Trailer Company Hitches Future to Video Games

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A trailer that went viral last week features “A Game of Thrones” actor James Cosmo saying his last prayers to a group of congregants huddled inside an ancient church. Awaiting them outside is an army of computer-animated demons whose war cries rattle the church’s stained-glass windows, with just one character named Death protecting the church from a demon onslaught.

But the live-action trailer, produced by Hammer Creative of Hollywood, wasn’t made to promote a big-budget TV series or movie. It was produced as a promo for a console video game “Darksiders II,” which will be released by THQ Inc. of Agoura Hills later this summer.

It’s an example of how the Hammer trailer house has shifted its business toward producing such promos for video games and away from movies, as financing for bigger independent films has dried up in recent years.

“Our bread and butter were indie specialties,” said Hammer founder Mark Pierce, citing work producing trailers for “Good Night and Good Luck” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” “That business isn’t what it used to be. (It’s) lucky video games came along.”

Many of Hammer’s writers, story developers and editors have stayed on through the transition to video games, and they now apply a cinematic eye toward the trailers, which often rely on footage from the games.

But for the recent “Darksiders II” trailer, the stakes were raised substantially. The spot was shot on location in an old church in a rural area outside of Prague, the Czech Republic. Hammer hired two visual effects companies to create the demons.

THQ declined to disclose the budget of the production, but the video game company is giving the spot a key role in its marketing. The trailer will migrate from the web to TV, airing on Comedy Central, for example.

THQ will try to harness the buzz to secure preorders of the game this summer, hoping to beat a blast of competition that awaits later this year from competitors such as Activision of Santa Monica, which will release “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2” in November.

Steering to L.A.

Startup Moviepilot already does business with the major Hollywood studios, even though it has yet to set up a physical presence in town. But in an effort to increase studio business, the Berlin startup will open a Venice office in August.

Led by Chief Executive Tobi Bauckhage, Moviepilot collects data from clicks and online responses from consumers about movie news and trailers. That data is then sold to studios as audience research to help craft targeted ad campaigns.

Moviepilot has primarily provided research about international audiences. Bauckhage said the company will use a fresh $7 million round of fundraising in May to set up the office in Venice so that it can work closer with studios and track domestic audiences.

“The round that we just closed was about setting up in L.A.,” he said.

The company launched a German site five years ago and an English version in November. Its websites aggregate news and rumors about upcoming movies, allowing fans to “like” a project at any point by using their Facebook log-in. The Facebook log-in gives Moviepilot access to other information, such as gender or age, or whether a particular fan also likes, for example, Showtime’s “Homeland” TV show. That way, advertisements or trailers can be served to targeted fans on Facebook.

One of Moviepilot’s recent studio campaigns was researching the prospective international fan base for 20th Century Fox action film “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.”

Bauckhage said Hollywood studios are increasingly turning toward such digital data-crunching to learn more about consumers so they can refine their costly theatrical marketing campaigns accordingly.

Leapfrogging

Hollywood’s Jim Henson Co. announced earlier this month that the studio will develop a feature film based on the classic HarperCollins children’s book series “Frog and Toad.”

The movie will likely come out in 2014, but the studio is planning to leapfrog the release with a line of clothing, accessories and other licensed products that will come out next year, in part to refamiliarize people with the characters from the books, which were first published in the 1970s.

Melissa Segal, a senior vice president at the studio, said the products will include logical items such as T-shirts and hats, though she’s also looking at more unusual items such as pet toys and gardening accessories.

“The products will make Frog and Toad more visible in the marketplace,” Segal said.

Staff reporter Jonathan Polakoff can be reached at [email protected] or (323)549-5225, ext. 226.

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