If it’s not an addition to a successful franchise or based on hit source material, it’s seems as though it is near-impossible for studios to green light an original project that has at least a decent-sized budget. For his 2012 sci-fi, time-travel feature Looper, Rian Johnson, as many directors do, developed a proof-of-concept trailer to help the process along when it came to Sony’s early marketing plans.
Uploaded a year ago, but now circling as of late thanks to Reddit, the video features clips from sci-fi classics such as Blade Runner, darker modern noir titles like David Fincher‘s Se7en, J.J. Abrams‘ Star Trek, and more. It’s interesting to get this peek behind-the-scenes and it matches the final film quite well.
So, as the director develops a practical effects-heavy Star Wars: Episode VIII, check it out below (along with a message from Johnson, and the original trailer to compare). Also, if you have yet to see Looper, it’s fairly cheap on Amazon and well worth a watch.
This is a strange curiosity I thought might be interesting – just after I finished the script for Looper but before we began preproduction I asked Joe to record some voice-over, and with help from my friend Ronen Verbit constructed this “fake trailer” using clips from other movies. This is a fairly common thing to do when you’re trying to get a movie off the ground, but it was the first time I tried it. It was meant to show more some of the film’s tone, and to show how the odd concept could be presented in a clear and compelling way in the marketing. Zach Johnson did the sketches. Note that we hadn’t begun the casting process yet, and the clips were chosen just based on their visuals and not by who is in them.
What do you think of the pitch video? Can you spot all the clips used?