Posted on 08/03/2009 7:20:57 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
LOS ANGELES--The director of the new movie "G.I. Joe: the Rise of Cobra" thinks President Obama is "a Real American hero," but apparently wants Republicans to stay home.....
When it comes to selling "G.I. Joe" outside the U.S., the message is "this is not a George Bush movie -- it's an Obama world," director Stephen Sommers said. "Right from the writing stage we said to ourselves, this can't be about beefy guys on steroids who all met each other in the Vietnam War, but an elite organization that's made up of the best of the best from around the world."
Sommers, the director of such genre films as "the Mummy Returns" and "Van Helsing," is hoping that the film will appeal to international markets, where action films "often earn 60% or more of their ticket sales [but] rah-rah American sentiment doesn't play well,"....
As a result, overseas advertising is playing up scenes from other countries and downplaying anything that could be seen as American patriotism.
(Excerpt) Read more at federalreview.com ...
Bookmark to score most excellent graphic.
BTTT
I thank this director for helping me save 9 bucks.
Who does he thinks watches these movies? Limousine Liberals?
ROFL
How would you market the movie in foreign markets? Would you tailor it to highlight the things that would be appealing in that market? Or would you put the same thing out in all places?
The facts are that it in the US it is being heavily marketed in what would be thought of as conservative places as well (on the CMAs, at Lynyrd Skynyrd concerts,heavy marketing in middle America, and on military bases). The marketing director for Paramount said, “Our starting point for this movie is not Hollywood and Manhattan but rather mid-America. There are a group of people we think are going to respond to the movie who are normally not the first priority. But we’re making them a priority.”
Seems pretty friendly to conservatives to me. Now overseas there isn’t that same group of people and certainly a much lower pro-America sentiment. The marketing is obviously and with good reason different. Trying to be all things will often lead to failure, but we don’t know if that is the case with this movie yet. It probably won’t be waving the American flag all day long, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be an entertaining movie.
I didn't in any way imply, hint, intimate, insinuate, suggest, affirm, announce, assert, claim, conject, convey, declare, guess, maintain, mention, opine, pronounce, remark or say that seeing this film would be some sort of disaster for me, much less that it would "ruin" me or anyone else in any way.
It's this simple: If I see this film I'm betting admission + a snack + a soda that it will entertain me. Sommers' comments make that look like a sucker bet to me. I'm passing on it for the same basic reason that I didn' go to see Hostel or Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. It's a decision about a few bucks, not Armageddon or a personal affront to your delicvate sensibilities.
I didn't in any way imply, hint, intimate, insinuate, suggest, affirm, announce, assert, claim, conject, convey, declare, guess, maintain, mention, opine, pronounce, remark or say that seeing this film would be some sort of disaster for me, much less that it would "ruin" me or anyone else in any way.
It's this simple: If I see this film I'm betting admission + a snack + a soda that it will entertain me. Sommers' comments make that look like a sucker bet to me. I'm passing on it for the same basic reason that I didn' go to see Hostel or Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. It's a decision about a few bucks, not Armageddon or a personal affront to your delicate sensibilities.
Gendarme Internationale Justaucorps Ordinaire Enfas-perdus
Sorta like
Batallion Étranger de Choc de Marche. Only my French is pretty bad.
Drama? Have you read your own posts? Judging by what you write, someone would think you were the president of the local thespian society. I write maybe a line or two, and you go off on paragraphs.
Now , now. The limited demographic of the movie-going public to which this director has evidently chosen to appeal for GI Joe has to have something more current besides that ancient Village People movie to indulge their uniform fetish with, don't they? Why should heterosexuals have all the fun? ;-)
I don’t speak french. ;)
I have actually sat through "Can't Stop the Music" at a Midnight showing several years ago. Has all the appeal of a car crash on the interstate, and was directed by the Bounty Paper Towel lady to boot:
OK, I see where you’re going. My bad.
As for marketing it outside the country, I wouldn’t make a movie about an American icon in the first place if I was going to have to de-Americanize him. I’ll admit that if I did make the movie I’d be walking a difficult tightrope to make a film that wouldn’t bomb outside the U.S., but I wouyld seek the middle ground, rather than pandering to one group and insulting the other. I guess what I’m saying is that their marketing is smart but Sommers shot off his mouth in a way he shouldn’t have.
OK, I see where you’re going. My bad.
As for marketing it outside the country, I wouldn’t make a movie about an American icon in the first place if I was going to have to de-Americanize him. I’ll admit that if I did make the movie I’d be walking a difficult tightrope to make a film that wouldn’t bomb outside the U.S., but I wouyld seek the middle ground, rather than pandering to one group and insulting the other. I guess what I’m saying is that their marketing is smart but Sommers shot off his mouth in a way he shouldn’t have.
How’s this for short:
Drama is not verbosity. Buy a dictionary.
You know those photonovels they used to sell? They’d take stills from movies and tell the story comic-book style with the stills and voice balloons? Back in the early Nineties I found the photonovel of “Can’t Stop the Music” in a used book store. I backed away, slowly...
OMG! Lord only knows where that photonovel has been!
Bravo, well done. Now I’m now inclined to go see the movie, just to see how closely it fits your narrative.
Was going to take my family.
Not now.
Too bad, Sommers.
You keep doggedly trying to take the discussion “off point” and divert and focus it solely on the issue of how they’re trying to “position” it for marketing purposes, when the real issue of interest to most of us here is the actual “concept” and “content” of the movie.
The “facts” and the real issue are that Sommers is a devoted supporter of Obama and his agenda (which, prima facie, makes him a mortal enemy of conservatives, the Constitution, and the rights and freedom of the American people) and that he and his creative staff chose to deliberately eviscerate and deconstruct an American cultural entertainment icon and the fundamental principles upon which that character was based, and to “re-image” that cultural icon in a manner which betrays everything which the original, true G.I. Joe stood for.
The assertion of the Paramount marketing director, which you keep repeating, that they’re trying to market it to conservatives and “mid-America”, that they’re “making them a priority” is a lie, and is contradicted by two facts: (1) the vast majority of their promotional effort is directed towards the international market, with a distinct anti-American slant, and (2) the concept, content and message of the film is a direct insult and repudiation of the values of that conservative mid-America they claim they’re trying to reach.
You might be well-served to take a break from your law school indoctrination and study the works and history of Antonio Gramsci and his template for cultural infiltration and revolution. People like Sommers, with help from people like you, are certainly doing their part to facilitate Gramsci’s “Long March”.
I don’t care about Sommers’ marketing strategy, and I don’t care about whether ignorant people are entertained. What is important is to not financially subsidize our own destruction by contributing to the success of people and efforts like these. There are plenty of other types of entertainment to choose from, so I’ll choose according to my principles, and you can choose according to yours.
However, as my fellow Texans would say, you really need to stop trying to p**s on our backs and tell us it’s raining...
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