A look inside Hollywood and the movies : COMING ATTRACTIONS : ‘Rising Sun’: The Saga of the Trailer

When making a movie that tries to balance the good and evil of characters of three different races--white, black and Asian--20th Century Fox was extra-careful not to inflame sensibilities, even in the movie’s trailers.

Several different trailer-making companies, a few hundred thousand dollars and many test screenings later, sources say Fox settled on trailer No. 13 for its upcoming “Rising Sun.” This one heightens the thriller aspect of the movie rather than the underlying theme of the controversial book’s author Michael Crichton or the more racially sensitive version as adapted by director Philip Kaufman.

In this way, equal trailer screen time is given to characters played by Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes, the two Los Angeles police detectives assigned to solve the case of a murdered American female escort in the L.A. high-rise offices of a Japanese-owned conglomerate, rather than play up the nefarious dealings of individual Japanese businessmen characters and their American allies-in-crime.

“(Fox) had a hard time figuring the right formula to sell this picture. It’s not a buddy-buddy movie like ‘Lethal Weapon’ or ’48 HRS.’--it’s not funny, in other words--and they were worried a little bit about Japan-bashing,” said a source at one of the companies that worked on the trailer until being replaced by another.

What Fox executives wanted, another source said, was for the trailer “to take the higher ground” and project “some of the same kind of class of the Crichton novel.”

Ironically, Crichton himself signed off on the film long ago because Kaufman rewrote the ending to change the ethnicity of the villain. Crichton’s book, back on the paperback bestseller list for the second time on the heels of “Jurassic Park’s” success, was both lauded and derided by critics for being what several said was a polemic masquerading as a thriller. The novel’s theme is how American economic policies have allowed the systematic takeover of American business by the Japanese, but uses the dramatic framework of a murder-mystery to make the point. One local Japanese group expressed concern that the movie might encourage Japan-bashing.

But in Kaufman’s script, much more is made of how Connery and Snipes go about solving the case coming from their different cultural backgrounds. Connery is a Japan-o-phile; Snipes, his inner-city street-smart protege. In Crichton’s book, the detectives were symbols of America’s problems communicating with the Japanese.

“You see the Japanese culture in America” in the trailer, counters Andrea Jaffe, president of domestic marketing for Fox. “But anyone who doesn’t sell Sean and Wesley as stars of the movie must be insane,” she said.

The $40-million “Rising Sun” is, as most see it, Fox’s most promising summer entry. And, after months of post-production delays while Kaufman oversaw the final cut, the results from research screenings indicate a possible hit.

Thirty-second television spots are already playing on national television--way in advance of the movie’s July 30 opening--and theaters will show the 2 1/2-minute trailer beginning Wednesday.