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It never fails to amaze me how studios convince themselves that up is down, and left is right. Here’s an internal MGM memo giddy over the possibility that the new trailer for Tom Cruise’s December 26th Nazi pic will translate into big biz:
From: Sandro Bellini [Digital Marketing | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc]
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 4:27 PMAttached is an updated report on online buzz around the new Valkyrie assets:
OVERVIEW
Favorable Tone Dominates Trailer Buzz – Currently, reactions to the Valkyrie trailer are significantly favorable (approximately 80%) within Entertainment, Fan-Boy, Video Sharing, Social Networks, Social Bookmarks, and Fan communities. Fans deem the trailer “fantastic,” often praising the “stylistic” way that the footage was cut and asserting that it is “way better” than the initial teaser. Enthusiasts also note that the “intriguing” trailer has furthered their anticipation for the film’s release and anticipate that it will feature many great performances from the ensemble cast. Additionally, many viewers share avid excitement to see Bryan Singer’s “distinctive work” in the film and, while others admitted that they “aren’t fans” of Tom Cruise, they stated that the trailer has “sold” them on seeing Valkyrie in December. Neutral reactions (15%) arise from viewers sharing mixed reactions to the trailer, often asserting that while the film has the potential to be “awesome” they still have their doubts based on the initial critical buzz. The limited amount of unfavorable discussion (5%) stems from critics expressing general disinterest in the film, contending that the trailer makes Valkyrie look like “another Hollywood action movie.”
Additional Assets Also Garner Rave Reviews – In addition to the trailer, the Valkyrie one-sheet, featurette, and stills have been generating largely positive user reactions. The poster comprises the majority of discussion, as fans laud the “stylized design” and hope that it represents the “gritty” feel of the film. “I definitely want one of these up on my walls right away.” The stills garnered high profile placement with features including the LA Times – The Envelope and Fan-Boy sites such as Joblo. The Official Website has also had several mentions about its “cool new features.”
Lack of German Accents Still an Issue – While the majority of buzz about the lack of German accents is neutral, the topic is fueling discussion among online audiences. Critics contend that their absence creates a “lack of cohesiveness” while supporters believe that their inclusion would make the film appear “cheesy.” There were also numerous users sharing mixed opinions on the topic, stating that while the lack of accents is “distracting” and anticipate it will “take some getting used to,” the trailer “looks amazing” and they intend on seeing the film upon its release.
Trailer Coverage Widely Spread – The Valkyrie trailer was posted across nine alpha video sites, with the postings on Yahoo! Video, YouTube, Trailer Addict, and Spike generating the greatest number online views.
For an updated screengrab report, click here:
http://server.mammothnyc.com/valkyrie/valkyriereport.pdf
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Oh please any movie that gets released generates positive buzz, if that’s all you want to find. I can guarantee the studio put out a memo claiming Lions for Lamb had great buzz and it bombed.
Proof that MGM execs and studio suits are completely out of touch with casual movie fans, despite their attention paid to “internet buzz”: their completely-off spelling of “Fan-Boy.” What a joke.
I really DO find the lack of German accents distracting, and almost pompous of the filmmakers.
Schindler’s list wasn’t cheesy. I think that movie would have lost something (a lot) if every actor used their native accent.
If you are going to see a period war piece I don’t think it’s at all outrageous to expect the accent to match the nationality portrayed. This isn’t Mission Impossible 4: They Valkyrie chapter – that’s just what it feels like. Including the explosive device.
“Consider the studio’s “sources”” Exactly…
Mammoth = LAME…
This memo reads like a restaurant listing in a Zagat Guide.
Really don’t understand why everyone is so hung up with accents.
It’s not like Julie Andrews had such an authentic Austrian accent in The Sound of Music and that was a pretty awesome film.
Perhaps we should see the film first and then decide…
I can’t get past the sight of Tom Cruise with an eye patch and in a German uniform, which are already over-the-top. Plus, he just isn’t tall enough and it looks like he’s playing dress-up.
As Addison DeWitt might have said, “Tom, you’re too short for that gesture.”
Wouldn’t using an accent be called “acting”?
Every time I hear Valkyrie, I think ValKilmer, and I’m still mad at him about Batman Forever.
The movie will be what it will be in three months, but that memo just doesn’t hunt.
“reactions to the Valkyrie trailer are significantly favorable (approximately 80%) within Entertainment, Fan-Boy, Video Sharing, Social Networks, Social Bookmarks, and Fan communities.”
That doesn’t make sense given that we know a good bit more than 20% of potential viewers have a severe negative reaction to Cruise at this point.
That got me to check out the mentioned postings “on Yahoo! Video, YouTube, Trailer Addict, and Spike.” Definitely didn’t see 80% favorable from what was there. If anything, folks just weren’t paying too much attention.
You know, I never seen so many men obsessed with one guy’s life.”We know that 20% of potential viewers have a severe negative reaction to Cruise at this point” says who?A lot of the negative press about Tom is media hype as well.The press and certain people in Hollywood don’t like him because he won’t give up his religios freedom.The same people who have attacked him,his wife,and his little kid for the last couple of years.Give me a break!Maybe everyone else in America lives in the real world and really don’t see a belief in L.Ron Hubbard as a threat to their daily existence.Perhaps you guys haven’t watched the news lately.Cruise isn’t running for Vice President.Now that would make me worried.
I think everyone is missing the point – the movie just looks boring / art house. Not enough action for a Tom Cruise movie….
The only thing that could make Valkyrie worse is if Madonna was acting in it.
The lack of accents was the FIRST thing I noticed. Could have been distracting/”cheesy” but without them, it looks equally as “cheesy”.
They yanked the report. Typical.
So a former great actor who has turned himself into a joke makes a movie about a racist genocidal Nazi ( read up on the history of this guy) who only tries to kill Hitler AFTER Hitler starts loosing the war, and this Nazi fails and get himself and all his co-conspiritors hung on piano wire.
Brilliant movie idea.
What’s next?John Travolta as a heroic research doctor sweating away with uncooperative patients in a nazi concentration camp…. Joseph Mengele?
You know, none of these people were speaking with accents in real life–they were speaking GERMAN–so why booger things up with a fake German accent, no matter how accurate? As long as the acting is good, it shouldn’t matter a fig. That said, Tom Cruise might still be the wrong actor for this. Not sure yet. Story looks great, though.
Dear Joseph Steel from Georgia:
You obviously haven’t read up on any of the history if you think the July 20th plotters were Nazis. They were in fact the farthest thing from it – especially the Stauffenberg’s (his brothers were active anti-Nazi as well).
Try Google or Wikipedia (or your local library).
To say it politely, “Joseph Steel from Georgia” doesn’t know his posterior from his elbow about the July 20, 1944 attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. For starters, Stauffenberg was shot at the Bendlerstrasse (the Berlin Headquarters of the German Army), not hung from piano wire as many of the July 20th conspirators were. Moreover, Stauffenberg was NOT a Nazi but a devout Roman Catholic who was deeply disturbed about the moral quandry he faced, that is, the morality of murdering — and that’s what he planned to do — even someone as evil as Hitler. Finally, while the July 20th plot was hatched after Germany was clearly losing World War II, there were at least 19 previous plots to try to either assassinate or arrest Hitler, many of which were undertaken when either Germany’s fate was still in doubt or, in fact, even prior to the start of the war. So the implication that the July 20th plot — or any other plot — was undertaken solely because Germany was losing the war is plain inaccurate.
I love that there are people on here equating the use of an accent with good acting and with doing one’s job. Why? You can’t be a good actor without using an accent or is it that not doing an accent when some people expect to means you are not doing the job you’re paid to do? To accent or not to accent is an artistic choice, not a matter of talent or satisfaction of job requirements. Aaagain, they are actually speaking German in the story, not English. We are suspending our disbelief and choosing to accept the English translation as reality. Insisting that they have to give us accents on top of that is just an odd convention that we should have long moved past.
Well, at least this trailer doesn’t look like an ad for SmileBrite the way the old one did.
On the other hand, Tom still doesn’t seem even remotely authentic. They should have hired David Strathairn instead. Or a Brit. Or ANYONE ELSE!
It’s not the fact that there are no German accents — it’s that Tom’s California accent is painfully obvious.
One brief comment on the lack of German accents: One of the legendary movies on World War II, Twentieth Century Fox’s 1951 “The Desert Fox — The Story of Rommel” wasn’t hurt at all by the fact that James Mason, portraying Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, spoke in that wonderful melifluous British accent of his, as did Sir Cedric Hardwicke who played German resistance member Dr. Karl Stroelin, the Lord High Mayor of Stutgart. All the other actors such as Jessica Tandy, Richard Boone, Everett Sloane, Edward Franz, and George MacReady spoke in their usual American accents. And incidentally, the great Yiddish actor, Luther Adler, happened to bear an uncanny, striking physical resemblance to Hitler and gave (in his perfect American accent) what is generally considered to be one of the best interpretations of Hitler every put on film.
I concur with the view that when portraying a person who would have spoken German, speaking English with an American accent is no more silly than speaking English with German accent. Subtitles, people!
On a related note it always irritated me when non-English speakers in movies speak English amongst themselves for no good reason, or worse, speak their native tongue, then revert to English when they get excited
So Stauffenberg was a “a devout Roman Catholic who was deeply disturbed about the moral quandry he faced”
Wikipedia quotes a letter he wrote to his wife while he was an officer in the invasion of Poland, “The population here are unbelievable rabble; a great many Jews and mixed folk. A folk that only feels good under the knout. The thousands of prisoners will be used well in our agriculture.”
btw, Wikipedia defines Knout as “s a heavy scourge-like multiple whip, usually made of a bunch of rawhide thongs attached to a long handle, sometimes with metal wire or hooks incorporated. ”
So this is what he while a member of a racist army bent on world domination, and invading a foreign country, causing mass destruction, suffering, and murder of civilians.
Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t find in Sraffenberg’s own words a man, who as ewk wrote” was deeply disturbed about the moral quandry he faced, that is, the morality of murdering — and that’s what he planned to do — even someone as evil as Hitler.”
Was Staffenberg technically a Nazi? Well, no, he didn’t join the party. But did he behave and believe as Nazis did? Yes. So you’re quibbling about party cards and not actions.
Further, Staffenberg was all gung-ho for invading countries and enslaving civilians until Hitler ordered the invasion of Russia in 1941, an idea so insanely destructive to Germany that even Hilter’s own deputy, Rodolf Hess, secretly flew in a panic to England and tried to negotiate peace between England and Germany before Hitler invades Russia. But Hess failed, Hitler invaded Russia, opened a two front war – and Germany was in a military disaster.
And it’s at the point that Stauffenburg, the choir boy, started thinking Hitler may not be such a good idea. Yeah. At that point. Certainly not when Stauffenberg was gleefully envisioning enslaving women and children into German agriculture. And as Germany started having its army wrecked by vengeful Russians, and the German populations feared Russians invading the mother land and taking vengeance…. the assassinations attempts start in ernest.
Including Stauffenberg’s in 1944 – three years after Russia’s invasion.
ewk wrote, “So the implication that the July 20th plot — or any other plot — was undertaken solely because Germany was losing the war is plain inaccurate.”
Well, solely, no. Mostly, yes. Look, I get for marketing the film and in Germany needing to find some good in their past, it’s nice to claim that Staufenberg was a nice guy caught in a bad place, but history is quite different. Or at least the history as experienced and taught in Europe – expect of course, in Germany.
And my mistake, you’re right. Stauffenberg was shot, not hung. Him being shot rather than hung made his assassination attempt eminently more successful.
Oh, and to Emily, who kindly recommends that I educate myself through Google or Wikipedia or my local library.
I want to let you know I’m from Europe, where WW2, the General’s Plot and Stauffenberg are as taught as history, not as a movie script.