A teaser for Uncle Festus and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be viewable in theatres on Friday, 2.14, attached to prints of The Spiderwick Chronicles. The spot will be online “shortly thereafter,” says Variety. If no one leaks it prior to 2.14, it will be pretty much essential to troop down to the Grove or the Arclight for the first Spiderwick show that day.
Just like Star Wars fans and journalists did, come to think, when the first teaser for The Phantom Menace played in front of Ed Zwick‘s The Siege on that film’s opening day — 11.6.98. (Or was it later in the run? Memory fails.)
I was there at Mann’s Village along with everyone else. The crowd was yelling “Siege! Siege! Siege!” like they were being directed by Anthony Mann doing a crowd scene for El Cid. Free Enterprise director Rob Burnett was there. Drew McWeeny was there. I spoke briefly to Paul Thomas Anderson in the lobby. Every hip person in the known Los Angeles universe with any interest or investment in film-geek culture was there.
And then the trailer hit the screen — cheers and whoo-woos (little did they know!) — and then it was over, and almost the entire crowd was gone ten minutes later.