Re-selling "Guilty"

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In my 3.12.06 rave review of Sidney Lumet' s Find Me Guilty (Freestyle, 3.17), I wrote that the courtoom drama "is being sold the wrong way -- the one-sheet and the trailer are telling you it's a jaunty mob-guy comedy, a kind of farce, and the music toward the end of the film tries to convey this also, and this feels like a sell-out to the moron trade. Is everyone listening? The advertising is dishonest ."

And ineffective, I could have added two or three weeks later. The critically-hailed film only brought in less than $2 million worldwide.

But now, over eight months later, there's a ninth-inning attempt by Guilty producers T.J. Mancini and Bob DeBrino to persuade critics and Academy voters to reappraise Lumet's film as the superbly focused, well-layered entertainment that it is. They're doing this intially by issuing a new one-sheet that represents what it actually is, as opposed to the light-hearted goof-off that distributor Bob Yari tried to sell it as. I'll be posting the new art later this afternoon, but a piece by L.A. Times writer Bob Welkos says it "shows Diesel looking positively Perry Mason-like in a courtroom, and banners a number of rave reviews.'"

Mancini says he'd also like to send out screeners to Academy members as well as members of the various guilds, but he also says that Yari's ongoing lawsuit with the Academy over his being elbowed off the list of Crash producers last year is interfering with this effort. Yari Film Group spokesperson Susie Hayasaka that the lawsuit is only preventing the mailing of screeners to Producer's Guild (PGA) members. Otherwise, she says, "We are very supportive of Find Me Guilty...we're very proud of it, and we want to do everything we can to remind people of its quality."

comment #1

NYCritic says ...

The lawsuit did not stop screeners of THE ILLUSIONIST from being sent out ... I suspect there are other reasons at play that they aren't sending out FIND ME GUILTY - especially since it has been commercially available since June.

comment #2

Dixon Steele says ...

Vin Diesel should be paying for it. He'd benefit the most, although there's no way in hell he'll get nominated.

Still, one of my favorites of the year for sure.

comment #3

The Movie Man says ...

Nice article, Jeff, the ad strategy you mentioned certainly turned me off, I thought Lumet was desperate and essentially making My Cousin Vinny with the star of XXX, I'll be taking a look in the coming days. Whether I like it or not its nice to hear its at least an honest to God Lumet movie.

comment #4

The Winchester says ...

I loved this movie. I even met Jeff after screening it, and we discussed how solid a flick it is, and how good Diesel was.

The film was totally marketed wrong, and even though I thought it was great, it's greatest chance at an Oscar nomination would be for Peter Dinklage. That man is amazing in any film he works in.

comment #5

quality says ...

Vin was brilliant in it. Lumet was great. So was Dinklage and Silver. One of my many questions behind the scenes, and there were many questions, How did a NY City cop get involved producing a mafia bigwig and get the rights to his story with Mancini without any bullets flying? I'm also told this cop had the rights directly from Donald Trump to make a TV series called Trump Tower and permission to film in Trump's flagship. Why, where and who?

comment #6

Thrudvangar says ...

You guys sold me on this flick. I'll see it this weekend. I heard great stuff about it and I love Lumet but I can't stand Vin. And what's up with that hair? I reckon the real guy has hair but isn't this a case of bad casting?

comment #7

Joel says ...

Thrudvangar,

This is not bad casting - at all. Diesel is brilliant in this role.

comment #8

The Movie Man says ...

No matter how good he is, the Oscar is never going to go to someone who calls themselves "Vin Diesel."

comment #9

Geoff says ...

Because of Jeff I rented this movie and had a really good time. It's very well done and although you don't have to love it, you'd be a fool to say it's anything less than good.

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