Finance Conference, Friday, November 2

Leading CEOs, filmmakers, financiers and studio executives converge to explore the state of independent film financing, emerging trends, where the money is, new opportunities and incentives, and what the future holds.

Pitch Conference, Saturday, November 3

A good pitch can get a bad film made and a bad pitch can leave a terrific project languishing on the shelf. Pitching is part art (it’s creative), part science (needs to follow a tight script) and part salesmanship.  Conference attendees will first learn the essential rules and tools of pitching from the experts. Then, volunteers from the audience (you?) will pitch a panel of Hollywood decision makers. They will give unvarnished feedback on each pitch – saying what worked, what didn’t, and why. Warning: This session is not for the weak.

Marketing Conference, Sunday, November 4

Connecting with and engaging the audience in authentic, creative ways is critical.  Word-of-mouth and friend recommendations can make or break the box office results.  The gurus behind the most successful and innovative new media marketing campaigns discuss reinventing the marketing wheel, explore how the consumer can be the most effective marketing tool and reveal how to win over the broadest possible audience.

Video-On-Demand Conference, Monday, November 5

Video-On-Demand is a growing revenue stream for filmmakers and content providers.  Like the excitement of a gold rush, many hope for a future when all films are available worldwide and every film finds an audience.  Producers, distributors and platforms will come together to disclose who is making money, how they are doing it and what the future holds – separating fact from fiction.

Micro-Budget Conference, Tuesday, November 6

New and unconventional financing, marketing and distribution resources are proving very successful for Micro-Budget films.  Producers and distributors will reveal how to find the money, making the most of budgets, what distributors are looking for, reaching your audience and how these new tools are redefining the film business. 

The 2012 AFM Conference Series will be held at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel (101 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica).  For additional information, visit their website.

(Skip to 1:55 for the teaser.)

OK, so still a little vigilante-ish and creepily gun-dependent in the end, but whatever. I laughed! Which is saying something, I guess, because that last trailer made this look almost wholly unsalvageable under the circumstances.

Also? Kudos to Fox for catching some of Men in Black 3's alien-comedy buzz for the week. You'd be forgiven for thinking Conan hadn't been able to book Josh Brolin for Thursday night.

[Team Coco]

Photos taken from Munn's hacked phone made their way to the interwebs last week, depicting the scantily clad actress in racy poses. Accompanying Photoshopped (or, rather, Skitched) arrows and dirty talk scrawled across the pictures only made them more infamous and bizarre, but Munn wasn't the only celebrity whose private phone cam pics made waves that week.

"I honestly believe Olivia is a great actress and I think that there’s a part of this business that will try to do what it did to Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears – they want you to explode, eventually," said Chandrasekhar. "They want you to become really famous for being really hot then they want to see you naked and then they want to eat you alive. I think Olivia, because of her acting ability, has an opportunity to be famous for her talent and not for this. And look, it’s not her fault these pictures came out."

That said, the timing of the photo leak may serve as a coincidental boon for The Babymakers, which is currently seeking distribution. Chandrasekhar says Munn cooked up a set of her own mock sexy pictures in response to the hubbub, poking fun at the situation; might her good-humored reaction pique audience interest in the film by showing that Munn has a sense of humor?

"From a marketing standpoint I totally recognize that it’s going to be a positive for the film. I get it, people will be curious. But she’s printed some subsequent pictures that are fucking hilarious. She hasn’t put them out yet [ed. Today Munn released at least one of these response pics today along with an open letter], but they’re hilarious and really make fun of this whole event. She totally gets how to spin something funny."

[@oliviamunn, WSJ Speakeasy]

Let’s not belabor this: However Adam Sandler’s forthcoming dual-role family comedy Jack and Jill turns out, there is no denying that its marketing campaign is deeply, profoundly disturbing. Like, nightmare fuel. Unbelievably misguided, lazy, slapped-together and unsightly. And really, that’s not even counting the American marketing at this point.

Argentina gets this movie, too (we are nothing if not charitable with our exports!), and so check out the one-sheet currently exhorting that country’s moviegoers to part ways with their pesos and spend time with Sandler, Katie Holmes, Mexican star Eugenio Derbez, and a JetSki. Tagline translation is welcome, though I’m pretty sure it says, “You cannot escape your family, especially with OMG we’re totally fucked.”

[Click for bigger image, via Videogum]

We’ve gone back and forth on the marketing for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, from parsing its initial, pseudo-bootlegged trailer to trawling its mysterious Tumblr to breaking down both NSFW and maybe too-SFW images to spending eight early minutes with David Fincher’s adaptation of the international bestseller. In a nutshell, it looks good! And today’s new, extended trailer looks even better.

No one wants to be in the tank for a movie based solely on glorified commercials, but come on. These are great commercials! The story takes real shape (especially for newbies with no prior experience with the book or the original Swedish adaptation), the characters’ edges sharpen, and Fincher’s arresting images beg to be expanded and explained. It’s just sinister and cold and sexy and affecting from top to bottom — just the kind of remedy you want to mainline after spending time with, say, the J. Edgar trailer. (If you really feel like indulging, check out the high-definition version at Apple.)

VERDICT: Yes, yes, a million times yes.

The parody trailers for The Muppets have tackled rom coms, Green Lantern, and more over the course of the marketing campaign for the Jason Segel-led November release, but this one takes the cake. Because you haven’t really thought enough about Kermit and Miss Piggy until you’ve seen them posing as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. (Sans pierced-nipple nudity, but still.) Muppets, you win.

In a shrewd stroke of timing, the new Muppets trailer and poster comes as Sony is ramping up their viral marketing for Dragon Tattoo (read about the new eight-minute preview popping up at advance Sony screenings this week). And though it uses footage from the colorful, feel-good Muppets flick, aping the frenetic editing and music of Dragon Tattoo’s first trailer lends Kermit & Co. an edge, not to mention a perversely funny sense of humor.

The only problem: Miss Piggy as Lisbeth Salander. If you’ve read the books or seen the original film you know what I’m talking about. I hope I don’t wind up thinking of Miss Piggy when I’m watching Rooney Mara do Lisbeth come December.

• The Muppets Parody The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo With New Trailer And Poster [Cinema Blend]

Who knew that the No Country For Old Men poster would be so influential in 2011? A few months after the team behind the Fright Night remake appeared to borrow heavily from the one-sheet for the Coen Brothers’ big Oscar winner of 2007, an eagle-eyed tipster points out another upcoming film’s marketing debt.

No clean getaways, indeed. But as a recent commenter at IMP Awards notes as well, No Country kind of adapted Traffic’s tagline — “No One Gets Away Clean” — for its own purposes, so hey. All’s fair in love and marketing.

[Click below for full-size image]

· One of the coolest parts of the marketing for Captain America: First Avenger? The vintage 1940s throwback posters that have been commissioned for the film. Courtesy of Olly Moss and Mondo, comes this propaganda-y Cap one-sheet, of which only 375 were printed. You can purchase this and another Olly Moss Captain America poster for $85 once they go on sale. Click through for a look, then stick around for more Buzz Break.

[via Badass Digest]

· Rumor alert: Denise Di Novi says she’s producing an adaptation of Beauty and the Beast with Guillermo Del Toro that has Harry Potter’s Emma Watson attached to star. [Coming Soon]

· “From the skeleton of the script, the plane ride became wildly improvised. Melissa’s talking about putting a Nano up my butt, or up her butt—the Nano was going up someone’s butt. I ruined millions of takes by laughing. In the scene outside the bathroom, she had to say, ‘Let’s go to the restroom—and not rest,’ and after that she was free to improv. She had such good ones that I ruined. Like she said, ‘Do you like this leg? I got another one just like it. I can put them both over my head and comb my goddamn hair.’” Melissa McCarthy’s husband Ben Falcone on his wife’s breakout Bridesmaids performance. [GQ]

· Open Road is close to finalizing a deal to acquire The Grey, a survivalist thriller from director Joe Carnahan. Liam Neeson stars. [Deadline]

· Charlie Sheen is officially going to star in a television adaptation of Anger Management. No showrunner or network has been announced just yet. [Deadline]

If you thought that sitcom rerun advertising was exclusive to commercials, you’re apparently wrong. Sadly (or excitingly, depending on your views on time-travel marketing), networks have found a way to generate ad revenue for new films and products in old episodes of your favorite television series by straight-up superimposing those products into a scene. For evidence, look no further than a recent rerun of a 2007 episode of How I Met Your Mother that allegedly (and eerily) advertised this weekend’s Kevin James vehicle Zookeeper.

To see what the shot looked like before the Zookeeper insertion magic, click here. (Seriously, do it; your mind will explode.)

Here at Movieline HQ, we look forward to watching the guys on Cheers drink beer out of Captain America souvenir cups.

· Magazine With Ad For “Zookeeper” Digitally Inserted Into “How I Met Your Mother” Rerun [Consumerist via Badass Digest]