Although nearly everyone agrees that the trailer looks insanely enjoyable, the creators of “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” are still taking a cautionary approach to the early fanboy love for the film.
After the trailer got jillions of views online — the Apple Trailers site even went down due to the crazy demand — director Edgar Wright and producer/comic creator Bryan Lee O’Malley were met with near universal praise. The duo have the kind of buzz nearly every director and comic book writer could ever dream of, but are wary of celebrating too soon. “I’m trying to manage fan expectations, but to no avail,” O’Malley says. “It’s totally out of my control.”
Like “Watchmen” before it, the film has been earning unprecedented levels of pre-release love with the graphic novels racing up the Amazon bestseller list, an upcoming videogame incorporating artwork from the books and a fanboy-approved trailer. In fact, buzz surrounding the film has been so deafening that Wright notes that fans “were genuinely angry that we held back the trailer until now.” Thankfully it delivered.
However, Universal and publisher Oni Press are also wary of getting too comfortable as it remains an open question whether or not the film will reach an audience outside the core group of dedicated followers. “The person who already bought a t-shirt and copies of all the books is most likely to show up opening weekend,” says Joe Nozemack of Oni Press, but getting everyone else to show up August 13th is still the puzzle that will need to be solved.
Of concern to both the studio and filmmakers is getting enthusiasm brewing among those who haven’t read the comics. While “Watchmen” had a lot of pre-release love from fanboys, it failed to spark an interest outside that core group. Moreover, its slavish dedication to the images and words on the page of Alan Moore’s graphic novel actually nullified any of the larger thematic elements leaving many fans disappointed.
Wright and screenwriter Michael Bacall at least seem to have that latter problem figured out. As we previously reported, the film deviates from the novels at around the third volume of the graphic novel, with the blessing of its creator Bryan O’Malley. “Edgar and I and Michael Bacall would just sit down and talk back and forth about it,” he says. “There were even times when I’d say, ‘OK, guys, you don’t have to keep everything the same.’ “
Another comparable film would be “Kick-Ass,” which has also received lots of fanboy love, a number of pre-release screenings across the country and numerous blogged about trailers and clips, but has failed to draw any attention from mainstream audiences. The film is apparently tracking disappointingly low and is expected to open with about the same numbers as the Chris Rock comedy “Death At A Funeral.” Not particularly great for a hard R comic book film that certainly needs a serious push to open up its limited appeal.
All this said, Universal still has plenty of time to open up the marketing to reach mainstream audiences who don’t know anything about the comic (something the team behind “Kick-Ass” has simply failed to do). The key for “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” to move from a clique-y fanboy film to a broader success will be at least one or two more trailers that explain just what the film is about. The film is already firmly on the radar of the geek set and any further dollars down that avenue seem redundant at this point.
We’re definitely excited and we’ll be there opening weekend (though if anyone wants to invite us to any of those earlier screenings, we’d be more than happy to attend). We definitely like what we’ve seen so far and are pumped for the film. We hope that Universal gives everyone else a reason to care about the film like we do.
