all this marketing stuff just goes on and the movie and the campaign don't turn into some kind of weird grave marker," he said.

Write to Marshall Crook at [email protected] and Peter Sanders at [email protected]

 

[FCEEVIPER]

From the LA Times:

Warner Bros. said through a spokeswoman Wednesday that its executives had not met to discuss how to handle marketing and publicity on "The Dark Knight," this summer's Batman sequel, which stars Ledger as the Joker. The core of the film's early marketing efforts -- a teaser trailer released last summer, a full trailer that debuted in December and two posters -- had focused on Ledger's character.

"People will die. I'm a man of my word," Ledger's character says in the film's teaser trailer.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-autopsy24jan24,1,5200680.story

 

[FCEEVIPER]

Double post.

 

[Anita18]

From the Wall Street Journal:

Cool article! And we got a shout-out and a pretty good rundown of everything that's happened. Thanks!

Yeah, I figure they'll take a few weeks to figure out things. I believe they'll be back though.

 

[FCEEVIPER]

From The NY Post:

FINAL FILM'S TICKET BOOST

By DAVID K. LI -- January 24, 2008

The sudden death of actor Heath Ledger has left Warner

Bros. studios in the uncomfortable position of figuring out how to market his last completed movie, without being seen as exploiting the tragedy.

"The Dark Knight," the latest installment in the Batman series - in which Ledger plays psychopathic comic The Joker - will be released as planned July 18, a spokeswoman for the studio said yesterday.

But after a series of high-level meetings among studio suits, no Warner officials would disclose their marketing plans to address Ledger's death.

"Warner Bros. is in an unenviable position," said Jeff Bock, analyst for Exhibitor Relations. "This movie will forever be linked to this tragedy. Since this will be his swan song, people will want to see it, and you can't really hide him or not showcase him."

Ledger had been the focal point of early Web- and blog-fueled hype for "The Dark Knight."

It's expected now that more emphasis will fall on co-star Christian Bale, who plays Batman.

Yet in the often macabre and morbid world of Tinseltown, the tragic fall of a star can lead to a shining success for his last flick.

Bock said the media frenzy surrounding the Aussie actor's death is good news for the movie.

"This is going to be a huge blockbuster, and [Ledger's death] could even increase ticket sales," he said. "The studio won't exploit [that it's Ledger's final film], but the fact is people will want to see Heath's last picture."

This isn't the first time Hollywood has had to gingerly and posthumously market a tragic blockbuster.

"Giant" hit big screens 1956, a year after the death of actor James Dean.

[email protected]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01242008/news/worldnews/final_films_ticket_boost_580412.htm

 

[SuperBatman]

I think it's the right move how they said that the Studio will not exploit that this will be in his last film. However the Media will probably do that for them.

 

[DieSmiling]

I think it's the right move how they said that the Studio will not exploit that this will be in his last film. However the Media will probably do that for them.

Exactly. WB won't have to do it, the talking heads will do it for them.