Is “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,” easily one of the summer’s most positively buzzed about films “unreleasable” and so bad that “upper level management are going to be fired”? According to IESB, “two very reliable sources” have said Universal execs are very concerned about the film, and the site goes on to lump Edgar Wright’s forthcoming adaptation of the beloved graphic novel series, with the films “Jonah Hex” and “Green Hornet,” comparing its prospects to those projects in terms of pre-release, negative buzz.
Our antennas, along with everyone else’s, certainly shot up at this news with a “wtf”? A film with buzz so high it broke down the Apple trailers site when the trailer went live? Near ridiculous universal acclaim? The report seemed hyper dubious at best and so we reached out to Universal Pictures Co-President of Marketing Michael Moses to hear what he had to say, and he had this clear and candid reply: “Usually we let this kind of unsupported whisper nonsense go by without comment but the claims made in IESB’s post about SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD are so hilariously absurd that they couldn’t be ignored. If IESB had contacted anyone at the studio, they’d know just how much love for and confidence in this film we all have. I have a feeling they may want to revisit this post by the end of summer.”
Citing the recent box office disappointments of other comic adaptations such as “The Losers,” “Kick-Ass,” “The Spirit,” and “Watchmen” as the reason why Universal are skittish about the film certainly isn’t unfounded. Despite the popularity of franchises like “Spiderman” and “Batman,” lesser known and/or edgier comic adaptations have proven to be a much harder sell with audiences. And certainly, Marvel’s recently announcement of micro-budgeted adaptations of their second and third-tier characters (ie. Luke Cage etc) speaks to the industry beginning to hedge their bets.
All that said, we don’t buy IESB’s claim that “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” is a disaster at all and hell, neither does any other site on the Internet for that matter. Foremost, Universal has publicly been behind the film from very early on. While “Jonah Hex” has waited until today, less than two months before the film’s release date, to release a trailer, Universal already has one trailer in the can for the film, along with publicity stills and posters and are already preparing much more. They are certainly aware of the hurdle they face in making sure the film crosses over to mainstream audiences, and have even gone on record about it, that said, they are confident in Wright’s film. Anecdotally, from responses we’ve heard from early pre-screenings of the film, (and that everyone else on earth has heard) “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” is said to be more than living up to expectations. At this point it feels like at least for hardcore film geeks, the film is a forgone conclusion of success. And while we always take early fanboy word with a grain of salt, nothing we’ve heard from either side of the equation — people who’ve worked on the film, people who’ve seen it, studio officials — indicates that this is anything remotely approaching a troubled production. A hard sell for mainstream audiences? Sure, we can buy that. But a film people are going to lose their jobs over? A silly posit even by IESB.net standards.
IESB tries to cover their tracks by saying that, like the rest of the internet, they are big Edgar Wright boosters, but then they say the sexiness of the “Pilgrim” teaser was akin to the heat generated from the original “Butterfly Effect” trailer. Um, who are these people who got excited by the “Butterfly Effect”? It’s an absolutely bonkers reference point that seems to have no bearing on the argument at hand, so we’ll leave that one as is.
–Written by Gabe Toro