Timur Bekmambetov Punks the World With Viral Video
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Universal, Celebrities and Controversy, Angelina Jolie, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Trailers and Clips
For a few weeks now, a grainy video has been circling the Internet of an office worker going absolutely insane. It originated on Break.com, and I've included it after the jump for your critical enjoyment.
Those fearing that their cubicle neighbor might engage in similar hysterics can breathe easy -- it was all a sly bit of viral marketing from Timur Bekmambetov for Wanted. He revealed the stunt over on his personal blog, where he allegedly had a good laugh at the gullibility of the West. I'm not seeing any geographic mockery here, so quite possibly he took that down.
I'm awful at translating anything, but the only entry I see is just a convoluted explanation as to how the theme of the film is about escaping your everyday life. A better explanation may have been that it evokes the bloody office scenes from the film (as seen in the Russian trailer), but obviously, that kind of simplistic thinking is why I am not a director!
I find it all kind of funny -- mostly because I don't really get the point of viral marketing so unrelated to your film that you have to explain it on your personal blog. However, the scary part of the video was its believability. If Bekmambetov really thinks Western media believed it because we were gullible, he should work for a day at my old office job. Good lord.
Wanted opens June 27th. Don't get so excited by the film that you throw a computer monitor at someone!
[via IESB.net]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
6-10-2008 @ 4:16PM
xvertigenx said...
Upon first viewing, yes, quite believable. While not knowing if it is entirely directed towards the entire western world, but I don't see how anyone else in the world would not be fooled as well (unless the people in the video were saying "this is all a joke" in whatever language they were speaking).
But many people have debunked it since it has been released. Basically, anyone who cared enough to really watch it again, found out it was fake.
Now let's see what he pulls for his next trick. Hopefully it's not Wanted ;)
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6-11-2008 @ 10:05AM
Mike said...
"Punking the west?" That's funny, because I heard lots of people here suspicious that it was a viral video, but it was *Russian* media outlets that picked up the story and played if off as real...
http://www.russiatoday.ru/business/news/25706
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ntv.ru%2F133544&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=ru&tl=en
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6-11-2008 @ 11:50AM
brandon said...
I just hope your beard isnt fake.
-an aspiring beard grower
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6-11-2008 @ 2:45PM
jaked said...
I actually heard that his confession is a fake and that the video is some sort of commercial. at least that's what this link says: http://thebizcazblues.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/biz-caz-reduces-violence/
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6-11-2008 @ 5:43PM
andy said...
Timur,
Next time, use monitors that weigh more than three pounds each.
Thanks,
The Interwebs
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6-11-2008 @ 5:55PM
portableteejay said...
The thing is now, if you haven't heard of the movie but have seen the clip, you are now curious about the movie. Bloggers and sites like this are now spreading the word and advertising the movie with no additional funding from the makers. Maybe the reveal on his website was all a part of it.
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6-11-2008 @ 5:54PM
John thomas said...
Fascinating. Pretty cool movie.
JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
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6-12-2008 @ 7:56AM
website design said...
Now I know why when I watched the video I thought "Wanted! In Cinemas June 27th!!"
So a billion people see the original video and two hundred thousand hear it's a fake and two thousand go to see the stupid movie. Well, for all the effort he put into it, at least it gave me two minutes and fifty one seconds of entertainment. Let's see how his movie averages.
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6-14-2008 @ 2:37AM
Matilda said...
Your translation indeed sucks. Please get someone to translate for you before making comments.
Bekmambetov says he didn't do it to expose the gullibility of the audience, but rather the success of the clip shows that they recognize in the rage of the worker a basic truth about themselves -- their broken dreams and their quest for freedom. He says "how to escape office slavery is the main theme of the film "Wanted". The clip is an attempt to extend that theme into real life."
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6-11-2008 @ 10:30PM
Elisabeth Rappe said...
Since I didn't give a word for word translation, I don't see how my translation skills come into question here. In fact, what you posted was precisely what I gleaned from his blog.
What I said was that from what I could read, Bekmambetov was *not* crowing at "Western gullibility" which is what IESB.net was claiming. And I wondered if he had changed the initial post, as it did begin with "update" implying that he had. I left it open ended because I expected someone to come in and say "No, he totally did, but he changed the post" or that he said it elsewhere, etc. It was IESB who took that as the initial meaning, not me.
As I was right in what I read, I don't see the need for such criticism or rudeness, do you?
6-13-2008 @ 1:15PM
James Andrews said...
Most people knew that this video was fake when it first came out. I thought it was pretty obvious myself. When I first started watching it, I thought to myself: Hmm.. all of the monitors are turned on but there are 3 monitors inconspicuously turned off, I wonder if he's going to pick up those and throw them? Lo and behold, he went directly for those 3. The monitors weren't even plugged in either. Besides the also very unusual behaviours of the "office staff" given a workplace violence scenario, that was the primary give-away. I can understand that some people might think it was real, but most knew it has a hoax.. gullible indeed. (That new alien video is a fake one too.)
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6-11-2008 @ 9:25PM
Scott said...
By the way, as someone who's read the comic, I can tell you it's COMPLETELY related to the movie Wanted. Look it up on wikipedia.
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6-11-2008 @ 10:35PM
Tom said...
What do you mean "after the jump"?
What jump?
WTF?
//stop being pretentious, it annoys us
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6-11-2008 @ 10:39PM
Elisabeth Rappe said...
"After the jump" is pretentious? Where was I pretentious?
And that post was written before the site was redesigned. We used to have to include videos in a "continued" section because otherwise, we would have a lot of clutter. The new design eliminates that, which will make it a lot easier to embed, thank goodness.
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6-12-2008 @ 4:09AM
Justin said...
What is not to understand about the viral marketing technique? You did a story publicizing it and therefore probably made a larger impact than if he just followed traditional (if there is such a thing) viral marketing techniques.
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6-12-2008 @ 10:34PM
Chris said...
I don't know anyone with half a brain that was fooled by this. Two dead giveaways - 1 - the action takes place right in the middle of the frame to start. 2 - the computer monitors weren't plugged into anything. We've all connected those monitors before - it's not like it would yank right out of the CPU tower... and even if it did, it would ALSO have to be connected to the power outlet.
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6-12-2008 @ 5:13PM
Jim Treacher said...
In Russia, viral video creates YOU!
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6-12-2008 @ 11:37PM
Geminate said...
Yeah, I thought it was real when it was released. What was shocking was the control that the man had...in America when we snap we kill people and blood gets everywhere. This is why I suspected that it was from some other country, that and given the fact that no English was being spoken.
You will know when it is real and from America, when it gets all stabby and gunny and bloody!!!
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6-13-2008 @ 12:27AM
Rich said...
CRT monitor data cords are hard wired into the back of monitors.
These monitors didn't have any....unless they're magically wireless. No "Punk" here. Pay attention to details next time.
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6-13-2008 @ 12:42AM
Bob said...
Check out the scored version from the Los Angeles punk band CUBICLE! AMAZING!
http://my.break.com/content/view.aspx?ContentID=518373
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