This is a growing trend that I like a lot. Films are starting to release a few minutes of their film online for people to check out. This is a fantastic way to get people hooked. I like it.
The latest film to join this trend is the new Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti and Jessica Biel film The Illusionist… a film that looks disturbingly like Nolan’s new film “The Prestige”, but let’s not worry about that right now. The synopsis looks like this:
A magician in turn-of-the-century Vienna who falls in love with a woman well above his social standing. When she becomes engaged to a prince, the magician uses his powers to win her back and undermine the stability of the royal house of Vienna.
The only thing that bothers me about this “6 minutes of footage” is that it’s a little misleading. It says “6 minutes”… and that’s true… it is indeed the first 6 minutes… but the first 3 of those minutes are just opening credits, so we’re actually left with under 3 minutes of the actual films… hardly longer than a full trailer. If you’re going to give us a look at the film… then give us a bloody look at the film… or just give us the trailer.
Anyway, if you’d like to take a peak at the fist 2 minutes and 50 seconds of The Illusionist, you can click here.
