“What have they done? Sweet Jesus, what have they done?”
Well, I’ll tell you what they’ve done: Universal and Regal have created maybe the best marketing campaign of all-time for the studio’s upcoming release of “Les Miserables”. The Extended First Look that’s running prior to practically every movie in every Regal theater throughout the country is creating a tremendous buzz for the film, which comes-out on Christmas Day.
If you’ve seen it you know what I’m talking about: It’s the 5-minute “we’re singing every song in the movie live” piece that features most of the stars of the film, including Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Russell Crowe (though we never see/hear Crowe singing. I guess they want to save that for the actual “Les Mis” audiences). The feature describes, in detail, the decision by director Todd Hooper to film the movie with the actors signing LIVE ON FILM, as opposed to how most other movie musicals are done – the actors lip-singing to pre-recorded songs.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a fan of movie musicals or a fan of “Les Miserables”, when this preview feature is over it’s impossible not to want to run out and buy a ticket to see this movie. For me “Les Mis” went from a “I hope it’s worth seeing” to “I can’t wait for this movie!” after watching this the first time.
By now I’ve seen this Extended First Look nearly a dozen times. I think I can do Jackman’s soliloquy by now. But it’s still compelling and each time when it’s over the same reaction takes place throughout the theater: people saying – “we’ve got to see that.”
Congratulations to whoever came-up with the idea for this marketing tool. Look for other studios to copy this idea in the future. And I hope the folks at “The Golden Trailer Awards” come-up with a special category for this feature, which deserves to be honored.