Folks, Harry here... I just read an article in THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER in which they discuss how Warner Brothers is getting "proactive" in their web promotion of next year's SCOOBY DOO. Specifically they talk about the web junket down to Australia for SCOOBY DOO from a few months back.
Reading this piece, I can't help but point out that the bad buzz on Scooby Doo came from a very legitimate place. Their script blew. Beginning with the James Gunn draft and continuing through to their final shooting script... the story, characters and dialogue -- all terrible.
Now, when all those websites went down there, I wasn't jealous, I had to go to Cannes to cover LORD OF THE RINGS at nearly the same time. And having read both scripts, I knew which project to check out. However, in this article the vp of Interactive marketing at Warner Brothers said something interesting:
"I can't monitor every chat room, but if it threatens to make the leap to sites which have a feeling of legitimacy, we have to show them what we've got."
Exactly. If they feel they have a great project then they really have nothing to hide. Nothing at all to hide. They can just let it all hang out, because well obviously this is a perfect ship-shape project. They showed them sets, which were quite pretty. After all, beautiful sets always make for great films. Always. Never fails that high production design doesn't go hand in hand with greatness. The article then has many comments from various websites about how nice the sets look.
However, of greatest interest is the fact that apparently footage was screened to the group of web guys. Garth at Dark Horizons allegedly commented at the San Diego ComicCon on a panel that the footage was "disappointing," yet when the reporter pressed further he couldn't comment on the footage and said, "I can't go on the record about that, I'm afraid. That was for the crowd there only -- and I overemphasized under the pressure."
OK, so... so far we know the shooting script sucked, the sets looked cool, apparently the footage was disappointing, and none of the web guys can talk about the footage 'on the record'.
Well, this seems to indicate some sort of 'silence' amongst those that went to the set. To talk about only the positive aspects of a set visit, if you did see negative things... well, you kind of have to report on both, don't you? UNLESS for some legal reason you are not allowed to. And if you are not allowed to talk about what you saw, and yet intimate to others that what you saw was 'disappointing' but don't share that with your audience... Well, it just looks bad.
However, Don Buckley ends the article absolutely correctly:
"You wouldn't buy a car without test-driving it first, and we think that in order for these people to really judge the project, they have to experience the thing. The truth will set you free."
Well Don... Release on to the web the footage that you showed the exclusive group that won't talk about what they saw. After all, "The Truth Will Set You Free."
To read the entire article CLICK HERE!!!
