'Hounddog' Gets New Release Date & Weird Marketing Campaign
Filed under: Drama, Celebrities and Controversy, Distribution, Newsstand
It's been so long since we discussed Hounddog that it seemed like the film had already come and gone without a whisper. Not quite. The infamous Dakota Fanning movie that caused many waves for a controversial rape scene was planning to hit theaters on July 15. Now a new press release says the film will hit theaters starting September 5, where they are hoping to get the surprisingly high gross of $15 million before hitting shelves on DVD on January 20, 2009. But that's not all. The company says that along with cross-promotion with other titles, it will "be supported with national television and radio ads, a consumer sweepstakes, and in-store merchandising." Defamer has mused about a whole Simpsons/7-11 approach with "Hounddog Sex Shacks," but the snark is not that big of a jump.
Whether warranted or not, the film has ruffled the feathers of many people, and it seems surprising that sweepstakes and in-store merchandising are being thrown into the mix. Hell, push aside the unrest and just think about the initial response. When Kim reviewed it from Sundance way back when, she said: "Hounddog is also one of the least likeable films I've seen here at Sundance -- and not, as you might expect, merely because it has a scene of the young actress being violently raped."
How far will they take it? We'll have to wait and see.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-18-2008 @ 5:49PM
Chad said...
If this film makes more than $1.5 million, I'll eat my hat.
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6-23-2008 @ 11:23AM
walley said...
the movie will make alot of money. not because it is good but because it is so contreversial. everyone is talking about it so everyone is going to want to see it.
6-23-2008 @ 2:01PM
Steven Mark Pilling said...
Dear Monika:
Actually, the film was originally announced for a July 18th premiere in "selected theaters" under the auspices of National Amusements, Inc. This new release date in September and the announced publicity campaign is both puzzling and troubling. According to Eric Parkinson (Empire Film Group's distribution chief) most of the "questionable" scenes have either been deleted or suppressed. Even if so, that leaves the question of what could be left in, given the known extent of the original content. The entire story line, despite what principals (old and new alike) say, was that of child sex and degeneracy... not music!
That's not going to go away. Nor is the original screenplay (made public long ago), the statements of witnesses from the set, or those of the reviewers and public who saw the film prior to and during Sundance 2007. No matter how much they've managed to cosmetically alter this latest version of "Hounddog", the perversity with and degradation of children that went into its making is still a grim and important issue.
The important thing right now is to ascertain just what their true marketing strategy is and what they actually hope to accomplish. By moving its release date out of the summer months, they've obviously abandoned the kid market, so they've apparently come to realize that Dakota Fanning's name is no longer any serious draw among them. They're also moving deeper into the election season. For cover?
EFG has vast resources. They can afford to risk a bomb. But why? "Hounddog" has been an unremitting disaster since it started shooting! Why are they bothering with this in the first place? There's a deeper story here.
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