X-Men: Apocalypse producer talks about the Comic-Con leak
Last week at San Diego Comic-Con, countless trailers and footage reels were shown to eager fans sitting in Hall H. Some of them debuted online after their premiere at the exhibit hall and others never did. For films like Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Suicide Squad, none of the footage was officially released, leading to recorded versions from the crowd finding their way online and spreading like wildfire. Warner Bros. eventually conceded to the spread and put the “first look” of the David Ayer film online. This, however, lead some to believe that it was purely a marketing technique and that the footage was always set to appear online.
This week, ComingSoon.net/SuperHeroHype joined a group of journalists on the set of X-Men: Apocalypse, just days after the San Diego event. When speaking with former Fox Executive-turned-X-Men: Apocalypse producer Hutch Parker, the conversation steered toward this very topic. You can read his reply below.
Q: You brought new footage to Comic Con, which was quickly bootlegged. I’ve seen people claim that footage leaks out of Comic Con are designed as part of a marketing plan. As former studio exec and current producer, what are your thoughts on that subject?
Hutch Parker: “I’d say it really isn’t intended to be leaked. It’s really intended to excite a core. From a marketing perspective, what they want is to share it with the most discerning eyes that are out there for this material. It’s the biggest and probably most intense focus group any of us ever have.’
“You hope that you excite a level of interest that they will express and celebrate it. But it’s a scary-ass deal, because they’re not shy. If they don’t like it, if they aren’t feeling it, they’re going to let you and everybody else know. [Showing footage] is something people do with trepidation, but with hope. We make a movie and you want to believe it’s going to be great. The reality is, not all of them are. But you have to believe that going in. We go in wanting to be accepted and embraced, and ideally even acknowledged for having done it well.’
“The problem with the theory about the marketing is, I don’t actually think it’s good marketing. Leaking footage a year in advance of a movie’s release is not such a good thing. The reason you don’t see footage out that far is you run the risk of it getting stale. Generally speaking, and I can’t speak for other studios — I can’t even speak for Fox any more — but I don’t believe their intention is [for footage to be leaked]. I think their intention is to get the most important opinions and opinion-makers in this community engaged in the promise of what’s coming.”
Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult are set to lead the cast of X-Men: Apocalypse as Magneto, Professor X, Mystique, and Beast. The film will also see the return of Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, Evan Peters as Quicksilver, Lucas Till as Havok and newcomers Alexandra Shipp as Storm, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Ben Hardy as Angel, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Olivia Munn as Psylocke and Lana Condor as Jubilee, and with Oscar Isaac as the film’s title antagonist. Writer/producer Simon Kinberg is scripting the film from a treatment he wrote with X2: X-Men United writers Mike Dougherty and Dan Harris.
Said to be the conclusion of a trilogy started with X-Men: First Class and continued with X-Men: Days of Future Past, the Bryan Singer directed X-Men: Apocalypse is set for release on May 27, 2016.
