John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood

by Sellers, Michael D.

  The question then becomes -- was Carney and her team paying attention to the reaction? Once the negatives starting rolling in, what sort of countermeasures were taken?

  An obvious move that not only would have helped as a countermeasure, but would have clearly been a much more effective way of rolling out the news, would have been to have director Andrew Stanton make the announcement in an interview or release that included an explanation for the reasoning behind it. Stanton was silent, however, and only was heard on the subject in “edit bay” interviews that took place a month after the title change was announced, and which were embargoed by Disney until July 11, by which time any ability to affect the flow of negativity had been lost.137

  There is no evidence that Disney either actively monitored the response, or took any countermeasures. No one from Disney went on record with any explanation; no one from the production weighed in on the topic; and there was no second wave of articles from bloggers stating a more favorable attitude toward the name change (something that would typically reflect a ‘reputation management’ effort as Disney publicists reached out to bloggers and entertainment journalists).

  Meanwhile the negative response to the name change was a watershed moment in the unfolding image of the film. It was a moment when a willing and cooperative audience of key influencers went from a positive orientation supportive of the film, to doubting naysayers who would, increasingly, question everything they saw or heard about the film.

  Why was it handled so awkwardly?

  Regardless of the “why” of it, the “what” was clear enough: MT Carney, hired in part because of her expertise in social media and new media marketing, failed to anticipate the negative reaction and when it came, apparently failed to value the influencers enough to even monitor them -- and for sure failed to employ reputation management best practices to control and minimize the damage.

  Disney’s status as a capable steward of the project had taken a hit, and the credibility of the entire enterprise had been knocked down a substantial notch. But the moment for countermeasures had passed. It was on to the next phase of the campaign -- one which would see the unveiling of the first poster, the first trailer, and many other firsts that would set the tone for the film’s ultimate reception.

  Iger and Lucas: The Dance Begins

  Three days before Disney announced the John Carter title change, on May 20, 2011, Disney Chairman Bob Iger was in Orlando at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park for the grand opening ceremony of Star Tours 2, a Star Wars Themed ride that, in its newest incarnation, was about to go 3D. Also present at the event was George Lucas, creator of Star Wars and the principal owner of Lucasfilm Ltd.

  The ceremony brought the two men together with lightsabers in their hands, and according to Iger, “George had to show me how to use it.”138

  It was, however, substantially more than a bit of coaching in lightsaber technique that was on the agenda between the two men. Iger, fresh off the $4B acquisition of Marvel, had his eye on the Star Wars franchise and took advantage of the relaxed access to Lucas to begin a dialogue about the possibility that Disney would acquire Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise.

  For Iger, Star Wars was a perfect acquisition target that reflected the core values and vision that he had nurtured during his tenure as Disney Chairman. Although Iger’s official Disney bio lists “generating the best creative content possible” as the cornerstone of his vision for the company, his tenure had been marked more by the acquisition of creative content than the internal generation of it.139 First it had been Pixar, then Marvel. "We proved with our Pixar and Marvel acquisitions that we know how to expand the value of a brand," Iger would later say in an interview. And it was this ability to take a stable and reliable brand and optimize it across multiple platforms and in every territory around the world that differentiated Disney and was, ultimately, the company’s core competence in the Iger era.

  By contrast, John Carter was an example of a film, and prospective franchise, being built from the ground up in the “old school” Disney way at a time when the “new model” for Disney that Iger had created and was continuing to develop was one of acquisition, not creation, followed by enhanced exploitation of the creative intellectual property acquired.

  What did Iger’s eye on the Star Wars prize mean for John Carter?

  At the working level and even up to the level of MT Carney, it did not have a direct effect since the discussions between Iger and Lucas were very closely held. Rich Ross was aware of them, but it is unlikely the knowledge of the negotiations went further down the chain than that.

  But while the closely held nature of the discussions meant that knowledge of the prospective acquisition did not reach troops in the field, it certainly became a factor affecting the attitude at the highest levels of Disney (Iger) and Disney Studios (Ross). Step by step, John Carter had become a very costly $250M outlier in the Disney universe, and was a project which did not fit the CEO’s vision.

  In fact, with Star Wars in play, it had at least the potential to become an impediment to what Iger considered the far more important strategic acquisition of Lucasfilm. A deal with Lucasfilm would still be possible even if John Carter was a hit -- but Lucas had spent a lifetime building the Star Wars franchise and asking it to share studio focus with a nascent and successful John Carter would make any offer from Disney less attractive. Was this potential impediment enough to cause Iger or Ross to take active steps to scuttle John Carter? No. But did it lessen any remaining shred of motivation to “go the extra mile” for the Stanton film? Absolutely. It was one more piece to the puzzle of Disney’s increasingly detached handling of the film.

  Reshoots and Test Screenings

  In the aftermath of the Brain Trust screening in December 2010, Stanton and the editorial team worked and reworked many of the scenes, identifying numerous spots within individual scenes where specific shots were needed to subtly adjust performances, change dialogue, and in some places provide alternate actions for the characters. In addition to the key insert shots to be added to existing scenes, there were a few newly written scenes, and a few previously shot scenes that would be reworked in their entirety.

  An example of subtly reworking a scene with inserts and individual shots is a scene where John Carter discovers that Dejah Thoris is leading him not to the River Iss and passage back to Earth, but rather to Helium, where she hopes to enlist his support for her cause. Carter calls Dejah Thoris out, ejecting her from the thoat she is riding. Reactions to the scene in the Brain Trust screening centered on Carter appearing callous — and Dejah Thoris appearing willfully manipulative, neither of which were helpful reactions. In attempting to recalibrate the scene, Stanton and the editors came to the conclusion that making it clear that Carter was “conning” her into cooperation, rather than truly dumping her in the desert, would be helpful — and so they inserted the line “just play along.” Then, to soften Dejah Thoris and provide a moment that would arguably help sell that Carter was beginning to fall for Dejah Thoris, they added a line for Dejah who, after explaining that the could not accept an arranged marriage to Sab Than, and run, and now might regret it: “I was afraid, weak—maybe I should have married, but I so feared it would somehow be the end of Barsoom.”

  The net effect of the two inserted moments was to adjust the audience “takeaway” from the scene in the desired manner -- Carter never intended to truly dump Dejah in the desert, and Dejah’s apparent manipulation was motivated not by personal weakness, but rather by fear for her country and, ultimately, Barsoom.

  Similar tweaks were implemented at various junctures throughout the film, plus the opening was re-imagined as, instead of a fully mounted scene introducing Dejah Thoris, more of a documentary style prologue with Willem Dafoe narrating as Tars Tarkas, the Thark Warlord. Strategies were also implemented to force the pace in the middle section of the movie.

  The Portland Test Screening

  In June 2011, with 8 months to go until the March 9
, 2012, release date, all key players from the film and from Disney Studios journeyed to Portland, Oregon for the first full-on test screening for Stanton’s film. With any film, this is a critical juncture -- for John Carter, even more so.

  The cut that would be shown incorporated the first round of reshoots from the La Playa stage, and although many of the VFX shots were still incomplete, the cut was watchable for “outside eyes.” It also featured temp music, not the Giacchino score; the sound mix wasn’t final or even near complete -- but it was a solid working cut that reflected all the work done until that moment, and the audience reaction would be an extremely important step in the process toward completion.

  Altogether 5 Disney execs from production and marketing were there; plus Stanton, his key editorial crew, producers Lindsey Collins and Jim Morris, and a few others.

  The audience was 400 Portland filmgoers, recruited by the A.C. Nielsen Corp. The format for the event was the standard one that Nielsen and other test screening outfits follow: There would be a brief introduction at the beginning designed to give the audience enough background on the film to approximate what they might be expected to know if they were viewing the film “normally” in a theater. They would also be warned that the film was still a work in progress and some shots will not be complete -- they would be seeing, for example, wireframes instead of fully articulated creatures, etc. After the screening, all viewers would fill out a detailed questionnaire that had been provided -- the key question on which were the first two check boxes -- one for “Excellent - Strongly recommend” and the other for “Very Good - Recommend.” The percentage score bandied about in Hollywood for any test screening is the percentage of people from the screening who check either of these two boxes.

  There was a long list of additional questions, the most prominent of which was: “Was anything about the story unclear; were you confused?” Other questions addressed the characters, which scenes the viewer liked best, which scenes he/she liked least, and so on.

  Stanton, like any filmmaker, was deeply nervous going into the screening, and frustrated by his inability to create fixes for problems as easily as he could in the all-digital universe of Pixar animation. He would later tell an interviewer:140

  If there’s anything looming as a threat, it’s this medium. Because if, worst-case scenario, there’s some story line or motivation that seventy-five per cent of the people aren’t getting, I don’t have many options, other than cutting it out. If I can’t cure the tumor, in a way I’d rather not know it’s there. I’m only as good at solving problems as I have the ability to do something about them—and it makes me so mad.

  Stanton, his gut twisting in spite of a tranquilizer, sat among the audience doing what filmmakers always do at such screening -- listening to the audience reactions rather than watching the film. He waited through the exposition scene of Barsoom, which had now been trimmed dramatically to the point that it was simply a two minute “teaser” narrated by Willem Dafoe’s character “Tars Tarkas.” Stanton could detect no restlessness in the audience during this intro - but the real test would come when the first laugh was supposed to be delivered -- this would be the first test of whether the audience was truly with him or not. The laugh comes eight minutes into the film, when John Carter begins attempting to escape from Powell, who is attempting to impress him into service with the 7th US Cavalry in Arizona. The laugh came -- and it was loud, more than the chuckle Stanton had hoped for:141

  “I realized, O.K., they’re with me. Then they laughed at anything that was meant to be a smile. There was no fidgeting in the air battle with Dejah, the least-finished part of the film, and I was thinking, O.K., just get them to the kiss, because I’ve always been very confident about the last third. And there was applause at the end!

  When it was over, following Nielsen’s standard procedure, 20 audience members reflecting various demographics were asked to stay for a focus group in which more detailed questions were asked. Stanton and his team lurked in the background and were ecstatic to hear responses that seemed to indicate the film had worked very, very well for those in the focus group. When asked if they would like there to be a sequel -- 19 out of 20 hands went up and it was high fives all around for the film-making team. Most of the other comments were positive.

  Of particular significance--because this would later become an issue with critics -- was the question of whether the densely layered origins story at the beginning was confusing. The answer was not a simple no -- some of the focus group members acknowledged that that they had not been able to absorb all the detail from the opening narration about Barsoom, but they were quick to say that it didn’t keep them from being intrigued by the story and wanting to know more, and clarity emerged later as the story progressed. Some indicated that they had never quite gotten the whole “Thern plot” angle, and would have appreciated a bit more clarification -- but the objections were mild and were vastly overshadowed by the obvious enthusiasm.

  For Stanton, this was crucial. He took the test screening reaction as confirmation that the fixes they had put in had worked, and that his theory of the audience not needing to fully “get” every aspect of the exposition in the opening was on target. He would later claim that he had always believed strongly that the opening narration need only establish that there are “these guy fighting these guys and there’s a third force that’s come into it” -- that was enough. He likened it to the way a child learns, picking up bits and pieces and gradually assembling it all, rather than having to fully understand everything from the beginning.

  As soon as the focus group was over, the good news came down that the 75% had graded the film “Excellent” or “Very Good” -- a number that Disney marketers said should be rounded up to 80% given the unfinished nature of the film. This was a very high score -- good enough to cause everyone involved to breathe a sign of relief and know “we have something here.”

  Encouraged and relieved, Stanton headed back to Emeryville, visions of a trilogy now firmly implanted in his mind, and the Disney team headed back to Burbank.

  One of the most important takeaways from the focus group -- and one that gave Stanton great comfort -- was that virtually all members of the focus group rated John Carter their favorite character. This, to Stanton, was vindication of his decision to “mess with” the iconic Burroughs character, updating it to make his “knightly” virtues submerged beneath a tormented exterior that kept him from being able to easily commit to a cause, even as his underlying integrity caused him to make a series of choices that, in Stanton’s view, revealed the true nature of his character.

  The focus group’s favorite scene, almost to a person, was the scene that in the shorthand of the filmmaking team was referred to as the “Warhoon attack” -- the scene in which John Carter finally commits to his new identity on Barsoom and takes on a tribe that is bearing down on Dejah, intercut with flashbacks of him discovering his wife and child dead on earth, and burying them. This scene, more than any other, was a classic Stanton “make me care” moment -- and by the reckoning of all the focus group members, it had worked.

  Yet even as he basked in the relief of knowing that the film was working, there was much work to be done. The film was far from perfect--the focus group had indicated that it sagged in the middle, a problem that Stanton agreed with and needed to be addressed. There was also a problem with the wedding scene at the end coming too quickly, without preparation, and on the flight back to Emeryville, Stanton was already thinking of a way to fix that problem. There were other minor problems, all manageable -- but all requiring attention.

  Still, there was no way to regard the test screening as anything other than a major success, and a major step forward toward approval of a sequel. Stanton wondered if Disney might green-light a sequel based on the test screening, but then pushed the thought away. It had been good, but Disney would wait to see how the film fared in the crucible of the marketplace before committing.

  Immediately after the test screening, St
anton went back to work, impressing Disney production executives with his desire to continue strengthening the film even after a very successful “opening.” One executive who was in Portland said, “In spite of the fact that the screening had been a clear success, Stanton had zero complacency. He had a list of things about the film that he felt he could still improve.

  At Disney, head of production Sean Bailey reported to Ross, and Ross reported to Iger, that the test screening had gone surprisingly well. Iger remained unconvinced, and no change was ordered to the decision, made previously, to deny John Carter the kind of all-out marketing support that The Avengers was getting. A theory began to develop that if Stanton was the filmmaker some thought him to be, all that was needed was the basic promotion package and the film would take over from there, selling itself through positive critical reviews and consumer word of mouth.

  In his relentless Pixarian quest to “plus” the film, Stanton flew to London to film Dominic West, who played Zodangan leader Sab Than, having a conversation with Mark Strong about the Thern plot that Stanton believed would clarify any confusion on that score. Then, back in the US, he flew to Los Angeles where a scene was shot in which John Carter proposes to Dejah Thoris, providing the missing beat between the wedding attack and defeat of Sab Than, and Carter’s wedding to Dejah. Then, he went back again to London for a scene with Mark Strong. Then back to Emeryville.

  Ramping up the Marketing

  The preliminary phase of the marketing campaign would end on June 15 with the launching of the second phase -- the “Online Phase” -- during which the campaign would upgrade from sporadic efforts to a more sustained effort. The “battlefield” on which this stage of the campaign would be waged would primarily be limited to the internet and would consist of press releases; seeded article placements; interviews; the release of a poster, trailer, concept art, and still images; plus the building of a fan base through key social media mechanisms, in particular Facebook and Twitter. During this period there was one live promotional event, the Disney D23 conference in Anaheim, where the cast and director presented scenes from the film, took questions, and generated mostly online media coverage.