‘Trapped’ in an Uneasy Moment

Columbia Pictures’ thriller “Trapped,” which centers on the abduction of an 8-year-old girl, has proved too close to real life for the studio’s comfort. The movie bows this weekend, only days after a jury recommended the death sentence for David Westerfield in the murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, culminating what seemed like an endless summer of child kidnappings and murders.

In response to the news environment, the studio did an about-face on its initial ad campaign and adopted an unusual marketing strategy to open a film: imposing a media blackout and keeping its stars off the normal promotional circuit.

Billed as a thriller, “Trapped” stars Kevin Bacon and Courtney Love as kidnappers of an 8-year-old asthmatic girl and Charlize Theron as the mother who defies the FBI and tries to save her daughter’s life.

The film was directed by Luis Mandoki, whose track record includes “Angel Eyes” and “Message in a Bottle,” which received tepid reviews and were not standouts at the box office.

Concerns over the quality of the film could be an issue. Its only audiences so far have been made up of film buyers for the nation’s theater chains.

In an effort to throttle any chance of negative reviews or news reports, nervous studio executives kept film critics and media from seeing the film before its release. There was no press junket for “Trapped,” and the studio asked its actors not to talk about the film.

“We didn’t want Jay Leno looking at Kevin Bacon and saying, ‘What the hell were you thinking in making a film like this right now?’ ” said one studio insider.

Even as books on the topic, such as Alice Sebold’s “The Lovely Bones,” remain popular, and television dramas continue to embrace the theme, the movie studio remains steadfast in its silent treatment, declining to comment for this story, and lobbying principals involved in “Trapped” to keep quiet.

Columbia also restricted its ad spending to television and print, forgoing other media such as outdoor and radio.

Usually when a studio adopts such a strategy, it’s a sure sign that the movie is a dud.

However, the response was not so dour from theater film buyers who saw the film in an exhibitor screening Sept. 6. “It was an intense thriller with a really great payoff. It was a quality film,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations.

The film is opening on 2,000-plus screens. Also coming out this weekend are Warner Bros.’ sci-fi action movie “Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever,” which debuts on roughly 2,500 screens; Fox Searchlight’s “The Banger Sisters” on 2,700 screens; and Paramount Pictures/Miramax Films’ period drama “The Four Feathers,” on 1,800.

“I hope this doesn’t set a precedent,” said Peter Rainer, chairman of the National Society of Film Critics. “If they start shutting down the media entirely because of a sensitive subject matter, they will presumably do it with other films. Usually the reason to keep the media out is that the film doesn’t live up to expectations. If the name of the game is cutting your losses, you may feel that you have less to lose keeping it from journalists than opening it up for scrutiny.”

Exhibitors who saw the film were critical of the first 30 minutes, calling it “very intense.” One noted that, as a parent, it was “disturbing” for him to watch.

And therein lies the problem.

When the initial trailer for “Trapped” appeared in mid-May, the kidnapping theme was a central component. It had four clips of the little girl and direct statements from the abductors such as “Your daughter was kidnapped three hours ago,” “You’re never going to see your kid again” and “I’m the one who decides whether she lives or dies.” It ended with Theron’s character pointing a gun and saying, “Give me back my daughter, you son-of-a ... “

As the release date approached, though, television commercials for “Trapped”--based on “24 Hours,” the bestselling book by Greg Iles--did not include scenes with the little girl. Menacing statements from kidnappers were excised. The commercial now sells the thriller aspect of the film and only implies an abduction, with Theron screaming into the phone “bring her back” at the end of the ad. A new TV ad for the film that broke this week includes mention of a kidnapping but once again leaves out shots of the little girl.

The print campaign for “Trapped” has no mention of an abduction. Instead, ad copy reads: “It was the perfect crime until she refused to be the perfect victim,” referring to Theron’s character.

“It’s really a parent-empowerment movie,” said one person involved in the production of the film. “The woman is the hero. It’s like ‘Ransom.’ ”

In fact, early on in the “Trapped” campaign, Columbia’s marketing team was using a marketing strategy similar to that for “Ransom.”

“Ransom,” which starred Mel Gibson and was directed by Ron Howard, was one of the most high-profile films ever made about a child kidnapping. The film, released in 1996, was able to rise above its sensitive subject matter and gross an estimated $308.9 million worldwide. Advertising for the picture featured Gibson turning the tables on the kidnappers, refusing to pay the ransom for his son and yelling into the phone, “Give me back my son.”

Unlike “Trapped,” “Ransom” had an actor who was coming off of several take-charge roles such as the “Lethal Weapon” franchise. Theron previously starred in “The Cider House Rules” and “Sweet November,” among other movies.

“We looked at it as an empowerment vehicle for the regular man, but you can only do that with the right actors,” said “Ransom” producer Brian Grazer. “You are looking at a guy with a ton of power. You can only do that with Mel or with one or two other people. I wouldn’t do that with 99.9% of the actors out there.”

But when “Ransom” opened, the news environment was very different. The seemingly logical step to take would be to postpone “Trapped” until the media maelstrom subsides.

“We can’t do that. One problem is that no one knows when this will all die down, ... at least, that’s what the studio is telling us,” said one source who was involved in the production of the film.

“It always gives you pause when a movie mirrors a real event,” said Dergarabedian.

Several studios faced that problem after Sept. 11. The same studio, Columbia Pictures, debated whether to release the war drama “Black Hawk Down.” After meetings with filmmakers, the studio decided to release the film as planned.

Release dates for a number of other pictures, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Collateral Damage” and Disney’s “Big Trouble,” were delayed until this year because of terrorist themes.

In this instance, if Columbia shelved “Trapped,” it would have to shoulder interest costs on a $30-million production budget. Postponing the film would also prolong the return on its investment for German financing partner Senator Films, which has been under pressure as a result of the shaky German economy.

When Columbia originally scheduled the film for release, the public was not being pummeled by regular news stories about child abductions. Historically, the date proved to be the best time to release to an older female audience, according to one person involved in the film. A thriller such as “Trapped” usually pulls in an older female audience, and according to tracking numbers “Trapped” is, indeed, skewing toward that demographic.

“Trapped” is now facing competition this weekend from two other films angling for its key female demographic: “The Banger Sisters,” starring Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon, and “The Four Feathers,” with Heath Ledger and Kate Hudson.

“If Columbia moved the date on ‘Trapped,’ they would have had to deal with the press on why they moved the date,” said one marketing head at a competing studio. “They obviously don’t want to do that.”

This is not the first time that real-life events have intruded on the marketing of Hollywood films. After the beating of Rodney G. King in 1991, Universal Pictures postponed the release of its film “Looters” and changed its title, while the producers of the 20th Century Fox release “Unlawful Entry” reedited a scene in which a white police officer beat a black burglar with a baton.

The controversy surrounding director Adrian Lyne’s big-screen adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” in 1997 worsened when the film’s debut overseas coincided with pedophilia scandals in France and Belgium.

“To begin with, there was no disguising the subject matter,” said Joel Michaels, one of the producers on the film. “Lolita” is about an older man’s sexual obsession with an adolescent girl. In addition to the cases in Europe, recalled Michaels, “It was also not so long after the JonBenet Ramsey case. It was not good for the movie. We suffered the consequences. It added to the difficulty in getting the film released in North America.”

Because of the sensitivity of the subject matter and in an environment still rife with news reports on the Ramsey case, it was hard to land a U.S. distributor.

Then came the Columbine high school shootings in 1999. Immediately after the tragedy, politicians began blaming Hollywood studios and record companies for marketing violent movies and music to America’s youth; other high school shootings in the months that followed kept the issue high in the public consciousness.

One of the films affected by Columbine was Dimension Films’ “Killing Mrs. Tingle,” a yarn about three high school students who decide to kill their teacher.

Miramax Films’ Dimension reacted swiftly and changed the title to “Teaching Mrs. Tingle.”

Whether audiences will embrace “Trapped” remains to be seen. Pre-opening tracking numbers from research screenings are low. “Columbia has a big problem,” said one former marketing president. “They know this is a losing situation. By minimizing the buys and obscuring their message and then on top of it keeping the media away from it, they are hoping to bypass any negative reviews and slip the film in before anyone knows what hit them.

“Sony has had such a big year, they don’t need the controversy. They don’t need the money so they cut their losses. Regardless of whether the picture is just a dog ... in the end, they’ll win because at least they’ll have the perception of looking socially responsible.”