You’re gonna need a bigger trailer…James Cameron’s Titanic has a storied history, one we have detailed in multiple videos and articles. And while we may all know the tales of the alternate ending and the cast/crew’s soup being dosed with PCP, one story that hasn’t gotten much attention revolves around none other than Kurt Russell, whose gut reaction to the marketing campaign ensured the movie wouldn’t go overboard.
As recounted in his forthcoming book The Bigger Picture – published posthumously, as Jon Landau died last year – the producer said that the length of the trailer for Titanic was throwing an iceberg into meetings. Typically, movie trailers hit the 2:30 mark or so, but for Titanic, that trailer was just over four minutes, which of course makes sense if it were to have some sort of link to the finished film’s runtime. But the studio execs weren’t having it. “Paramount had taken the same footage and made their own shorter trailer. We called it the John Woo trailer. 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. It was not our movie. We went back and forth with Paramount, first reasoning, then screaming…”
Following that, the team convinced the studios to let them shop their 4:02 Titanic trailer in front of the National Association of Theatre Owners. “At the showcase were some of their top executives and biggest names, including Kurt Russell, the star of their upcoming film Breakdown. I sat nervously as our trailer played in that banquet hall in Las Vegas, and 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.”
So is Kurt Russell responsible for Titanic being one of the biggest movies in history? Well, we’re not saying James Cameron owes him a bonus or anything, but then again we’re massive fans of the man so we have to give him partial credit here!
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