And now that I know there’s only a tiny bit of blood on a toe or two, I’m all in!

Congrats on the trailer and the distribution! As it seems everyone is leaving their opinion, I’ll kick in my two cents – accept its worth with respect to how much I’m charging you for it. ;)

I know I’m gonna see the movie (because you made it!); however, I’m not sure it’s a good trailer for folks who aren’t your fans or fans or Ryan Reynolds.

People complain that Hollywood shows too much of the movie in trailers. While I tend to agree, stats show that people prefer knowing what kind of movie they are buying a ticket for and that advanced knowledge of a film’s plot is appreciated.

As it stands, I don’t know what kind of movie The Nines is. I heard a lot of people make comparisons the The Number 23, and I’d say I’d have to fall in that group…and that’s not a good thing.

I appreciate the fact that you didn’t play the trailer as a comedy when it’s not, but I’d like to know what genre it falls into. From what is shown in the trailer, there seems to be a few genres it could fall into. If you’re classifying it as a psychological thriller, I need to see more thrills in the trailer.

You classify it as a mind-fuck, but I’m not sure I even get that in the trailer. I’d look at the trailer for Being John Malkovich or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to see how they showed mind-fuckery. Right now, I’d try to do as much as I could in the trailer to disassociate your film with The Number 23.

Sorry if I sound harsh. Once again, I’m a big fan and I’ll see the film no matter what – I just want others to see it too.

Peace!

Wow. I was certain I’d be the only one to whom this occurred.

The Frighteners came out in ‘96. Back then, I was still freelancing in film marketing while my screenwriting career was nascent, and I took a gig at a trailer company to come up with a tag line for the movie. I wrote about fifty lines, but none of them were any good.

Total failure.

Three months later, I’m driving down Beverly or something, and I see a billboard for the movie with the line “Your number is up,” and I literally smacked myself in the head and said “D’oh!”

Perfect line for that movie.

Not that it helped the film open or anything…

But still.

Good news for John? Rick (#27) and I are probably the only people who remember this. :)

Looking forward to it big time!

Josh is alive and well, just busy. I’ll be seeing him in 50 minutes and will harass him for being a blog-tease.

Brian (#56):

A totally valid reaction. The movie is actually much more like MAGNOLIA (or ADAPTATION) than THE NUMBER 23. If I have time, I’ll try to write up the whole backstory on the trailer in a later post.

The short version is that when we tried to cut a trailer that played funny/dramatic/quirky/suspenseful (that is, trying to mimic the shifting tones the movie) it was just plain baffling. The trailer needed to start as some identifiable genre, and then shift. We could have started as a comedy, but that would have made the whole thing feel very slight. It would also have been more difficult to segue into the second half of the trailer.

So although it’s not really a thriller, it is a mind-fuck movie, and that was easiest to indicate by showcasing the thriller-y moments in the first half.

Also, by keeping plot points out of the trailer, it makes it even more compelling. Though I hate to sound like I’m critiquing, those were the things that struck me the most.

Props to your DP. Ryan Reynolds isn’t usually a favorite of mine but his performance has good depth to it in this. But then good dialogue makes it easier.

I’ll just preceed this comment with a big disclaimer: what I’m about to say is just my personal opinion, please ignore if it is unhelpful and take it with a huge pinch of salt. I just say this because I may be kind of blunt, (again coming from someone with absolutely no authority whatsoever, just a viewer with an interest in screenwriting) because I want to be honest and not just suck up to you.

My first impression of the trailer completely changed my expectation of what the film was about. I didn’t expect it to be sold as a psychological/supernatural chiller. i thought it was more Magnolia-esque (to coin a phrase).

Although the title is ‘The Nines’, I didn’t think that the number would be such a prominent part of the film (going solely by the trailer). And that shouldn’t be a problem…but I couldn’t help but be reminded of ‘The Number 23′, by the way he’s circling the nos. 9 on the paper etc. That kind of turned me off it, giving me the impression that it is a ‘profound aspect’ of (Ryan Reynold’s character’s) life and maybe just another generic horror film.

But then I watched it again about 5 days later…

and it was amazing how different the trailer came across to me.

It seemed a lot more interesting, with a lot more going on then I originally thought. If a friend asked me, I would say it’s a sort of ‘Donnie Darko’ meets ‘Adaptation’ with a slight element of ‘Inland Empire’ (that’s my wannabe Hollywood speak over with!). I always knew my perception of films could change on second/multible viewings, but this is the first time this has happened me with a trailer.

For some reason that I can’t put my finger on, I can’t help but think that this film is being ’sold’ against its generic expectation (I hope this makes sense).

I just very briefly scanned a few of the other comments and didn’t really like that some people are trying to ’solve’ or figure out the film. Perhaps the trailer is encouraging this, but in my opinion, that’s not what the purpose of a trailer should be.

I also now expect a twist in the ending, which I would prefer not to know, but then again that’s not because of the trailer, but rather as a result of reading one of your replies.

Okay, end of rant. I’m sorry to have gone on for so long, and I hope this in some way might be useful.

I’m looking forward to seeing the film when/if it comes to Ireland. Some of the imagery looks really impressive and cinematic, and I’m glad that it looks well directed.

Thanks for your patience if you’ve managed to read all this and for your continued work on the site.

Over’n out.

Trailer looks cool, I hope I can get to see this movie.