I suppose I should say that, yes, of course I knew that Jonathan is a publicist, and that someone was going to benefit from me posting the story. Like you, I usually steer clear from the "assets" these companies send, because there just doesn't seem to be enough value to pictures, trailers, posters, etc, to my readers, to match with the shiny gold coing that XXX@specialops.com gets form y link. But I felt like there was value here, so I ran with it. I didn't get that email from Deep Focus, but Magnolia's Pulse site did cause Firefox to crash several times, which I suppose is sign of some kind of infection.

Of course, you're right, Karina, and as a Cinematical addict myself, I can see that there's a story, or rather, to put it more modestly, an entry in this thing. Value. But this particular instance sets off alarms I'm guessing all of us should heed. There's no way around the documentable evidence that one filmmaker has lifted from another, and yet, in reporting that, particularly in the wake of goings on in a far, far more important realm with far, far heftier ramifications, i.e., Miller and Woodward, we need to think twice about, maybe even openly reject efforts to influence our wee voices. So that they at least remain independent.

I totally agree. In hindsight, I probably should have disclosed the source of the tip more directly. But it didn't really occur to me, because the tip was exciting enough that I wanted to show it to my readers, which is what is so great about having a blog - being able to immediately share something that excites you with an audience. I think it comes down to this: It's a publicist's job to get us to pay attention to their products. It's up to us to decide if their products are worth paying attention to. In this case, I thought it was, regardless of the source, or their true motivations.

Meanwhile...

http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/004345.html

C'mon, let's link directly to the sites. To hell with the tracking, yes?

Wow, picked up on that quick!

Yeah, we get email from SpecialOps, too, though not usually that particular guy. The bulk of PR stuff I get I erase but if it's stuff of interest to me I'll run it, and I figure if they're sending it to me and I'm using it I may as well use their preferred link as long as it's not doing anything untoward to the people using it. If, for example, tracking links were setting cookies to track the users around the net rather than just telling them which site those particular users came from then away the tracking links would go. Or if any of my readers asked me to use direct links rather than tracking, that'd do it too.

But yes, wary of hype based on PR chatter ...

On a related but not-so-much topic ... is anyone else feeling really conflicted about this remake? I don't like the actor in those viral ads, but he's dead anyway and won't be in the film at all, really, unless they've dramatically altered the storyline and other than him I kind of like the tone they've struck. There's some stuff in there I really like. But on the other hand lifting that shot - people on Twitch spotted that IMMEDIATELY - just isn't on and it seems like they're really killing most of the subtlety that makes the original so good.

Agreed, Todd. What's really striking about the Dimension trailer, too, is the sheer verbosity; if the characters aren't overexplaining the set-up, you've got onscreen text and a voiceover.

As for the tracking thing, I don't want to make a federal case out of it or anything, but I do really object to being told, Please don't link to the main site, and, Please don't link to Apple for the trailer.

That's just a whole lot more than presumptuous. It's an insult.

the mere existence of the "please use this read tape, it keeps them away" note indicates a complete, but not unsurprising, cluelessness as to what makes the original good. oh well.

I'm having a major problem with what looks like the hordes of white-faced ghosts. It looks like the filmmakers confused Kairo with any one of 10,000 Ju-on movies. Kurosawa managed to avoid having physically threatening or repugnant manifestations of the spirits for the most part, with the exception of the tremendously eerie "dancing spectre," which I'll happily admit was one of the few moments in recent movies that actually put the fear in me. Also, giving away the apocalyptic anture of the story in the trailer is a poor idea. I had no idea when I saw the original and it was that much more powerful. I think I'll continue to do what I've doing with all the other American J-horror remakes - avoiding them.