October
23
First Look: Slumdog Millionaire Poster
Fox Searchlight went from zero to 100 when it took over the release of Danny Boyle’s rags-to-riches romance Slumdog Millionaire (from partner Warner Bros.) just before its launch at September’s Telluride and Toronto Film fests. (Here's an exclusive first look at the official poster.)
The specialty label wasted no time in getting up to speed on Slumdog marketing materials in advance of a November 12 limited opening. They had Boyle, a director who has built a core indie cinephile following, but no name stars. The movie, which is 80 percent English, 20 percent Hindi, is about a teen from the slums of Mumbai, India who answers every question right on India’s “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” The movie is less about how he won—although it answers that question—than why he needed to win. The final answer: Love.
“We do some of our best work under extreme pressure,” says Searchlight COO Nancy Utley. “You have to go with your gut. We tried to capture the spirit of the movie. The upside of the title is it doesn’t seem like anything you’ve ever heard before: it’s a contradiction in itself. We picked up the color palette of the foreign locale, and a beautiful girl, in action."
Searchlight is sending Boyle to spread his Brit charm on a press tour of a dozen American cities through October and November. And Searchlight will do what they did with “Little Miss Sunshine”: wrestle up pre-opening buzz with word-of-mouth screenings, 215 to be exact, in 50 cities. “They’re starting now,” says Utley.
TV spots will take advantage of the movie’s Bollywood soundtrack and closing dance number, and eventually reviews and awards. Natch, Searchlight is supporting an Oscar campaign for the filmmaker—“it’s time,” says Utley—and adapted screenplay writer Simon Beaufoy, who was Oscar-nominated for the label’s The Full Monty. “We always have the little underdog,” says Utley, who’s banking that Slumdog will place favorably against darker, grimmer Oscar competition. “This movie makes you feel good in a time of deepening anxiety.”
UPDATE: As to the controversy about Slumdog's R rating--which Boyle himself is helping to fuel--look at the movie. While it ends up in a good place and is exhilarating to watch, the film puts the viewer through some tough nasty violent real world shit (literally). I spoke to some media folks last night who, while they liked Slumdog, disagreed with its "feel-good" rep. They felt a little beat up along the way. "Definitely an R," said these two parents of a ten-year-old.
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A terrific Indian actor, Anil Kapoor, plays the host of the KBK program. In real life, the hosts to date have been the even more famous Amitabh Bachchan (whose flagging career it revived) and Shah Rukh Khan. Hard to believe they would have passed on the opportunity to appear in a promising international release--or that Boyle would have failed to approach them. What's the backstory?
Posted by: David C | October 23, 2008 at 04:50 PM
That poster doesn't so much say "buoyant" and "celebrate" as it does "mad killer on the loose in a big city." Feh.
Posted by: cadavra | October 24, 2008 at 12:42 PM