Hollywood Reporter has revealed that neither Terrence Malick nor Steven Spielberg will be actively promoting their respective upcoming projects The New World and Munich.
Spielberg, whose Munich has already been tipped to sweep the Oscars despite nobody having seen it, is refusing to participate in press junkets to push the movie, citing that he would rather that the subject matter and word-of-mouth promote the movie for him. It's fair to say that Spielberg's lack of promotion with have little impact on box office returns as the man's name attached to a movie is more akin to a brand name than a simple credit.
The movie will not have any large premiere event, limiting itself soley to select industry screenings which begin on monday. DreamWorks marketing chief Terry Press says; "Sometimes silence speaks louder than everyone else. There's so much blather in the world that sometimes quiet makes an impression."
Malick, however, has no such reputation to trade on to guarantee success of his historic retelling of the Pocahontas tale starring Colin Farrell. However, Malick has a reputation for being a reclusive man who cites his lack of interest in doing press because he says he is "not any different from anyone else who worked on the film."
Marketers seem to be hoping that The New World will be able to trade on the fact it is a well-known piece of American history. But the problem with this is word coming from the editing room is of last minute looped voice-overs that aren't in the script, long periods of the movie which are free of dialogue and, as is typical these days, a 150+ minute running time. Plus Farrell has flopped in one historical epic in the last year alone, how that will impact people's perception of this movie is anyone's guess.
These are bold moves by two very different directors, but based on the information at hand, my money's only on one of them coming out of the other side of this with their reputation intact.
