In conflict, the studio cobbled together its own teaser for the movie, which Landau and co. called “the John Woo trailer”, adding, “It was all flash cuts and pounding music, gunshots, and screams. It made the movie look like an action flick that happened to take place on the Titanic.”
Landau recalls (via Variety) that at first they tried reasoning with Paramount over the trailer disagreement, then “screaming” at them, until the studio’s CEO, Sherry Lansing, nixed the decision from her distribution department and allowed Titanic’s longer trailer to be shown at ShoWest that year. Landau remembers sitting at the Paramount table with “some of their top executives and biggest names”, which included none other than Kurt Russell, who was the star of the studio’s forthcoming action thriller, Breakdown.
According to Landau, he was nervous as the trailer played to its banquet hall audience. “Just as it ended, Kurt Russell loudly announced, ‘I’d pay ten dollars just to see that trailer again.’ With that, we got a special dispensation from the Motion Picture Association — trailers were supposed to be 150 seconds, max — to release a four-minute-and-two-second trailer to audiences around the world.”
“From that day on,” he writes, “every negative article about the film ended with the sentiment that the movie might actually be good. It was a real turning point.”
Once again, Kurt saved the day. It’s all in the reflexes.
The Bigger Picture by Jon Landau will be published on November 4.