In New Reality, Studios Turn Down Hype

Hollywood’s hype machine--usually a reliable barometer of overdrive--has shifted into downgear as film executives and producers, directors and publicists grapple with uncustomary issues of taste and relevance generated by the events of Sept. 11. Films are rolling to release without the usual 21-gun celebrity salute, as the studios shift release dates, cancel premieres, rejigger junkets and wait for the next day’s events to unfold on CNN.

“Many junkets have been moved from New York or to L.A., “ says Oren Aviv, president of Disney’s Buena Vista Pictures marketing. “The main thing is that talent has to participate in junkets and premieres and understandably it’s a tough time to celebrate. It’s a tough time to plug your movie .... Security issues are at the top of the mind.”

Disney took the drastic step of pushing two pricey, terror-themed comedies, “Big Trouble” and “Bad Company,” off the release schedule for the year. “Big Trouble” was slated to open last weekend, and Disney had already spent about half of the film’s marketing budget, which is usually about $25 million.

Of movies debuting in the next two weeks, several dramas--”Don’t Say a Word,” “Training Day” and “Hearts in Atlantis”--all canceled their premieres, while “Zoolander,” a comedy in which Ben Stiller plays a vapid supermodel brainwashed to become an assassin, will no longer debut with a red-carpet gala at Harry Cipriani restaurant in New York. Paramount instead is throwing a low-key, press-free reception on the studio lot.

“There was a certain level of gaiety that was built into a post-premiere party that we have toned down,” says Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Friedman, who adds that in terms of marketing, “we are just trying to be sensitive. Anything that would feel either inappropriate or exploitative we are not going to do. We’ve been re-looking at all the material. Something that prior to Sept. 11 was not an issue may now be an issue.”

There are technical and artistic issues as well. Paramount Classics whited-out a glimpse of the World Trade Center from the poster of the upcoming release “Sidewalks of New York”--a film whose Sept. 21 release was also postponed--while Miramax excised the towers from the opening credits of its romantic comedy “Serendipity.” The day after the attack, DreamWorks removed the arresting, but disturbing, original posters for the Robert Redford drama “The Last Castle,” which featured an upside-down American flag, an international symbol of distress, and replaced them with an image of a helicopter.

In “Max Keeble’s Big Move,” a children’s film that comes out next week, the filmmakers went so far as to alter the nature of tiny exploding two-way pager that occurs in a dream sequence--a takeoff of “Mission Impossible”--in which the hero confronts an evil ice-cream truck.

“It had a fairly audacious explosion we felt was reminiscent of the recycled footage that the media insists we see. We changed the nature of that so as to not invoke bad feelings,” says “Max Keeble” director Tim Hill. “It was originally a big greasy fireball, and we went to the special effects house, and said, ‘what else do you have?’, and they came up with more spacey disintegration.”

The glossiest element of any movie marketing campaign is of course the stars, and it’s uncertain whether they’ll be showing up to publicize their movies. Stan Rosenfield, a personal publicist who represents George Clooney and Robert De Niro, is taking a wait-and-see attitude.

“The bottom line is most of our clients want to do the right thing,” he says. “Most feel that it’s too premature to make the judgment call at this time in terms of what’s the correct way to promote [their movies] and their degree of participation in junkets which are the norm in promoting a movie.

“Right now there’s no such thing as a norm. It’s just too soon. I think people are spending their creative thoughts more toward ‘What can I do to help?’ rather than ‘I have a movie coming out.”’

Pat Kingsley, who represents Tom Cruise and Jodie Foster, says she’s urging her clients to now go back to work. “I’m encouraging them to take a tip from [New York] Mayor [Rudolph] Guiliani. It’s time that they get back to business,” says Kingsley. “I would encourage people to come out and support their work at the time it needs to be supported.”

A number of publicists have raised concerns over travel--not just for the stars, many of whom go on private jets--but for the journalists who attend the junkets.

“Zoolander,” which opens Friday, is perhaps the first major movie to sponsor a traditional junket since the terrorist attacks. Director-star Ben Stiller attended last weekend’s marathon of promotion in Los Angeles, as did 80% to 90% of the expected journalists, according to Paramount.

The other staples of promotion are TV spots, which can constitute about 90% of the marketing plan, particularly for films geared toward younger audiences. The spots usually run in the three weeks before a film’s debut, as studios attempt to spike audience interest. In the aftermath of the attacks, the networks all went to commercial-free television, obliterating any television publicity for such films as “Hardball” which debuted the weekend after the attacks.

Notes producer Robert Simonds, whose film “Corky Romano,” a mob comedy, opens Oct. 12: “If we start bombing Kabul, that’s going to cover the airwaves and make it impossible to buy advertising regardless of how much we might want to buy 30-second TV spots.”

Movie ticket sales plummeted precipitously last weekend. It was the lowest-grossest weekend of the year, although it’s unclear whether the dip was the result of a dearth of product, and momentary post-strike jitters, or the beginning of more protracted audience malaise. This weekend should provide a better gauge of the mood of movie audiences with three very different big studio movies opening: the heartwarming drama “Hearts in Atlantis,” the outrageous comedy “Zoolander” and the psychological thriller “Don’t Say a Word.”

Almost every filmmaker and producer whose film opens imminently evinces hope that it will be a tonic for the nation’s soul.

“The idea of having counter-programming to the overwhelming anxiety that everyone is feeling seemed like a good idea, “ says Simonds. “Historically during times of tension and war, the most successful genres are comedy and light fantasies. It can provide some temporary respite from this relentless anxiety.”

“Hopefully this is the kind of movie which would be an antidote to what’s going on,” says producer Peter Abrams, whose romantic comedy “Serendipity” features John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale as star-crossed lovers in New York. However, “it’s New York as beautiful as it could possibly look, “ says Abrams. “The energy of New York is a big part of the movie.”

The makers of “Training Day”, a gritty drama that features a riveting performance by Denzel Washington as a corrupt cop, are more concerned about how their darker film will be perceived in today’s uncertain climate. After Warner Bros. postponed “Collateral Damage,” a film in which Arnold Schwarzenegger’s family gets blown up by a bomb, the studio moved “Training Day” back several weeks into “Collateral Damage’s” slot on Oct. 5.

“We’re lucky to grab a three-day weekend” (for Columbus Day, celebrated Oct. 8), says producer Jeffrey Silver. “But we’re unlucky in that it’s a serious-minded movie at a time when people have plenty of serious things to think about. Denzel plays a fallen angel, who goes from Mr. Clean to Mr. Dirty in the course of a career and you see why. The film has interesting things to say if people are open to it, things that resonate today about standing up to evil.”

Scott Hicks, director of “Hearts in Atlantis,” believes that “for everything to stop is to hand a total victory to the people who’ve perpetuated this atrocity. Like everybody, you’re completely stunned and numbed by events but eventually you have to continue with your job.”

“I was talking to Tony Hopkins [the star of ‘Hearts in Atlantis’] this morning. I said to him that during the Second World War, the entertainers got out and raised public morale,” says Hicks. “He reminded me that Noel Coward carried on during the Blitz. The bombs would be raining around the theater and he’d be joking, ‘Have a listen for which one is going to land.’ It was an act of enormous courage under the guise of flippancy. I’m not comparing that to what [we’re doing], but historically entertainers have been vital to encouraging the public morale.”

“I went to the movies this weekend, reluctantly at first,” adds “Training Day’s” Silver. “But I came out of it so thrilled to spend an hour not thinking of Afghanistan.”