I’ve said it before about getting hacked off with trailers giving away a pivotal point of a movie or even the ending itself, and when I used to talk about movies in the Newsgroups it was often the case where someone who had seen the movie before release would lull you into reading a post and then wham hit you with the ending. It happened to me with Sixth Sense, and that was annoying to say the least.
So it’s interesting when the makers come up with new ways of hiding what the ending is going to be, and with the new film Hide and Seek they’ve gone all the way. Coming Soon bring us the news that:
For the first time in its illustrious 70-year history, 20th Century Fox will be shipping prints of a motion picture to theaters across the nation without the picture’s final reel. The unprecedented move is part of a major effort to protect the pay-off of the studio’s terrifying suspense-thriller Hide and Seek, starring Robert De Niro and Dakota Fanning.
Fox has taken extraordinary measures to safeguard the critical final reel, which is shipping separately. In addition to shipping the reel separately, security guards will hand-deliver the reel to all playdate theaters across the U.S. As a final security measure, Fox has numbered all final reels.
That’s one hell of an expense and hassle for them, but if it’s going to keep the ending covered up for the opening weekend, then it could be a godsend. In this era of games and movies being released early on the Internet by some keen insider, it’s not a surprise to see this sort of action going on. John talks about the Blair Witch Project in his last post, and this is a movie I wished I had seen on the opening weekend along with the other people who had no idea it was a fake at all, it might have made it a different experience for me.
However, the explanation from Fox is:
Commented Fox executive VP and general sales manager Richard Myerson: “‘Hide and Seek’ is a terrific picture with an ending that everyone will be talking about. To ensure everyone’s enjoyment of the film and to prevent ‘spoilers’, we’ve instituted extraordinary measures. We think it’s worth the effort.”
Yeah, but this will only last for the first showing. After that it’s open season on the spoilers and you’re not going to be able to stop anyone announcing the ending after that. So it’s not going to ensure everyone’s enjoyment, just everyone’s on the opening day. Still, great idea, and great publicity!
