Andrew O'Hagan: Child Abuse, by Children •JUNE 1993

$2.95

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THE NEW AUTEURSHow Hollywood Publicists and Ad Execs Get a Turkey to Fly

Mark Gill, Jeffrey Godsick, Bob Israel, Joe Nimziki

ALIGHTING UPON THE DAURIAN STEPPEA Mongolian Journey in Search of the White ..Naped Crane

By Peter Matthiessen

THE DEATH AND LIFE OF A GAY NAVAL OFFICERA memoir by Andre Dubus

AREN'T YOU HAPPY FOR ME?A story by Richard Bausch

Also: Peter Schneider, Susanna Kaysen,06 and Lewis H. Lapham on Saddam's second act

g, 309955, 1---------. -----------

FOR U M

THENE'VAUTEURS

Gloom and despair havesettled over Hollywood. A "highly placed studio ex-ecutive" recently told the New York Times that the in-dustry's mood is one of "self-loathing"; the films beingproduced, the mogul said, were "a lot of formulaic,by-the-numbers, cliche-ridden, high-concept garbage."Still, from Westwood to Studio City, the creative firesdo burn on-though not on soundstages or in storyconferences. In 1993, Hollywood's true auteurs are itsmarketers, the men and women charged with luring anincreasingly skeptical public into the theaters. The sortof genius that once was displayed in a deft trackingshot or a well-executed plot twist can now be detect-ed in the subtlety of a product tie-in or the grace of aphone call to the producers of Entertainment Tonight.

To showcase the increasingly challenging job of theHollywood marketer, Harper's Magazine green-lightedsome high-concept garbage of our own-Save the Earth,a megabudget, environmentally correct rain-forest lovestory. We pitched our movie to four young Hollywoodexecutives and invited them to do the impossible: totransform Save the Earth into next summer's runaway hit.

FORUM 33

The following forum is based on a discussion held in March at Maple Drive, a restaurant in Beverly Hills.Paul Tough served as moderator.

THE MARKETING TEAM

PAUL TOUGHis a senior editar of Harper's Magazine.

MARK GILLis the senior vice president of publicity 'and promotion for Columbia Pictures.

JEFFREY GODSICKis the executive vice president of entertainment at Rogers & Cowan, the largest publicity agency in Hollywood.

BOB ISRAELis the CEO and cofounder of Aspect Ratio, a Holtywood advertising agency.

JOE NIMZIKIis the executive vice president of Cimarron Bacon 0'Brien, a Holtywood advertising agency.

THE POSITIONING

PAUL TOUGH: Welcome to the first meeting of theteam responsible for marketing Save the Earth.You've all read the coverage [see page 35), soyou know the story we're working with. Our twolead roles have been cast: Julia Roberts will playDaphne, the devoted young anthropologist whostumbles onto evidence of an ecological catas-trophe while studying the Yanomamo Indiansin the Brazilian rain forest. Jake-the environ-mental biologist who falls in love with her-isplayed by Steven Seagal. This will be his first filmoutside the action/adventure genre, and he seesit as an opportunity to be taken seriously by awide audience. Our director, who is down inBrazil right now scouting locations, has cast aYanomamochieftain in the role ofKumchika, themedicine man who saves the planet's ecosystem.His dialogue will be subtitled.

As you know, our studio head is passionatelycommitted to this movie and has personally ap-proved its $47 million budget. He's been quotedin the trades as saying, "This is more than just amovie for me; this is what I got into this crazybusiness to do-something meaningful, for my-self and for the planet." Save the Earth will be re-leased in the summer of 1994. Now, before weeven start shooting, what sort of marketing de-cisions do we have to make?

JEFFREY GODSICK: The first thing we need to decideis how we're going to position this movie to thejournalists who are going to write about it earlyon. Forget direct contact with the consumer atthis point-that's twelve months away. Rightnow it's the press that's going to transmit ourmessage to the consumer. We've got to makesure that they send the message we want, or ourmovie will be positioned wrong.

MARK GILL: It's a matter of getting the interpretation

34 HARPERS MAGAZINE I JUNE 1993

we want. Disney could have sold Dead Poets So-ciety as a suicide movie instead of an uplifting sto-ry about a really inspiring teacher. But, wisely,they took care to position it as the latter.

BOB ISRAEL: In this case, I don't think we want topush the ecological angle.

GILL: I agree. I think we want to push the adventure.ISRAEL: I was actually thinking we might want to

push the romance. In any case, what we want toavoid is the actual story.

TOUGH: How would you position the movie, in acouple of sentences?

ISRAEL: In a nutshell, it's an epic romantic adven-ture.

GILL: About?ISRAEL: I don't want to do "about." I want to run from

the story. I want to run from the whole envi-ronmental theme. I think it's box-office poison.My main job here is going to be to cut togethera trailer, the preview of our movie that will playin theaters. The trailer I'd like to make doesn'ttell the story at all. It probably doesn't even haveany dialogue. It's just music and quick cuts.

GILL: To find our position, I'd look at the great ad-ventures like The Hunt for Red October. In thatsituation we had a handy nemesis-the SovietUnion. That's gone now. So what's the new evil?The threat to the ecosystem.

ISRAEL: It's starting to sound political.GILL: I'm not at all suggesting that we politicize it, but

one man fighting the big evil works extraordi-narily well.

GODSICK: And it can be political even though it's nota political movie. I mean, Hunt for Red Octoberhad political overtones. Even when you go backto the World War II adventures, it was one managainst a huge enemy.

ISRAEL: I just don't think people want to see a movieabout one guy defending the ecosystem.

JOE NIMZIKI: Usually I would be right on the band-

TOUGH: Let's talk about promotion-al tie-ins. Do we need to beginapproaching various companiesnow about licensing Save theEarth products?GILL: First we want to talk to the Jdirector and make sure this film is go-ing to be rated PG-13·

TOUGH: Well, there's some serious sex in

it.GILL: 1£you really want to make an R-rat-

ed movie, say good-bye to all yourcorporate promotion. Say good-byetoBurgerKing. Say good-bye to ChoiceHotels. Say good-bye to Coca-

Cola. They don't want to be in-volved with an R-rated movie.The end. No discussion.

TOUGH: What about the eighteen-yeat-old guy who wants to seeJulia Roberts, you know-

GILL: Let's look at it this way. Onlya third of the movies that havemade $100 million were R-rated.Do you want to make an eco-

nomic decision, or do you want to make a deci-sion based on an eighteen-year-old's hormones?

NIMZIKI: Actually, I think we can do both. We cando a PG-13 version of this rain-forest sex sceneand have it more than steamy and titillatingenough for your advertising.

wagon with Bob saying,"Let'sget awayfromthe movie,"andwe definitely want to shyaway from making it oneman trying to savethe world,which borderson the ridicu-lous, especially ifwe're try-ing to tell the story in a

two-minute trailer. But we need sometension and drama, or else we're goingto end up advertising this as a movieabout nothing. And "A Movie AboutNothing" isnot a very catchy tag line.

ISRAEL: You know, this is the kind ofmovie that politically aware, well-educated people are talking aboutwhen they say, "Why doesn't Hol-lywood make more meaningfulmovies?" Well, here's your answer.The intent is noble, but the execU-tion is inevitably banal. The sad re-ality is, every time Hollywood triesto make a politically correct movie,it bombs.

THEMERCHANDISING

Coverage for Saan .. ve the Earth,or1g1nal screenplay

PLOT:Act Oneb d sets up our c fl'a guys. The good on 1ct-three goodcomputers .guys are Jake, the h ~yS, plenty ofcorner; K~e. tel11ng him that an eco-d~:ky sC1~ntist whose

::'~:' P"':::'~,:::~::;:-;:':'::'O'""'::,::. ':::n::..:::bad guy:eous anthropologist who will s:m~ th1ng; and Daphne,

are the big b . r1ng them to tha toxic waste d .- uS1nes~ polluter types w ge er. Themakes its hom umpan the raa.n forest wh ho want to pute. Meanwhil r ere Kumchika'waves in Icel d e, the weather's' s tribean ; a cold snap in th g01ng nuts: heatA e Yucatan

ct Twobrings Jake into' .head during a sto the r aan forest. He'snursed back to li;:' b;e~cued by the native Indi:~: on ~heDaphne fall in 1 aphne. Needless to s ' anf ove; there' s ay, Jake andorest. At Daphne's urgin a steamy sex scene in the .

Western scientif' . g, Jake reluctantl . ra1ntells him that p~~p~~a:aand starts heeding iU:::~=a h1shnature in d ve to communict' t w 0d' or er to avert thi . a e d1rectly withecLde to leave the' s eco-d1saster. Ourthey'll take . ra1n forest and go to . three heroes

(On the way t~:;~~ smessage to the world Vi:m~~~ca, wherewith Kumchikai some great fish-out-of- news media.leave Brazil t: a luxury Rio hotel.) But ~:ter businesskidnap Kumch:k e polluters, eager to kee ore they can1 a. pour heroe s quiet,

Act Three starts with tthe beg' . he shoot-' emters: f~~~ng of a series of ever_w:~~e:~scue of Kumchikaandheroes go 0:' T~o:::does, mud slides. Tho~:~n:~O~~giCal disas-have to announce Kumchika' i.e . OUr threeasks nat:;:d t:o:ether and chant a trad~ti:::~r~Ption: people

international mo:;:g~So:r~m ourselves. conclusi~is whichand chant ogetherness an. . It works: earth ' as people join h dan1mals wreck f . quakes swallow to . an sact or i es r l' X1Cwaste dreversing glob 1 ' vo canac dust block umps;a warmin' h s out thand Jake retu g, t e eco-balance . e sun,rn to the rain forest t Li 1S restored. Daphneo ave withANALYSIS:Weak . the Indians.

prem1se, some .opportunities. With star act.aon, great special-effaspect might pull power, could be big' . ectsupscale crowd. ' envdronment.al

The first stop far every new screen-play-aside from the latest offer-ings from Joe Eszterhas, ShaneBlack, and a handful of other pow-er screenwriters-is the desk of astudio "reader." Readers, usuallyoffice assistants in their early t\lien-ties > read three or four screenplay sa week and write one-page sum-maries, known as "coverage," fartheir producer bosses. Only if thecoverage is positive will the pro-ducer read the script. The cover-age for Save the Earth waswritten by Evie Shapiro, a LosAngeles free-lance writer who haswarked as a reader far ParamountStudios and as a writer on TV'sLove Connection.

GILL: Once you've got a PG-13,the floodgates are open. Nowyou go after everything in theworld. You can go after cor-porations in a hundred differ-ent categories. They'll bedelighted to be onboard withthis movie, because it showsthat they're not the evil,meanoldpolluter industrialistnight-mare from hell.

NIMZIKI: 1can see it now: ExxonSave the Earth hats ...

GILL: Well, okay, maybe not ev-erybody.

GODSICK: But even though we'regoing to avoid the environ-ment in our advertising, that angle is a definiteplus when we're seeking corporate promotionaltie-ins. Companies are doing everything theycan to get out there and try to show they're en-

vitonmental.GILL: The premise is that this project grants

FORUM 35

Photographs: Top, Bill Gentile f Shooting Star; Middle, Elisa Cetmelli f Shot){ing Star; Botwn>, David V,\fice I Sh"t){ing Star

companies instant prestige.GODSICK: What we're offering is the chance to li-

cense something that is extremely credible. No-body's going to criticize a company for tying inwith a movie. It's a no-risk way of buying into theenvironment.

TOUGH: If we assume that every corporation inAmerica wants to get onboard, where do westart? Who's going to help us the most?

GILL: Well, we want to go after the big, brand-nameadvertisers, The reason is simple: we can piggy-back on their advertising. On a $47 million filmthe studio will probably spend $15 million on ad-vertising. A fast-food company might buy an-other $10 to $15 million of their own advertising,featuring clips from our movie, to promote thetie-in. That's a big help.

l\IMZIKI: We start off with a fast-food restaurant thatwill give out action figures or cups with scenesfrom the film. Not only is that wonderful pub-licity; it's a place where you might hint at themessage a little bit.

GILL: They would be recyclable cups, of course.GODSICK: We cross-promote this between a fast-food

restaurant and a beverage: Coca-Cola or Pepsi.You get your recyclable Save the Earth cup fromBurger King, but only when you order Pepsi. AndPepsi chips in another few million in advertising.

The Save the Earth pinballmachine. Created by the de-sign team of Dara Eas! Pin-ball, in Melrose Park, Illi-nois. Dara East has createdpinball machines based onStar ~ars, Lethal ~eapon3, and other films.

36 HARPER'S MAGAZINE I JUNE 1993

GILL: Let's go to the third step, which is that wewant to cross-tie this to MTY. We want a con-test in which the winners get to spend a daywith Julia or with Steven, and we want thatcross-promoted with Burger King. You enter thecontest in the restaurant.

GODSICK: Once you go to MTV, it's a perfect op-portunity to do a "We Are the World"-style en-vironmental song. We get some great music starsto write a song called "Savethe Earth," and we do a musicvideo around that, again ele-vating this thing as importantbut not being too preachy.

ISRAEL: Hold on, hold on. It willautomatically be too preachy.We've got to avoid the contentof the film. It's got to seem likebig star entertainment and noth-ing more. We have to go back toour original positioning, which isthat this is an epic romantic ad-venture. No "about."

GODSICK: I don't think it's preachyfor your favorite music peopleto sing a song about beinggood to the environment.That's almost hip these days.

ISRAEL: But if it's associated withthis film, then we've got a film about being goodto the environment.

TOUGH: Are there any other companies we shouldgo to now?

GODSICK: We might want to go to a clothing com-pany, like the Gap or Patagonia, that could takeus into malls. That way, we can hit our audiencereally hard through retail.

GILL: And the premise there is very clear. We're go-ing to be competing on the television screenwith the five other movies that are opening whenwe are. In a store where we've got a display, we'rethe only movie. You walk into that store andyou won't forget us.

GODSICK: The key is to get them to run our traileron video monitors in the store. That lets us ex-pose people to the trailer in a non-traditionallocation, outside the movie theater. It's muchmore effective.

GILL: The only way for us to reach our audience isto cut through the advertising dutter that sur-rounds them. And this is a clutter-free opportu-nity.

TOUGH: What about finding a public-interest groupof some sort to hook in with at this early stage?

GILL: Well, here's a sort of absurd idea. I think weneed to find a town that has not yet discoveredenvironmental responsibility and take it over.We help them convert everything in their livesto be ecologically sensitive. The corporationsthat sponsor this get to feel like good-hearted cit-

The Save the Earth recy-clablecup. Designed by IvanPavlovits, an artist and wydesigner in Los Angeles.

Ivan Pavlovits courtesy Famous Frames, Inc.

izens. The town will become the absolute epit-ome of American spirit and patriotism. It will beall over the front page of USA Today.

ISRAEL: How do you tie in the film?GODSICK: We form something called the Save the

Earth Coalition with five major sponsors-Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Gillette, whatever. The Savethe Earth Coalition isthe foundation that fundsthewhole thing. The movie title keepsgetringwrappedup into it. And, of course, for the big event in thetown we bring in the stars from the film.

GILL: And the question will alwaysbe, "Why are theydoing this I" And the answer will be, "Oh, becausethis wonderful movie is coming out."

GODSICK: It also mirrors the theme of the film, whichis that people are the solution to this problem. Thetown gets cleaned up, but only because peoplecommit to it.

GILL: And the best part of it, of course, is that theywill adopt a sister village in the rain forest.

NIMZIKI: And you can never predict what will hap-pen. We could have a serious ecological crisison our hands when we release. Three MileIslandblew two weeks after The China Syndrome was re-leased: that's a perfect example of how a crisiscanelevate a movie. All of a sudden this becomestimely and important. And who knows? Peoplemight embrace the environmental messagemorethan we expect. I would want to be in a positionto get the environmental stuffout after the movieopens; it'd make a great second week. First we tapour audience for the entertainment value; aftera couple of weeks, if there's any reception at allto this movie, we get our stars together for thecause.

ISRAEL: I like the idea, in theory. But ultimatelywhat it's going to come down to is this: twomonths before the movie opens, we're going tostart testing our trailers and posters with ran-domly selected shoppers in malls-i--and what Ithink they're going to tell us is that they don'tcare about the environmental aspects of thisfilm. And then it's a question of how much weplay up the adventure aspect.

GILL: A lot.ISRAEL: I mean, it'd be wonderful ifwe had a Raiders

of the Lost Ark. That'd be terrific positioningbecause Roberts and Seagal make sense in thatmovie. But if it's true that there isn't enough tosupport it as a Raiders-and God knows we'lldo everything we can to make it seem like itis-then we have to say, "Well, what's left?"How are we going to salvage what could be a dis-aster? What we'll do is test spots that are ro-mantic and hope that romantic with a secondaryaspect of action is enough. Maybe it becomesmore of a women's picture-but one with enoughaction that women can convince their dates togo too.

THE SOUNDTRACK

TOUGH: What about the soundtrack? Is that goingto be a big deal for this movie?

GODSICK: I think the soundtrack should be a bigdeal. It helps widen our audience. Whether youdo a "Save the Earth" song or not, I think thesoundtrack should be released well before thefilm is. And it might be nice to think about do-ing something special. What about having var-

JURASSIC SCHLOCK

This month, Universal Pictures will release JurassicPark, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring JeffGoldblum, Laura Dern, and several dozen dinosaurs.Noteworthy for its $60 million price tag, Jurassic Parkis also the centerpiece of one of the most wide-rangingmerchandising efforts in movie history. In addition tomultimillion-dollar tie-ins with McDonald's and ChoiceHotels, Universal and Spielberg have, in their words,"carefully selected" a "family of licensees," which willturn out more than a thousand trademarked productscarrying the Jurassic Park name. A sampling of thesecarefully selected items appears below.

Jurassic Park Gummie DinosaursJurassic Park Milton Bradley board gameJurassic Park 3-D Stand-Up PuzzleJurassic Park Magic RocksJurassic Park Flip Flex BookJurassic Park Light & Sound BackpackJurassic Park Whiz Too Lunch LockerJurassic Park BeltbagJurassic Park Play HouseThe Making of Jurassic Park, a book by Don Shay and

[ody DuncanJurassic Park Mug AssortmentJurassic Park BedspreadJurassic Park 3-D Viewmaster reelsJurassic Park Foam Soap with Molded Dinosaur TopperJurassic Park Magic SlateJurassic Park Golden Look-Look Story BookJurassic Park Topps trading cardsJurassic Park 3-D Pop-Out Easy PaintJurassic Park Giant Coloring BannerJurassic Park Tyrannosaurus rex plastic model kitJurassic Park Juju Dinosaur EggsJurassic Park MagnetsJurassic Park Trace & Color BookJurassic Park Overnight Travel BagJurassic Park game cartridge for Nintendo Game BoyJurassic Park water ride at Universal Studios FloridaJurassic Park Molded Dinosaur Bubble Bath DecanterJurassic Park Flavored Lip Balm with Dinosaur Topper

FORUM 37

ious artists write something about the Earth?GlLL: A theme album sounds like a theme park: ab-

solute death. I think you just want it to be anevent album to go with an event movie.

GODSICK: But I would have major stars. I'm talkingabout Springsteen doing a song. I'm talking aboutWhitney Houston doing a song.

NIMZIKl: This iswhere we take advantage of our en-vironmental angle. It's a very fine line for us towalk, but I think the fact that the messageof themovie is so politically correct is our means toget these big stars to do the album.

iSRAEL: It i$ a fine line: we get them in by talkingabout the environment, but we make sure thesongs they do are not overtly environmental.

TOUGH: How about a David Bvrne/Paul Simon-typesong incorporating the traditional music of theYanomamos?

GILL: That'll work for about 10 percent of our au-dience. We need a much bigger hit than that.

GODSICK: I'd rather see Springsteen. And I think wealso have to have acts that crossover. I'm not say-ing there's a big ethnic market for this movie, butlet's not pigeonhole it as white right away.

NIMZIKI: Even an urban dance or rap song with areal soft-coated message would be up our alley.And, actually,I wouldsaythrow in PaulSimon too.

GILL: But him alone?NIMZIKI: No, but it wouldn't hurt to have one song

by Paul Simon and a Brazilianband. We want thesoundtrack to be as diverse as we can get.

GODSICK: If it's done right, the soundtrack couldmake the film important, simply because of thequality of people involved.

ISRAEL: That sparks something for me. The posi-tioning for this movie may ultimately be that itis an important movie. That's something wehaven't considered.

GILL: Oh, God help us. Just shoot me now. Are youkidding me? A $50 million important movie? Howmany of those work each year? And how manyof them work in summer? Zero. None. Less thanzero. For our highbrow audience, yes, it's got tobe an important movie, but for everyone else,we've got to come back to what you said before,which wasmuch smarter: it's an epic romantic ad-venture. Period.

NIMZIKI: I think it's always better to let an audiencediscover a film that's important. You don't wantto tell them, "This is an important film." That'sthe kiss of death.

THE TEASER TRAILER

TOUGH: So far, we've been talking about decisionsthat aren't going to take effect for another year.How do we start to get our messageout to the au-dience directly?

NIMZIKI: With a movie this big, I think we're going

38 HARPER'S MAGAZINE !JUNE 1993

to want what's known as a teaser trailer, whichcomes out as much as six months before themovie's release. In our case, since we're doing asummer movie, we'll attach the teaser to our big'Christmas release to make sure everybody sees it.

ISRAEL: What a teaser trailer saysis,This movie's go-ing to be an event.

GILL: It also means that come next spring, whenthe Los Angeles Times Calendar section and En-tertainment Weekly are predicting what the five bigsummer movies are going to be, we're automat-ically on the list.

ISRAEL: We don't want to reveal too much in ourteaser; it's just a great piece of music and big im-ages. It's got sex. And it's got enough adventureto suggest something more.

NIMZIKI: We promise something amazing: "Here'sSteven Seagal as you've never seen him before.Julia Roberts is back." And we need a slight hintof what the story is-"in his greatest adventureyet" or "in a movie that affects us all"-a simpletag line that doesn't get preachy, doesn't get po-litical, doesn't even tell you the exact dilemmathey're in. And then there might very well beroom for a montage set to music-twenty secondsof stunning shots, the titillating romance, theaction, the beauty shots of our stars.

ISRAEL: I like Joe's trailer, but I wouldn't make it theteaser trailer. I'd make it the final trailer. Be-cause our story trailer-the one that we put outa month or two before the movie-has to developfrom the teaser. Unless we go to story, which Idon't want to do, I don't think there's any placeto go from Joe's trailer.

TOUGH: SOyou're saying no teaser at all?ISRAEL: I think not. I'm just terrified of getting in-

to the story, which is what we're going to beforced to do if this is our teaser.

NIMZIKI: But in the real world this is a $47 millionmovie and the president of the studio is sayingthis is the most important film he's ever made.There's going to be a teaser.

GILL: How about a concept teaser-no footage at all?We just set up the reported threat and we flashthe names of the stars. Promise the thrill, promisethe adventure, show the names, get out.

NIMZIKI: I think you've got to have some urgency toit. Perhaps you have the sound of ticking to givethe message: Time's running out. Or maybe youstart on an image you can't quite make out andyou slowly pull back to reveal that it's the Earth.

ISRAEL: But that's going away from the position thatwe agreedon. That goesback to the environment.

NlMZIKI: You don't have to lean on it. You don'twant to tell the whole story. Youstill want to doyour bigmontage wrap-up.But time asa metaphoris critical, especially ifwe're concealing the plot.There has to be some sense of urgency or conflict,and we can get that by quick-cutting images, bysaying, "TIme is running out," and maybe by lay-

STEVEN

Two PeopleIn A RaceAgainst Time.

If They Lose,We All Do.

ing driving music underneath. The film mightnot deliver any conflict and action, but our trail-er is going to suggest lots of both.

ISRAEL: But to me, the ticking clock is off the posi-tion. People will stay away in droves if they thinkthis movie has a social message. Everything wedo has to convince them that it doesn't.

THE FEATURE STORIES

TOUGH: At this early stage, while we're still filming,what are we doing in terms of publicity?

GILL: We invite selected press to the set: major out-lets like the New York Times, the Los AngelesTimes, Premiere magazine, and EntertainmentWeekly. We're going to let about half of themwrite about the movie right away,to create an ear-ly buzz.The other half will bank their stories, torun when we release the film. And in bothcases, these reporters are pretty much going totake our spoon-feeding. But if we don't create anice loving spoonful for them that accuratelyreflects our movie, we're in trouble.

GODSICK: The only other outlet I would add is amorning TV show, like Good Morning America.The press follow the morning shows, so that willhelp us set their agenda early.

TOUGH: Do you have to do a selling job at this pointon the editors and producers?

GODSICK: It's not hard to get someone to see JuliaRoberts and Steven Seagal on the set. The riskis in mis-selling the movie. If we call up the ed-itor of Premiere and say, "Yeah, we've got thisthing about saving the Earth," we're in trouble.

TOUGH: But isn't this exactly when we want to usethe environmental angle? Are these editors re-ally going to want to do big feature stories with-out a hook like that?

GILL: Come on. The reality is that these are twostars everybody wants to see. Ask the immortalquestion posed by Dawn Steel, who used to runColumbia: "Are they fuckable?" And these two

JULIA ROBERTS

G SOON

absolutely are. These aretwo hot, hot stars.

TOUGH: What about themore personality-drivenmagazines,like Vanity Fairor Esquire?

GILL: If you've got a star who wants to be profiled,you're fine. But he or she isgoing to have to reveala lot. Our starsmight have had problems that theydon't want to share with the readers of Esquire.

NIMZIKI: And I'd be wary of letting Steven Seagalloose with the press.This is a stretch for him, andhe's trying to prove to America that he's a seri-ous actor. He's going to harp on that point in hisinterview, whether the studio wants him to ornot. I've seen stars in this position before. Theygo on the big talk shows and say, "This isn't anaction movie; it's got an important message. It'sintelligent and serious, like me." And bingo,we're off position.

GILL: Don't worry. We'll make sure that he's welltrained about what to sayand what not to say.It'slike coaching a political candidate: we convincehim to stick to the message.

The Save the Earth billboard. De-signed by Dazu, a motion-pictureadvertising agency in Studio City,California. Dazu has created printadvertising for The Silence of theLambs and Basic Instinct.

THE ROUGH CUT

TOUGH: It's now January 1994. We're in a screeningroom at the studio, and we're about to see arough cut of the movie. It's an early version: ithasn't even been test-marketed yet. The direc-tor's here; Julia and Steven are here. What are wethinking as the lights go down?

NIMZIKI: What am I going to say to them if it's bad?GODSICK: That's easy.Youjust say,"Steven, Steven,

Steven!"GILL: "Youdid it again!"GODSICK: No, really, what we're looking for in the

film is elements we can use to do our jobs. MaybeSteven Seagal turned out to be fantastic; maybethere's something we didn't anticipate that turnedout great.

FORUM 39

NIMZIKI: And it's a two-part process too. I mean we'reall going to walk in and have our opinion of thefilm, but the next step's going to be recruitedscreenings, when we're going to test in front of aregular moviegoing audience, not a jaded, taint-ed, cynical crowd like us. And who knows? Wemight find that teenage girls eat it up. We mightfind that the boys are in love with Julia Roberts.

The poster above was designed by Sometimes you think youFaetal & Collins,a graphic-design have a movie that's goinggroup In Santa Monica, California. be i bl d hF 1& C 11 ha d· to e In trou e an t eacta 0 ms s create prmtadvernsingfor DanceswithWolves scores are great.andSleepingwith the Enemy. GILL: SO,do we have a movie

that scores well or not?TOUGH: Well, I don't know. We haven't tested it yet.

I can tell you my personal opinion. It looks to melike Steven and Julia didn't really get along.There's not a lot of spark between them.

GODSICK: SOthe romance doesn't work.ISRAEL: SOthe movie doesn't work.GILL: What were you thinking when you green-light-

ed this?

42 HARPER'S MAGAZINE I JUNE 1993

TOUGH: Do we-as marketers-now try to get in-volved in recutting the movie?

GILL: Absolutely. This is the moment to put in ourtwo cents.

ISRAEL: What I'm going to advocate at this point isthat they shoot more action/adventure footage sothat we have an opportunity to position it morelike a Raiders. The studio is going to say, "Holy

shit, this movie is a bomb. We've got togo and spend another couple million."

TOUGH: What if the studio won't shell out?Does the fact that it looks to us like there'sno heat between the stars mean that wehave to abandon the romance angle?

ISRAEL: Not necessarily.The fact that it doesn'twork in the movie doesn't mean that itwon't in the trailer.

GILL: He's right. It doesn't matter if the moviedoesn't deliver. If you can create the im-pression that the movie delivers, you're fine.That's the difference between playabilityand marketability. When you've got playa-biliry,you show it to the critics. Ifyou've gotmarketability, there's enough there to cheatit or stretch it and make people believethat it really does deliver.

TOUGH: What have we got here?GILL: In the romance category, we have mar-

ketability but not playability. The romancereally doesn't play, but we can probablyfind enough wistful looks to make our trail-er work.

NIMZIKI: Actually, I'm not so pessimistic. Ithink we've got the makings of a great trail-er here. We're going to have enough one-liners and witty bits of dialogue. We've gotenough good sex. And we're going to haveenough good action. Out of ninety minutes,we've got to be able to come up with a goodninety seconds.

TOUGH: But at this point, if the movie's look-ing like a dog, shouldn't we start to putmore of our resources toward the otherfilms on our summer list?

GILL: No way.There's too much riding on this.Our chairman has said that this is the most

important movie he's ever made-which, by theway,means it's a guaranteed failure. But as muchas we might like to abandon ship, we're remindedon the hour of how important this is.

NIMZIKI: This is our worst-case scenario. When youtake a little film and make it look good, it's won-derful. When you have a movie like this, whichis costing the studio a fortune and which willcreate mass panic if it doesn't make its moneyback, jobs are on the line. Youhave to believe inyour head that this movie can and will succeed.Youhave to find a way to bring it to its audience.

GILL: And the terrible, horrible, scary thing is thatevery now and then we actually make it work.

THE STORY TRAILER

TOUGH: Tell me about the second trailer, the storytrailer. What are we going to do for that?

NIMZI](]: I would probably start with a shot of StevenSeagal and a line like, "He's always been a fight-er, but he's never had so much to fight for." I'dwant to get his audience in, promising themwhat they want: Steven Seagal fighting bad guys.But a line like "he's never had so much to fightfor" puts in a hint of something more.

GILL: Which brings in, guess who?NIMZIKI: Our next shot is Julia Roberts. We defi-

nitely want to say, "She's back, and we've gother." And if this romance is something we're go-ing to sell, we're going to push a Julia Roberts loveline hard.

ISRAEL: "In love with a people, in love with thecountry, and in love with a man."

GILL: Now bring in the threat.ISRAEL: And then the conflict could be: "In the

least likely place on Earth, they fell in love-atthe worst possible time."

NIMZIKI: Next we want the quintessential villainline. We want our bad guy to say, "They're screw-ing up our plan. We've got to cut down these treesto put in our dump." Once we've hinted at thestory elements, we do a kick-ass montage set tomusic. They're running and kissing and-

ISRAEL: "Two people have never kissed at this speedbefore."

GODSICK: At last we have a tag line!NIMZIKI: And if this footage is as spectacular as I

hope it will be, we can use the shots of peoplejoining hands and chanting without actually say-ing, "They're saving the world."

ISRAEL: Maybe the chant actually starts to drive themontage.

GODSICK: You know, if that chant's really great, youcould take it out of the movie and put it into thefirst single off the soundtrack. It becomes a kindof symbol.

ISRAEL: Here's the poster: You've got the two ofthem in the rain forest, hugging or holding handsin the midst of all these Indians, as a volcano ex-plodes behind them. The whole background'son fire.

TOUGH: Do you have copy for the poster?ISRAEL: I think you say the names. "Steven Seagal

and Julia Roberts-"GILL: "-in an epic romantic adventure-" .GODSICK: "-of global proportions."NIMZIKI: It's got to be something about "the fight of

their life" or "time is running out." Some realgeneric line that suggests that there's somethinga little important about this movie.

GILL: It's not just that the town is going to be de-stroyed; a way of life is going to come to an end,which is metaphoric for the end of the universe.

ISRAEL: Yeah. I like that.

THE IMPORTANCEOF OPENING BIG

Last year, Batman Returns scored the biggest openingweekend in movie history: nearly $46 million in its first threedays. A month later, the film had pretty much disappearedfrom the theaters: during weekend five, Batman Returnstook in less than a tenth of its opening gross. As the tableshere show, that pattem---enormous first weekend, followedby a plummeting descent-has become the standard inHollywood. A decade ago, though, the exact opposite wastrue. A film might open modestly, but as glowing reviewspiled up and positive word-of-mouth spread, its audiencewould gradually develop. E. T.: The Extraterrestrial is'a casein point: the 1982 film grossed less than $5 million in itsfirst week; afrer five weeks, E.T.'s weekly take was hilf1er thanat its opening. By the time the film closed, twelve monthsafrer its release, it had grossed $359 million, a figure that hasnever been surpassed. .

Today, few films, even blockbusters, last twelveweeks. As audiences and critics grow less patient withHollywood's product, the studios have learned to assumethat their big-budget movies will be- slaughtered by re-views and word-of-mouth. The result has been the as-cendancy of the marketer: studios need to bring in hugecrowds on the first weekend, when the only "word" ona film is that created by Hollywood's publicists, ad writ-ers, and merchandisers. As the numbers show, the mar-keting teams are doing their jobs, anyway.

lOP-GROSSING FILMS OF 1982

tSTWEEK lNOWEEK %ALM cnoss GROSS CHANGE

E.T. $4,776,000 $6,014,000 +26%Tootsie 2,444,000 3,978,000 +63%Rocky 3 5,852,000 5,720,000 -2%Porky's 1,749,000 2,387,000 +36%An Officer and 1,448,000 1,798,000 +24%

a GentlemanThe Best Little 2,379,000 2,451,000 +3%

Whorehouse inTexas

Star Trek 2 4,778,000 4,331,000 -9%Poltergeist 3,056,000 3,483,000 +14%Annie 1,550,000 1,722,000 +11%48 Hours 1,438,000 1,644,000 +14%

lOP-GROSSING FILMS OF 1992

1ST WEEK !N[) 'WEEK ""FILM GROSS GRI".)S~ CHANGE

Aladdin $26,995,000 $14,000,000 -48%Home Alone 2 45,583,000 32,631,000 -28%Batman Returns 69,312,000 37,883,000 -45%Lethal Weapon 3 42,942,000 32,316,000 -25%Sister Act 16,768,000 16,292,000 -3%A Few Good Men 20,857,000 16,974,000 -19%Wayne's World 21,702,000 14,788,000 -32%A League of 23,330,000 17,908,000 -23%

Their OwnThe Bodyguard 26,994,000 15,268,000 -43%Basic Instinct 21,515,000 17,486,000 -19%

FORUM 43

GILL: So: "A town is about to be destroyed. Theirfriends are about to be killed. A way of life isabout to end forever. Only these two can stop it... And they're running out of time."

THE REVIEWS

TOUGH: How are we going to use these images andthese ideas when we go to the press?

GILL: We're going to work-from the same position-ing that we've already developed. That goes foreverything we give them. We're going to handthem an electronic press kit-a pre-cut piece ofvideotape that's like a mini-documentary of thefilm. We're going to hand out clips that empha-size our chosen themes and that hide the ele-ments of the story we're uncomfortable with.And the remarkable thing we're going to dis-cover is that the press people are going to pickup our exact phrases and words and incorporatethem in their stories.

TOUGH: SOwe're going to be able to convince crit-ics that this is a romance?

GILL: There are ten different ways to describe anymovie. If we give them one way to go, and it's atleast marginally credible, chances are they're go-ing to take it and go with it. Reviewers may ul-timately say bad things about it, but most of thefeature stories will use our positioning to de-scribe the movie.

GODSICK: And every TV reviewer is going to run aclip from the film. If the clip works with our ad-vertising position, then they're supporting ourcampaign, even if they give us a bad review.

GILL: And we only give them clips that support ourmessage.

NIMZIKI: The main reason we need reviews is to cre-ate what's called a review spot, a thirty-second TVad with quotes from reviews read over scenesfrom the movie. It's only thirty seconds; all weneed are five or six good reviews, out of the hun-dreds of reviews the film is going to get. We runthe spot in the first week of release, once all thenegative reviews are out. What it says to the au-dience is, "Forget the bad reviews you've read.This is a quality film."

TOUGH: What about a press junket? Are we goingto do something out of the ordinary?

GILL: Well, the really big splash would be to fly ev-erybody down to Rio de Janeiro. Ifwe've got themoney, that would be a gold mine. It would makepeople think it's a special event.

TOUGH: At the junket, Julia and Steven are goingto do about fiftyTV interviews in one day.Whatare we going to say to them the night before?

GILL: "You're going to get a lot of questions aboutthings you're not going to want to answer.All youhave to say is, 'I'm not here to talk about that,but I would love to tell you about my movie.'

44 HARPER'S ~AGAZINE I JUNE 1993

And as you're talking about the movie, makesure you remember this one phrase." And thenwe give them our positioning line: "It's an epicromantic adventure, set in a stunning location,about a struggle to save a village." We have tokeep them on the message.

THE DAMAGE CONTROL

TOUGH: It's now a week after the junket. DonaldWildmon of the American Family Associationholds a press conference. He says that he's heardfrom people who have seen this movie that it glo-rifies pantheism and paganism and has a veryanti-Christian message.

GODSICK: He said that about Home Alone.GILL: Wake me when it's over. Nobody listens to

Donald Wildmon anymore. He's cried wolf somany times that it doesn't matter. If Ross Perotis nailing our movie, we've got a problem.

GODSICK: And there are waysto combat it. There areexperts we can show our movie to. There arepsychologists, there are teachers. And they'll sayit's wholesome and positive.

GILL: For every expert you can dredge up on theReverend Donald Wildmon front, there are tenothers we can pull up from other sides who aregoing to love the movie. 1 would say we don'teven bother to dignify the Reverend Donaldwith a response. Who cares? If we can show himthe movie and shut him up altogether, terrific.Otherwise, ignore him.

GODSICK: And if he pickets, we get press coverage.GILL: This controversy doesn't go to the core of our

movie's credibility. It's not going to hurt us. It'sonly going to help us. It just fans the flames.

TOUGH: The day after Wildmon's press conference,the Wall Street]oumal publishes a page-one sto-ry about the way our film crew treated the envi-ronment down in Brazil. It turns out that we cutdown a lot of trees when we built our sets. It's sortof a wry article, insinuating, "Isn't it ironic thatthey actually harmed the rain forest while theywere trying to make this so-called environmen-tal movie?" What do we do?

GODSICK: Get Wildmon back!GILL: Our side of the story is this: it turns out that

some crew members did not follow proper envi-ronmental procedure. But the stars of the moviewere terribly disappointed by that and have now,as a countermeasure, started a campaign in thiscountry to demonstrate that even people who areinvolved in a movie on this subject could some-how fail to be cautious enough about these things.It just underscores the point that we all need tobe reminded about the importance of the rain for-est. Our stars, in all their wattage, are going toblow the shit out of a story about a couple ofcrew members who didn't pick up their gum

wrappers. USA Today, the networks, everybodyis going to follow Julia Roberts to this schoolwhere she's going to teach third-graders how torecycle.

GODSICK: You might even take these stars in frontof Congress, which will get you a hell of a lot ofmedia coverage.

GILL: Right. They've seen close at hand howdangerous it is. Even people working on amovie that is trying to change things, eventhey slip. So it's more important than ev-er, and Julia Roberts is out here to tell youwhy. And I promise you, with that kind ofstar wattage, the other story will be total-ly forgotten two days later.

THE PREMIERE

TOUGH: The movie's opening in a week. Whatdo we have planned for a premiere?

GILL: Clearly we're looking at a benefit.TOCGH: For whom? Greenpeace?GILL: Let's get real here. We've got Corporate

America tied in to this.GODSICK: You don't want to go too radical.GILL: We want an organization that can raise

money.TOUGH: Does our premiere have a gimmick?GODSICK: For every ticket that's sold, ten trees

will be planted.GILL: And you cannot come to the premiere

unless you've shared a ride. You cannotcome in a limousine. It's the anti-Holly-wood premiere.

TOUGH: And stars are going to show up?GILL: Sure. There'll be too many people for

them to suck up to. They won't be able tostay away.

NIMZIKI: Between a big movie spectacle likethis and a party concept that's so politicallycorrect, I think we'll get a huge turnout.

GILL: Having a theme is critical. It's a nuggetthat the media can take awaywhen they'recovering the event. Thirty camera crewsturn out for everyone of these things.

GODSICK: And it gives them more of a story towalk away with than "AI Pacino showed up withso-and-so."

l\IMZIKI: You could get very interesting guests heretoo. If the studio has the right connections, youmight have Gore there, even Clinton.

THE VERDICT

TOUGH: Well, the premiere was fun, but now thenumbers are in: our movie made $5 million in itsfirst weekend.

GILL: Ishtar! Ishtar!

NIMZIKI: Great. We're all fired.TOUGH: Why do we take the fall?What Werewe sup-

posed to do? The movie was terrible.GILL: SOwas Alien3 But it made $23 million in its

opening weekend.ISRAEL: Basically, what we're responsible for is a

strong opening.

NIMZIKI: After about two weeks, it'smostly word-of-mouth. Our jobis pretty much over.

TOUGH: SOthe biggest success for amarketer is to have an enormousopening weekend and then havethe film tank?

GILL: If that happens, you know that the film was ter-rible but the marketing wasgenius. Obviously youprefer to have the movie hold on very well. Butif it opens big and then crashes, that's when' youknow that the marketing campaign was abso-lute perfection. _

The poster above was cre-ated by Aspect Ratio De-sign, a Holl)wood designfirm. Aspect Ratio has cre-ated print advertising forToys and Bram Stoker'sDracula.

FORUM 45