Do you remember hearing about an alleged Led Zeppelin bouzouki cover/remix by Trent Reznor and chick from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs who tragically lacks a last name? Well, it turns out it was real after all! Who knew that shortly after rumors surfaced of European showings of the HOT NEW TRAILER FOR THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, that a MYSTERIOUS YOUTUBE USER would LEAK that HOT NEW RED BAND TRAILER FOR THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO with a KICKASS COVER OF THE IMMIGRANT SONG on YOUTUBE? In case you don’t know, this trailer is for the new David Fincher movie, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, that is totally not a remake of the Swedish trilogy of films adapted from the Millennium trilogy of books by noted Swedish dead guy, Stieg Larsson.
Astonishing, isn’t it?
On May 28, that’s the beginning of the Memorial Day Movie Hype Weekend to you, the interwebs started burning up with rumors of the sighting of said trailer. SOMEONE TOTALLY “CAM-ED” IT and THEN SENT A LINK TO THE YOUTUBE VIDEO to WELL KNOWN MOVIE BLOGGERS on TWITTER. It’s almost as if someone wanted to make sure that during a long holiday weekend where red blooded Americans go to the movies in droves, and where that trailer was only rumored to be shown during previews before THE HANGOVER 2 , that a shitload of MOVIE BLOG TASTEMAKERS would put up lots of articles about HOW TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME IT IS.
Weird, huh?
I’m sure that it wasn’t any type of coincidence that the MYSTERIOUS YOUTUBE USER, dobvlvstiuwir, who joined the site the same day, has no other videos posted, and who claims to be from the Netherlands, just happened to do all this on a Saturday so that the entirety of the community of the internet would have the opportunity to see the trailer and gush over it for three days. I mean, it’s not like any other movies are doing wacky promos this weekend, right?
Nah, it couldn’t be!
Additionally, if your location is the Netherlands (that’s in Europe), and the trailer is only being shown regularly in Europe, then why would the video have an MPAA (aka Motion Picture Association of America) warning on it? You see, the MPAA (that’s from the US) doesn’t exist in Europe. So, it follows that a trailer, illegally filmed, in a strangely quiet theater with good sound quality, no annoying people cheering, and only minimal shaky camera work (which is probably the best illegally filmed “cam” in the entirety of the known universe) would lack a MPAA warning outside of the United States. Unless, of course, it was intentionally leaked by Sony under controlled circumstances to start a VIRAL SENSATION. You know, one that satisfies the requirement of having an MPAA certification on it, without having that annoying age captcha that you have to do when you embed it on your movie’s website. One that would satisfy the HIGH QUALITY STANDARDS of the film maker and the music soundtrack composer and reap the whirlwind of the zeitgeist of nerds wetting their pants all over the world about a (kind of) naked chick and Led Zeppelin being covered in STEREO.
I’m sure it will be yanked hastily from Youtube at any moment.
The Hollywood Reporter published an article yesterday that doubted the veracity of the leak. Since the “leak” has been up for three days, you would think that Sony would have done something about it by now? Oh yeah, they responded to the Hollywood Reporter’s story by saying this: “On Tuesday, a rep for Sony Pictures told THR that the trailer had played in some U.S. theaters before “The Hangover Part II” and that is where they believe the clip was recorded.” according to CBS News.
But there’s no way that could be construed as them defending the leaked trailer’s origins, right?
Another strange thing is that the RED BAND VIDEO for THE HOT NEW GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO TRAILER was reported by users over the weekend and you had to actually log in to your YOUTUBE account to see it starting on Sunday. It was for the nakedness of ROONEY-BOOB, glimpsed teasingly from the SIDE. Disgusting! Oddly, by this morning, the clip can again be accessed by anyone. It’s almost as if someone with power talked to Youtube and said HEY YOU’RE IMPEDING TRAFFIC to this ILLEGAL THEFT of OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY!!
Nothing suspicious here, move right along!
Oh yeah, the trailer itself is a melange of quickly cut images set to the remake of the Immigrant Song. Karen O does her best imitation of having an orgasm while singing about Vikings and you hear the usual Nine Inch Noises that one has come to expect from that guy who does movie soundtracks now. You know, if I didn’t know better, because of the integrity of all the people involved, I would think that maybe they might blatantly be using sex to sell this movie.
Most of the images contained in the trailer aren’t that sexy to be honest, but doesn’t the term RED BAND TRAILER sound so much more COOL, while still being DARK and HOT and SEXY? Let’s see, an overhead shot of a bridge, framed flowers, old guys in wheelchairs, Daniel Craig looking confused about being in being in Sweden, having a Swedish name, and speaking in English with a British accent at all times, Rooney Mara holding a flashlight in her mouth, and more shots of people looking around for their car keys. According to their other tag line, this trailer is so good it has two of them, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is the FEEL BAD MOVIE OF CHRISTMAS. I guess that is all of us who get to feel bad after realizing that Sony and the film makers think that we are all a bunch of stupid douche bags who can be led around by the nose. I mean really, couldn’t they have been a little more subtle about this and put the trailer on a USB stick and hidden it in the bathroom of the Alamo Drafthouse?
Questions? Comments? Want to punch me in the face? Email: tania.cinque@gmail.com
Update: Sony finally pulled the trailer around 4:00 p.m. Pacific on Tuesday, May 31st! Another blow to film piracy! Trent liked the comments! JUSTICE HAS PREVAILED!
Update 2: Within about five hours of the youtube video being pulled, the official green band trailer was released two days early and quietly on Movie List.
