Just like most products, films often go through several names before settling on what we see on the shelf at Blockbuster.
Some of these are never intended for the public, being used more to sell the idea of the script to the demanding studio; “American Pie” for example was originally called “Teenage Sex Comedy That Can Be Made For Under $10 million That Your Reader Will Love But The Executive Will Hate”. I don’t think it would have looked too catchy on the poster but I doubt there were many questions remaining in the head of the studio executives who saw the script.
Most of the name changes that occur are simply down to how they appeal to the consumer when you want as many people as possible buying tickets. “Rick’s Place” was found to not quite resonate as well as “
But one of the things I love about the film industry is that it allows people to make genuinely bad products safe in the knowledge that there is a market for it, even if it’s only a tiny one. You don’t get many people saying they love the appeal of the new featureless, scratchy sounding personal music player but a bad film can have people lining up for hours, often in ridiculous costumes, to catch a showing.
Like a lot of products, the name is often the first hook that people will encounter to set the tone and let them know what they are in for. When your product is meant to be enjoyed for irony and/or insanity that gives you a lot of room to play. Sadly these kinds of films don’t have much of a marketing budget so I’ve not yet had my break in
- The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
- Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus
- Snakes on a Plane
- Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
- Ghost in the Invisible
- SSSSSSS (AKA SSSSnake)
- Slap Her…She’s French
And my all time favourite…
- Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo
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Kevin
ReplyDeleteYou have some dodgy film tastes!