For those of you that don't know who Chris Pula is... well, let me give you a brief history lesson. About a year ago, Chris was the VP of Theatrical Marketing at Warner Brothers. He was highly critical of this website, but when I met him at the Starship Troopers World Premiere he claimed to love what I did. Since that time I've met a lot of people that all claim to have horror stories regarding Mr Pula. I don't know about that, myself... well I've met a lot more people that have had wonderful things to say about him. It just seems the negatives always scream the loudest. Disney does have quite a few cool projects in the pipeline like tomorrow's ENEMY OF THE STATE, A BUG'S LIFE, INSPECTOR GADGET, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, TARZAN and more. I've seen all of them except Gadget, and can honestly say I truly enjoy them all. As a result, I can only hope that Chris does the best job he can for these films, because... if they don't work... it's not the film's fault. Welcome back Chris.
As usual, I must read all that read a statement from Mr Hallenbeck to beware of his... ahem... language use. He's a volatile angry man/woman/mineral and can be like that truck in WAGES OF FEAR... so steer clear of bumpy roads Yves!
Oh Joy! Oh Rapture! So far this has been one of the greatest weeks in the History of Mankind! On Tuesday night, we psychotic Star Wars fans got to wait hours in line to catch a glimpse of the teaser for Episode 1(I refuse to call it by that OTHER name). My reaction: Oh-my-holy-god-damn-un-fuckin'-crapa-believable!!! I can't believe it actually exceeded my expectations! To all you naysayers out there who are bitchin' about petty details may you get reamed up the ass by IG-88!
The other bit of amazing news that broke this week is the return of everybody's favorite Movie Marketing Boy Toy, CHRIS "I CAN'T EVEN OPEN UP A BATMAN MOVIE TO DECENT BOXOFFICE" PULA!!! Those Boys and Girls at the Mouse House don't know what they are getting themselves into. God, how I've missed this man. He's to AICN what Lee was to Grant. I know I speak for eveybody here at Ain't It Cool when I say "WELCOME BACK TO THE GAME, AMIGO!!!"
You know, it's funny. I knew something was terribly wrong at Disney as of late. Their marketing campaign to Mighty Joe Young went from pretty cool(as was the case with it's 2nd Trailer that appeared in theaters this summer) to absolute shitfest! They turned what looked like a kid friendly Jurassic Parkish romp into a vapid, "please love me because I'm a cute monkey" kiddie movie that makes anyone born prior to 1990 wanna wretch! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The new trailer, TV Spot ads and Poster are horrendous. I've seen this movie. I liked this movie. I was going to see it again. Now, I just want to start shooting everyone in the theater when this fuckin' trailer comes on. Believe me people, this movie isn't this hideous, cutesy-cute kid flick Disney's making it out to be. [It's a pretty cool film. Yes, it's Family friendly, but in a cool, old-fashioned adventure film sorta way (just don't expect Jurassic Park). It's a Mighty Cool update of the original classic. It has great F/X (Joe looks awesome) and a sexy Female lead.] The second Trailer was cute, but not disgustingly so. It was also exciting and pretty damn funny in parts. That 2nd Trailer captured the essense of the film. This new marketing approach is absolutely repulsive. If I were Ron Underwood I'd demand they not fuck over my movie by using a shitty marketing campaign like this new one.
Earlier this year, the buzz on Mighty Joe was pretty positive. Your core movie going crowd was pretty hip to catch this flick during Winter Break. Now, they look at this new campaign and they scream in horror(I've seen it happen!). You're losing your main audience by marketing the movie this way. Your original approach appealed to the masses. This new fangled approach only appeals to kids 10 and under. Don't fuck up a solid hit by using such a shitty marketing campaign.
It's amazing -- This whole marketing scheme just screams PULA!!! I've been bitchin' to everyone about MJY's new advertisement campaign for a few weeks now. I had no idea Pula was over at Disney. Now, I'm not surprised one bit. This campaign has his name written all over it. It's pure shit! You had a good thing going there and now you've completely flushed it down the toilet. Michael...Joe -- Ask Bob and Terry about Chris. Just look at the "brilliant" job he did over at WB while he reigned supreme. Granted, WB did have some really shitty flicks in '97, but that's not his responsibilty. He's a marketing guy. He's supposed to turn their shitty product into a must see event for opening weekend. For Christ sakes, the man couldn't even do a decent campaign for a Robin Williams/Billy Crystal/Ivan Reitman directed comedy...not to mention a John Travolta/Dustin Hoffman flick!!! Both of those movies should have at least opened to more than $10 million! That was his job and he failed miserably at it!!!
Okay, I know that's not fair. Father's Day was an absolutely wretched piece of shit and Mad City wasn't all that much better. They deserved to bomb, but they should have at least opened. Let's concentrate on a great film WB opened that year -- LA Confidential. A masterpiece in my book. A perfect film. Critical raves up the ass. Mr. Pula's idea of marketng this film was to ignore it. "So what if it's good? It's too smart for the average movie goer. Fuck it. It's sink or swim time." That was basically his attitude with this movie, as was also the case with 187. God forbid he should market an intelligent film. Is it me or did anyone else notice how dramatically the marketing campaign for this movie changed as soon as he was booted out? It had nothing to do with the accolades it collected. It had to do with the great TV spots and the awesome Print ads the new guys came up with. People were now aware of it's existence. They went out and saw the film. It doubled it's initial take. That's the job of the Marketing Dept...to let the people know how good the movie is.
You must be asking yourselves, "Why does Hallenbeck have such a hard-on for this poor guy?" It's quite simple -- the man does shoddy work. He gets paid big bucks to come up with terrible ad campaigns to films. His "let's wait 2 weeks before the movie actually comes out to start marketing it" approach is insane! You slowly let a movie grow on people, then you spring it on them weeks before it comes out. They must be aware of the film way in advance.
Another problem with his marketing method is that he takes the films much too personally. He's a marketing guy. Who gives a rat's ass what he thinks of a movie? It's not his job to critique a movie then base his marketing strategy on it by how the film makes him feel. Who cares if he loved it or hated it?! He's like a Defense Attorney representing a Murderer -- so what if your client is a homocidal maniac? It's your job to convince that Jury that he's just a wholesome boy next door. Your personal feelings should never effect your job. You're there to serve your client (the movie) and that's it. You should do everything in your power to come up with the greatest marketing campaign no matter how shitty or good the film happens to be. If you don't like it...FINE. Just don't let it effect your sole purpose...to make the flick look so good that everyone has to see it on opening weekend. After that, you can rest easy because no marketing campaign can measure up to the power of word of mouth.
Mr. Eisner, Mr. Roth, and all you other mouse ear wearing honchos over there at Mickey's crib, consider this a warning. I gave Bob, Terry, and those other boys and girls over at Warner Bros a big fat "I TOLD YOU SO" lecture when they finally realized how incompetent and rude this Chris Pula is. He's not a team player, nor is a whiz at marketing movies. If you start to see the slightest slip up in your movies' performances ditch the dude asap! He'll bring down Mickey like he did WB. They were Numero Uno for many years until he came along. They're still recovering. Don't let it happen to you. This is a rare act of kindness on my part...very rare considering YOU ARE Disney...The Devil's Concubine. I've asked the Magic 8 Ball what lies ahead in Disney's future -- Gadget's a no-go. Tarzan, while good, is destroyed by a terrible marketing campaign and the Tone Deaf Rosie, and The 13th Warrior is mutilated at the BO.
The Magic 8 Ball never lies.
T.T.F.N.,
Joe Hallenbeck
hallenbeck69@hotmail.com
ROBOGEEK SAYS "I agree with every word, comma, period and phrase of the above Hallenbeck statement. I couldn't say it better myself!"
