Serenity marketing

Dear Serenity team,

I hear that you are engaging in "viral marketing" and looking to manufacture buzz among opinion leaders.   If you would like to use me in any way - perhaps by sending me advance copies of the film, arranging a personal chat with Joss Whedon, or showering me with cool stuff - consider me open to exploitation. 

All the best,

Abu Aardvark

Comments

[Luke S.]

Well Marc,

Joss came to Wesleyan University on Monday, showed the film, and then answered questions for two hours before signing autographs. Obviously, a bunch of college students doesn't count for much as "opinion leaders" but the film _was_ impressive, though none of us were able to record anything. There is a forthcoming article in the school newspaper--now that's influential!

Cheers

L

[marbel]

In quite a few countries they had pre-screenings for fans. I first saw the film a few weeks ago. This tuesday I say it at the premiere in Amsterdam, with Nathan Fillion and Summer Glau present. It started with a (filmed) intro by Joss. Transcript:

Hi, I’m Joss Whedon. You’re about to see a preview of my first ever film, Serenity. We’ve shown the film in an unfinished form to some of the fans. And they pelted us with rocks and garbage. Oh, no wait, they liked it. They really liked it. That was something else. They liked it. They cheered. It was good times. People have begun to hear the cheer in the press. And in the public. So I once again, want to thank my browncoats. Not just for their excitement and enthusiasm and their extraordinary efforts to get people to notice this movie, but mostly for their sense of inclusion. So often with pop culture phenomenon of any kind, people say, “Well it’s only cool if I like it and nobody else does.” And once they do it’s not cool any more. My fans have always understood that Serenity and Firefly, the series that spawned it, were for everybody. Age, sex, race, nationality – it doesn’t matter. Everybody is invited. Not everybody is going to like it. I’m not stupid. I know that it doesn’t work that way, but it is for everybody and the fact that my fans have always understood that has made all the difference. The difference between a cult and a movement. The difference between fighting the good fight and winning the good fight. So thank you, not just to my browncoats. It doesn’t matter, you could have other coats, coats of any color. There are coats of many colors. You could just be a tie, or a sweater vest, or Lederhosen. Particularly to my Lederhosen fans, I want to thank you. Enjoy what is the completely finished version of Serenity. All of the music is in, all of the effects, absolutely nothing is out except for a few gaping plot holes that I was too lazy to fix and now kind of wish I hadn’t mentioned. Apart from that, it’s all good. So thank you again, and welcome to Serenity.

The film is slighly darker than the series and obviously cannot delve into each character the way the series do. But they are all there, it feels like coming home for the fans but Firefly-'virgins' tell me they feel welcome too ;)

And yes.... it rocks!

[ihateemo]

Sweet gods, this is THE film I have been waiting for this year.

!!!!!!!!! :DDDDDDDDDDDDD

[the aardvark]

I'm of the "Joss can do no wrong" school... have to admit that the premise of Serenity worries me a bit - too much River in the trailers - and I can't for my life fathom how they're going to satisfy the Firefly fans without driving away larger audiences. But for now, I'm resting my hopes on "Joss can do no wrong."

[marbel]

I allready heard from two people who went to the premiere on invites and didn't have a clue about what kind of film it was that they ordered the firefly dvd's afterwards ;)

It is the kind of film that appeals to people who like smart short dialoque, characters that are human instead of cardboard stereotypes and a bit of content between the special effects and action ;)

There is a lot of River, because River provides the red line in this particular story. Which in effect means that there is less of some of my other favorite characters - not enought time to do what you can do in 15 episodes of a series. But I didn't dare to set my hopes too high in advance either and yet found I really loved the film.

[Rachel]

Yeah, I'm looking mightily forward to it, myself. For now I'm busy hooking Ethan on Firefly to make sure he's as excited about the film as I am... :-)

[Stacey]

As a funny little anecdote...my housemate brought exactly 2 DVDs with him to Yemen for the year, and one of them was "Firefly." I'd never heard of it, but am now so hooked that he waits until I've had a really bad day and dangles out the hope of erasing it with an evening viewing...It's like qat, only much, much better. :)

Oh, and it's a good thing he brought SOMETHING good, since the other DVD is "Beavis and Butthead Do America."