got screenwriting respect?
By Burbanked on Sep 26, 2008 in Movie Marketing 101, Movies, Newest, Screenwriting, Trailers | 1,243 views |
Whilst enjoying myself at the cinema last night, I got to see the trailer for Gus Van Sant’s upcoming biopic Milk starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and others. I’m not a huge fan of Van Sant (or Penn for that matter), although it’s a terrific trailer and the movie looks like decent Oscar-bait.
But the extraordinary thing about the trailer comes right at the end, after the traditional credits block, in which we see this:
Have you ever seen a trailer credit like this – a full-screen, massive and splashy shout-out to the movie’s screenwriter? Celebrity director or lead actor, sure. But this strikes me as a bit unprecedented, especially when the writer in question – Dustin Lance Black – doesn’t have a huge list of high-profile credits.
This isn’t a slight to Black at all – the movie looks good and he’s also listed as executive producer, so I’m thinking he’s got some clout to throw around. But I’ve worked with executive producers who had long lists of produced credits and not a single one of them ever had a full-screen splash like this one.
Good for Black. Take a look at Hollywood’s newfound respect for screenwriters by watching the Milk trailer here.
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pacheco | Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
My guess is that it’s Van Sant’s doing.
I have vague memories of Van Sant using big text on title cards (Last Days, for sure. The title cards almost seemed to mimic Eyes Wide Shut), so I wasn’t surprised to see the big, gorgeous titles for the trailer of Milk. So I’m thinking Van Sant has some sort of admiration for Black, and decided to give him his own big title card.
Now, why the admiration? I’m not sure. As you say, nothing on his resume totally POPS at you (though I am a fan of Big Love). Perhaps Van Sant feels that Black is truly qualified and has written something special here, so he’s pushing his name to the forefront.
Either way, as you said, it’s a very good trailer. Funny, I didn’t realize the first couple of times I saw it that it was Van Sant (I must’ve not been paying THAT close attention). But I soon realized it, and I’m kind of excited (I consider my self a decent Van Sant fan. Abhorred Gerry, though).
Burbanked | Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
Pacheco: It could be Van Sant’s doing – but credit-related issues are also often an issue of contracts, deal memos and the like. So-and-so’s name can’t be bigger or smaller than Mr. Lead Actor, etc. Placement, size, duration on screen – all of these tend to be contractual, so to see a HUGE writer-dedicated card still seems surprising.
Not bad, just suprising!
Joseph B. | Sep 27, 2008 | Reply
I thought the same thing after seeing this trailer. So much so that I came home and used IMDB to find out the reason for such a prestigious billing. I agree, it’s kinda nice…
pacheco | Sep 30, 2008 | Reply
You’re absolutely right, and that’s something I hadn’t thought of. If I still wanted to push the idea that it was Van Sant-related, could it be that he has so much clout, at least on this film, that he could bypass some of those things? For example, forfeit some of his “rights” in that situation? Then again, you have names like Sean Penn and James Franco, among others, attached to this thing as well. So I guess it really IS puzzling.