Columbia Alters Release Plans on ‘Munchausen’

For more than a year, it seemed that the problem Columbia Pictures would have in marketing Terry Gilliam’s “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” would be overcoming negative publicity about production problems that reportedly ran the budget from $23.5 million to more than $40 million.

Now, eight days before the film’s scheduled opening, the problem seems to be overcoming the fact that few people outside Hollywood have ever heard of it.

“When you get out of Los Angeles, the awareness factor on ‘Munchausen’ is almost nil,” said one exhibitor, who learned Tuesday that Columbia had decided to postpone the film’s release in all but eight of 30 cities on the original release schedule. “They have to be really concerned when a film like ‘Lean on Me’ has five times the awareness of ‘Munchausen’ in the market.”

Roger Faxon, senior executive vice president at Columbia, acknowledged that many cities have been removed from “Munchausen’s” March 10 release date, but said it is not an indication that the studio is attempting to cut its losses.

“We’re trying to concentrate our efforts in major markets,” Faxon said, adding that there will be an advertising blitz between now and next week’s opening in about 50 theaters in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco (where it has its American premiere Wednesday) and four other cities. “You won’t be able to sit in your living room and not know it’s here.”

Faxon maintained that Columbia has not changed its original release plans.

“It’s always been planned as a two-phase release,” he said. “The question was which phase different cities would fall in.”

“The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,” which is based on the tales of an 18th- Century rogue adventurer and renowned liar who fought with Frederick the Great, has always been perceived as a tough film to market in the United States. Munchausen is known to most schoolchildren in Europe, but is a vague literary figure here. And when the film opened to mixed reviews and poor grosses in West Germany in December, the studio’s task seemed all the more difficult.

But one exhibitor affected by the decision to postpone the release in secondary markets said Wednesday that the studio is badly misreading the film’s appeal.

“They’re going to be very surprised by this film,” said the exhibitor, asking that his name not be used. “At our theaters, people have been applauding the trailer.”

Gilliam, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley and carved out a career for himself as the illustrator for Monty Python’s Flying Circus, said in a telephone interview Tuesday night that he is not upset with Columbia’s decision.

“I’m happier to have the movie open slower,” said Gilliam, who had angry confrontations with distributors over the marketing of his last two films, “Time Bandits” and “Brazil.” “I am convinced that (Columbia executives) really care about the film and that they’re trying to give it a chance.”

What most people agree “Munchausen” needs to have a chance at commercial success is a warm critical reception and, ironically, they were set to get it in at least two of the cities that were taken out of the March 10 opening lineup.

“We had planned a Sunday story on Gilliam on the 12th and (film critic) David Elliott’s review was going to run on the 10th, both with big color spreads,” said Mary Hellman, arts and entertainment editor for the San Diego Union. “We will still use it when the film opens, but it is very annoying to be treated like a second-rate market.”

Hellman said the expansive coverage on the film was partly based on Elliott’s positive response to the film.

The opening was also postponed in Milwaukee where Milwaukee Journal entertainment editor Dominick Noth had committed color coverage in the March 12 Sunday edition, which has a circulation of 520,000.

“I’m going ahead with the story,” said an obviously irritated Noth Wednesday. “We’ve been shuffling color like fury to (accommodate studio changes). I’m calling cease and desist to it. This is costing us production time and money.”

Noth said he thinks there is a lot of interest in “Munchausen” in Milwaukee, a hot “Monty Python” market, and that he sent film critic Doug Armstrong to Chicago recently to meet with Gilliam and write the lead Sunday arts story on him and the film. Armstrong has not written his review yet, but said it will be positive.

Nina J. Easton contributed to this story.