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Official Poster for The Wackness Debuts - Really?

by Alex Billington
May 2, 2008
Source: Cinematical

Are you kidding me? This is the official poster for The Wackness that is supposed to stand up next to other heavy-hitting summer posters like this one and this one? While I'm sure Sony Pictures Classics is saying to themselves, any publicity is good publicity, this time they're going to get a mouthful. This is pitiful! They just took the original design from Sundance, which I wasn't very impressed with any way, and threw an ugly out-of-focus drawing in the background. We knew it from the start - this is going to be a disaster of a release all because Sony Pictures Classics does NOT know what to do with The Wackness!

I really want to try and help them market this better instead of just complain, but I'm at a loss of words this time! Take a look at the poster. Do you have ANY clue what Josh Peck and Ben Kingsley are doing?! If you're not familiar with the movie and haven't seen it, I bet you're completely lost. Are they really selling ices? Why? Good job selling the movie Sony! And the trailers have already been mediocre so far, too. This isn't off to a good start...

The Wackness Poster

Thanks to Cinematical for debuting the poster! Please sound off with your thoughts below.

It's the summer of 1994, and the streets of New York are pulsing with hip-hop and wafting with the sweet aroma of marijuana--but change is in the air. The newly inaugurated mayor, Rudy Giuliani, is beginning to implement his anti-fun initiatives against "crimes" like noisy portable radios, graffiti and public drunkenness. Set against this backdrop, Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) spends his last summer before college selling dope throughout New York City, trading it with his shrink (Ben Kingsley) for therapy, while crushing on his step-daughter (Olivia Thirlby). Famke Janssen, Mary Kate Olsen, and Method Man round out the cast in this edgy, bittersweet, and funny coming of age story.

The Wackness is both written and directed by up-and-coming filmmaker Jonathan Levine of All the Boys Love Mandy Lane previously. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and was bought by Sony Pictures Classics. Go read my 9/10 review of the film to understand why it's so damn good. The Wackness hits theaters this summer on July 3rd - be there or be square!

Explore tags: Indies, Opinions, Posters

http://movieguyreviews4u.blogspot.com Ryan

Three words for you: Sony. Pictures. Classic.
retroTim

I've seen the movie and it deserves MUCH better then this. What did they do have an art contest in a preschool so they wouldn't have to pay a real designer.
http://www.thatmoviesite.com Jeff Warner

In a sense I actually kind of like it, but it gives the completely wrong idea about the movie and it doesn't tell you anything. Visually it is eye capturing, but overall its a let down.
Squiggly_P

The poster gives off a distinct 80's vibe. If they were trying to capture the spirit of the 90's with this, then they're off by about a decade. I actually like Sony Pictures Classics... they give a lot of foreign and indie flicks a shot in theaters. But you're right, they've never been the sort to really market a film unless it was sure to be a HUGE success up front (like with a successful domestic release that proves it's viability). I can't say I'm particularly excited abut the movie to begin with, but this poster sure doesn't help sell me on it. I don't really 'get' the studios when it comes to marketing a movie. They say "this movie is going to make a TON of money, let's market the hell out of it", and then with the next film they say "This movie isn't going to do so well due to it's niche market appeal, let's not market this one at all". To me, this seems sort of backwards. The films that have a niche market NEED the marketing in order to generate visibility from that niche - and maybe to get some other people interested as well. But does the Dark Knight really need so much effort put into it's marketing? It's getting articles, previews and buzz all around it, and it's also riding on the success of the previous film. A fan of the first film would be nuts to not go see that movie. If it weren't for you covering it, I wouldn't even know what the hell the Wackness was.
darrin

sony doesnt care about the film. but if you sayhis film is good people of firstshowing will go see it. probably then they would care about sundance films instead of the spiderman suckfest trilogy. although the train fight in part 2 was pretty wicked.
harrison

i wouldve stuck with the original poster, or maybe go with a picture of him dancing and the tiles light up but when comparing posters you cant put this up next to the dark knight, or even the hulk really
taylor

wow, everyone with a computer is an expert at everything including marketing movies. Is this poster really much worse than Made of Honor or MOST of the other posters that are out there right now? Also Dark Knight and Hulk have budgets 100 times what this one is. I think the poster is fine, it is a little graphic, gives a hint at the relationship and has a clever tagline and period colors. I think having the twin towers and cb gbs is kind of cool too. Seriously though, I don't think it matters what sony classics does with this film or it's marketing. People have a bug up their butt and are now just thrilled to bash everything with a 'but I am really just trying to help for the sake of the movie' tone to them. People are consistently forgetting that spc doesn't have the money or resources to back the films that fox searchlight or focus does. But if everyone and their grandmother thinks this was going to be the next JUNO, I am sure the director and team behind the movie, would have been more than glad to accept a multimillion dollar offer for the film, but it doesn't seem like that happened. Also, the film is good, but not THAT good, come on people. why the knee jerk aggression and hostility? SPC has a limited ad budget and gets movies out there to be seen that most companies would pass up. It isn't how much a movie makes at the box office, BUT how much the movie makes the studio and do any of you really know the answer to that based upon the advertising budget, tv spot budget and everything else that goes into a film. If fox searchlight or focus thought that they could make 60million on this and it was the next Juno, I can't imagine someone wouldn't have picked it up at a higher price.... LEts face it, this film isn't anywhere near as marketable as College Road Trip. Word of mouth is a beautful thing though and hopefully it follows this film, if people think it is as good as every overly defensive film blogger with a mission to "save" the movie.