I don’t know about you, but I did my best to avoid the web this past weekend, hopelessly in need of a brief de-wiring and generally consumed with getting my leisure on. But there was one thing I found almost inescapable — the buzz around the bootleg red band trailer for David Fincher’s upcoming version of “Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” featuring a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” by Karen O and Trent Reznor. The damn thing was everywhere in my Twitter and Tumblr feeds, and for good reason: IT’S F*CKING AMAZING.
There’s been a lot of casual speculation about the trailer — it appears to have originated in Europe and the YouTube user who posted it has never posted anything previously, leading some to speculate that the movie studio producing the film is the source of the leak. If that’s the case, I tip my hat to the geniuses who came up with the viral marketing plan. Everything about this is so full of win. The song is crisp but hauntingly bone-rattling, and the film looks balls-to-the-wall good. It just sucks that we’re going to wait until the holiday season to see “the feel bad movie of Christmas.”
WARNING: The trailer contains a brief display of boobage…
UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter also theorizes that the leak came from Sony Pictures:
What’s curious, though, is the source of the trailer. A number of the web sites that have eagerly picked it up describe it as a trailer that is playing in Europe, where it was illegally camcorded. It does looks as if it was secretly recorded in a movie theater, and many sites are linking to a copy that was uploaded on YouTube on Saturday.
But wait a minute. Could this all actually be a clever viral campaign on Sony’s part? For starters, the trailer is preceded by an MPAA red-band, advising that the preview has been approved by the MPAA for mature audiences. But why would theaters in Europe be showing an MPAA advisory which is aimed at U.S. moviegers?
Also, while the trailer gives the appearance of being filmed in a theater with some sort of handheld device — the trailer is off-center and appears to shake as it begins — it’s actually a pretty good copy. There’s no audience noise, and once the trailer kicks in the framing settles down and the sound is good.
Which all leads to the question: Was the trailer actually planted by a Sony operative? The YouTube version that is getting a lot of clicks belongs to a user who is identified as being in the Netherlands and who joined YouTube May 28, the same day the trailer was uploaded. And so far, it doesn’t look as if Sony has not moved quickly to have it removed.
Regardless, it rocks.
(Pic via)
