By: Ryan 'The Rican with the Irish name' McLelland Source:Variety
It's less than four months before Paramount and Lucasfilm unspool "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," on May 22, but the marketing campaign for the fourth installment of the franchise has yet to crack a whip and offer up footage from the pic.
There's been no teaser, no trailer, no Super Bowl spot; just a one-sheet and exclusive photos handed to magazines like Vanity Fair and Empire or posted on IndianaJones.com.
That comes as a surprise at a time when Hollywood is eager to start hyping its summer tentpoles a year in advance -- and when it's been 19 years since the last Indy adventure, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." First trailers for Par and Marvel's "Iron Man" and Warner Bros.' "The Dark Knight" bowed last summer, for example.
But when it comes to "Crystal Skull," Par and Lucasfilm have shown little other than a brief presentation of Steven Spielberg and his cast on set during Comic-Con last July.
That will change next week.
Par will attach the first teaser for "Crystal Skull" to fantasy pic "The Spiderwick Chronicles" on Feb. 14, with the spot to hit the Web shortly thereafter.
Reason for the delay is that the film only recently wrapped, so much of the material that would go into a memorable trailer just wasn't ready until now.
Awareness and anticipation also is already high for the pic, so producers didn't feel the need to show too much too soon.
"In the case of Indiana Jones, he's such a well-known character that it's not like you have to get out there and introduce something new," said Spielberg spokesman Marvin Levy. "You tailor the campaign to the material. We also want to keep a lot of the surprises. That's part of the fun."
