"Red-Band" Trailers Go Public
Filed under: Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Paramount, Angelina Jolie, NSFW, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Miramax, Paramount Vantage, Trailers and Clips
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Do age-verified, online-only "red-band" trailers make your mouth water? In today's Los Angeles Times, Robert W. Welkos says that more uncensored trailers are making their way to the Internet because theater owners are reluctant to show them. Studios are reportedly using the trailers "as a marketing tool to reach older audiences not as likely to be offended by super-violence, sex or use of the "F" word. In the process, the more provocative trailers allow them to telegraph to moviegoers the edgier content of their films."The article highlights "red-band" trailers for the upcoming films Beowulf and No Country for Old Men, in which sex (in the former) and violence (in the latter) are used for marketing purposes. Paramount Pictures first showed 20 minutes of footage from Beowulf at Comic-Con, as our own Kevin Kelly reported from the scene, and an international version of the trailer, featuring Angelina Jolie naked, quickly hit the web; the official "red-band" trailer for the US soon followed. More recently, the sexy advertising has hit billboards and bus stops.
The Times article comments: "To be sure, Angelina Jolie is not going to be nude in the [PG-13] movie, but the restricted trailer allows the studio to highlight the sexiness of her character in ways it couldn't in a green-band trailer." Can we be more direct and say "bait and switch"? And what happened to the days when brief nudity was permitted in PG-13 movies?
At least the sensational No Country for Old Men trailer, available at the film's official site, doesn't promise anything the movie itself can't deliver. The "red-band" version starts with a shot to the head (not as bloody or explicit as the one on the highway in Fargo) and includes a lot more gun shots, body blows and blood-splattered clothing than the family-friendly version that's now showing in theaters. Both Beowulf and No Country for Old Men open in theaters next month.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-26-2007 @ 2:19PM
madgamer said...
I still don't totally understand how you get a red band out of a non R rated movie, but whatever. I liked the redband Beowulf trailer, as well as the Resident Evil:extinction one, so I say go for it studios. If your target market is older, then show a trailer that appeals to them rather than some chopped down PG version that may not represent the movie accurately.
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10-27-2007 @ 9:45AM
DosFreak said...
For those of us that like our privacy I can confirm that the name,age,birth,zipcode of a certain president of a certain country can be used as information for viewing the Red Band trailers. :)
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