The Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case is one of the most hotly debated subjects in the country right now, but regardless of who is right there is one company that is most definitely being hurt: 20th Century Fox. This summer the studio is distributing Neighborhood Watch, a new film written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and starring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade. While the trailer that was released in February seemed harmless at the time, in retrospect some of the things don't play well at all (such as Jonah Hill pointing his finger like a gun and firing off a round). The case has already affected Fox's rollout plans, as marketing for the film has been pulled, but how do you move forward without seeming like you're trying to sweep the real issue under the rug? You advertise the aspect of the movie that can't be compared to the Martin/Zimmerman case.
For Neighborhood Watch that means playing up the aliens and sci-fi aspects of the story. The New York Times says that from here on forth the marketing for the Akiva Schaffer-directed comedy will not so much be looking at the main characters like vigilantes, but, instead, like Ghostbusters (which has been what the studio has been comparing the movie to internally). The article says that if things had continued as plans, the aliens likely wouldn't have shown up until much closer to the film's release date.
I think that it's worth noting that when our own Katey Rich wrote up the first trailer for Neighborhood Watch she titled it "Neighborhood Watch Teaser Trailer Boasts Child Harassment But No Aliens." What I'm aiming at is that we've known about the sci-fi elements of the new movie for months now, so if you're afraid that this means Fox is going to spoil the entire movie, I wouldn't be too concerned. The movie will be released on July 27th - as previously planned - and you can read more about it in our Blend Film Database.
