Do you know that feeling to run away, to go and run somewhere ? Well, the German people have a particular word to express this feeling: “wanderlust”. The Americans, like us, on the contrary have no word like this. But while we have to make quite a panegiric to convey this feeling they have adopted this word… without any effort to invent a new one. Now in Hollywood it has become a comedy about a couple who tries to run away from modern life after their dreams and economic finances have fallen through. Their choice will be quite strange as they will try to enter a hippy community. The main actors are Jennifer Aniston (a sort of icon of brilliant comedies) and Paul Rudd that in 2011 will be out with another comedy (“My Idiot Brother” of which we will talk about in another post). David Wain is the director as well as the playwriter, while the distribution is assigned to the Major Universal Pictures. The shootings will begin in September, probably in Atlanta,Georgia, Mr Coca Cola’s house.

Just two months to the shooting of “This Means War”, a movie quite unconventional. It is a sort of pink comedy about two great friends who get in love with the same woman…and until here is fine. But the duel between them will become so huge to completely destroy the whole New York City. Interesting the actors, the wonderful Reese Witherspoon and the young but well-appreciated Chris Pine. Be careful that the same director, Mc.G, will create incredible situations. He is already famous for “Charlie’s Angels” the movie, the soundtrack of “The Coyote Ugly Girls”, producer of “The O.C.” and lots of nice videoclips, documentaries and commercials (Coca Cola and GAO for ex.) The production is signed by Will Smith and James Lassiter. The products fit for the product placement or brand integration are those about a comedy, clothing and accessories, cars and motorcycles, furniture, design, technology. This is one of the most interesting chance of the next season for what concerns brilliant comedies.

It was the same Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA), during the New York Auto Show in the Big Apple in these days, to disclose that its cars will appear in the sequel of Sex & the City. And the reasons are very simple. “It’s a feminine movie and actually one of the most important targets”. “Besides”, has added the marketing dept, “the investment has not been superior to the organisation of a series of events that would not have reached such an incredible number of persons”, maybe neither with the same efficacy and prestige we can add.Moreover this will be the first of a numbers of placement in TV (reality and sitcom we do not know any details), besides the sponsorship of the next US Open Tennis in New York (Flushing Meadows) during the summer. Their project is to have “the major visibility in terms of product placement with respect to any other luxury cars in the world”. This will be the occasion to present new models as hydrogen O emission ones or the new Class E.

 Lollywood is an incredible Pakistan movie district in Lahore, one of the most important cities of the country and capital of Punjab region. To be correct, we should say “it was” a movie district. For a long time nothing has been produced or almost nothing reaches the western coast nowadays.

And it’s really a pity watching its decline as its glorious history began in 1929 when the territory was still Indian. It soon became the basis of the great actor and Pakistan director

Abdur Rashid Kardar; this creative centre has never lost its energy even after the separation from India and its two twin districts (Bombay and Calcutta) it cooperated with contributing to the creation of that extraordinary phenomenon we simply call Bollywood.

Until a few years ago it was almost impossible to understand where the movie came from except for the language, Urdu for Lollywwod and Indi for Bollywood. In the last years the political and social events of those countries have come to an end with the international movie world that until that moment had produced great projects, sometimes even undertitled in English and other languages thus making their formats closer to the big public. As for Bollywood, even in Lollywood the main tracks got much more success than the movies themselves and they remained one of the most important factor for the success and quality of the production. There were good actors and professionals, different reviews and websites followed their stories with a huge number of readers. Since a year everything shut down, and without being polemic, we would like to complain for the loss of such an original, wonderful and undervalued heritage.

At the beginning of the week I have got the screenplay of “Montecarlo”, the new comedy by Fox performed by two of the most interesting actresses in Hollywood, that for age reasons have never worked together before. About Nicole Kidman there is nothing to say….. .everybody wants her (intelligent, beautiful, wonderful actress, rich…). About Selena Gomes there is lots to say: she is one of the main characters of Disney Productions (Wizards of Waverly Place, High School Musical); very young, with a great range of interpretations, she is well loved by the public and is able to connect the white anglosaxon with the latin and mediterranean minorities (Italian, Greek, French, Spanish). She is good in comedies and even in this case she is performing the role of a boarder.

During a holiday in Paris something happens to her and her teacher, something that will change their life forever. The shootings, mostly between Paris and Nice, will begin in May and the movie production is now looking for product placements.

As usual it is not possible to disclose other details about the plot, but for sure, such as glasses brands, home furniture, elegant clothing, suitcases, this is the life occasion. A star among the most brilliant, the new teen-ager and the most exclusive location in the world make a sufficient cocktail.

In one month the shootings of “Avon Man” will begin. A brilliant comedy acted by the Australian actor Hugh Jackman (X Men, Kate & Leopold, Scoop, Australia and more than twenty other movies) and directed by Kevin Lima, a very good director often employed by the Disney Productions (Tarzan, La carica dei 102, Alladin Oliver & Company) and the most recent “As enchantment”

The plot relates the story of a father that, having lost his job as car seller, begins with success his new adventure as cosmetics door-to-door salesman. Thanks to his charme and with the help of all his colleagues, fired as well, trains a sexy and fierce salesmen team with the goal to win the home prize.

This production in terms of product placement is interested in furniture and design products, accessories, male and female clothing. The distribution all over the international markets and the promotion are guaranteed by the 20^th Century Fox. Finally, it is evident, even in the title, that the production is “Placement Oriented and an important operation of Brand Integration can be perceived.

The new comedy directed and perfomed by Tom Hanks and the beautiful Julia Roberts should be titled as “Larry Crowne”, but its title could have been even “Talk of the Town” (this in fact was the first choice of the creative directors). The screenplay, a little brilliant and a bit sour, is a work by Nia Vardalos known to the big public for the performance of Toula Portokalos in “My big fat Greek wedding”, of which she wrote the plot too. Larry Crowne is a 50 year old man that, having lost the job and having no chance to find another one because of his age, has to begin again his life. The shootings will start in a month in Los Angeles and before that time any product can be proposed toahr the production. Besides the two main characters and the scriptwriter, always winning and original, there is even the secondary point of the distribution committed to the Major Universal. Each element of this project are success guarantee in terms of public as well as visibility.

 In “Sex and the City 2”, the new love of Samantha is Rikard, by Max Ryan, a charming 40 year-old actor that has already performed quite twenty movies (The League of Extraordinary gentlemen, Kiss of the Dragon, Death Race etc.), and in this period he is working on very important projects. He has just finished to perform “Dark Moon Rising”, “Fours Years Running”, “Blackline: The Beirut Contract” (all already in post-production) , while he is going to work in such execellent productions such as “Wall Street”, “The Rogue” and Double Fault”. He is engaged until 2012 under the lights of all the world, both for for the movies, on the set, on the red carpet, in a few talk-shows, in press conferences and vernissages to promote his work and productions. All this is quite interesting as the actor is available to valuate any proposal of Branding deal, product placement and celebrity seeding. Italian fashion and accessories Companies for Man should really consider this chance to have such a professional star, so charming and talented, for the next three years.

The Product Placement is an instrument that helps to better profile the products, proposes more quickly and wholly a brand or a mood and is very helpful for the following activities of PR and Press office. If we want to use less words we could say that Product Placement is a marketing branch. Another consideration follows this one immediately, that until nowadays has never been so clear and acceptable: “ Product placement is an activity that has to be planned and integrated with marketing”. Even in Italy we can perceive some signals of quality improvement in the placement operations. Baci&Abbracci for example has appeared in the last month in the Kolossal “2012” and in the Italian production “Meno male che ci sei” where the main character Luisa, by Claudia Gerini, has worn its clothes. This is a chance not so casual and by sure it puts the brand from Milan among the most active of this sector. For all the Companies and brands that are thinking about product placement, this is one of the best period to start talking with the placement agencies. The end of the year in fact is time for balance as well as future expectations and it is not difficult to believe that the first arriving will get the best profits.

 In January 2008, almost two years ago, people talked about the possible adaptation for the cinema of a famous literary character for children of the 50s (Eloise, in fact, a clever girl of 11). Then there was the crisis and neither the synpathy of the girl or her charming nanny (Uma Thurman) could convince the producers to go on with the project. Today, on the contrary, thanks to the positive economic trends, the shooting is in the works for the end of January 2010. The premises are good both for the cast as well as for its background. The books in fact were sold and are sold nowadays very well and they have become one of those phenomenons called “longsellers” (or classic). The Disney Production has moreover already realised two episodes for TV with great success.The movie declination can be considered the right and proper step. The production is now looking for a “licensing Deal” for the clothes of the little Eloise and her nanny Uma Thurman. We don’t have much time but being Italians we can do it !

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 This interesting speech by the journalist Stefania Carini published yesterday on the portal “Corriere.it” relates, maybe for the first time, about the close relationship between the pop music and the serials. It has been talked a lot about the movie sound-tracks from Hollywood, Europe and Italy, much less about the relation between the music and the coreography in the Bollywood productions, where it is not so unsual that the CD copies are sold in a greater number than the tickets of the movie itself.

What connects the music singers to the serial itself is something much more substantial. Sometimes the artist can play the role of him/herself in the plot (Ally McBeal, Las Vegas, Eli Stone, Dharma & Greg, etc.) or a different character well integrated in the story itself though mimicing him/herself a little bit. In “Will & Grace” this has happened each season, with famous artists such as Madonna, Elton John and Janet Jackson. In both cases when this marriage is well amanged it becomes a sort of academic declination of “Win-Win” logic, so loved by the Americans. That is both can profit from such a collaboration, even the public itself. The production enriches the episode in quality with the presence of a hit or a famous character, thus enlarging even its public with that part of fans that otherwise would never watched the serial. The artist employs such a way to give visibility to his/her character, to pass his/her music on a different channel towards a public not so easily reachable and maybe he/she realizes even to be a fairly good actor.

It is useful to note how often the music and TV Productions address to the same agencies of product placement. In the next future the serials, that in the USA are called TV Shows, will become a little bit comedies, a little bit musical and mall. At the beginning people will shout at the scandal but this has already happened when we have moved from theatre to cinema to TV to the web serials. Later on all these instruments will find out their proper spaces, languages and nature. And those who still want a scandal will look for it somewhere else.

 
“SpiderMan 4” has just begun its production these days. The shooting instead will be on January the 4^th in the Universal Studios, recently built up after the incredible fire last June. This will be in fact the first ciak since then and the main characters will be again Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, directed as usual by Sam Raimi. For the occasion in the backlot of the Studios 9 blocks of New York will be faithfully set up, representing three different areas of the city such as: the Greenwich Village, the IV° Avenue between Uptown and Midtown and Wall Street. Considering the huge use of the computer graphic, the Production has decided to increase the sets of the movie (window shops, road bills.. etc) with Companies logos or brands interested in product placement. Such an operation is perfect even for brand integration plannings, well loved by the marketing agents of the Universal. Products such as jewels (of which the studio has asked for a great amount), clothes, design, accessories and electronics can be the perfect candidates for such a chance, one of the most safe and efficient for the blockbuster category.

 “2012” by Rolan Emmerich is definitevely lucky. During the first week-end it has collected 65 millions of dollars only in the United States. Even though the amount is huge, it is nothing in comparison with the incredible distribution in more than 105 Countries for a total of 225 millions of dollars in just 2 hours and a half. This means that in 2 hours after its getting out, the Sony production has already got back of the production costs (200 millions of dollars n.d.r.).
Obviuosly we are not interested in such numbers but in the great work behind: a new marketing strategy that has bet everything on the web and the search engines without occupying too much the first places but making the visitor eager to discover here and there the promotion… Even the choice of the subject has been quite bold but it is exactly for this that Hollywood is a great machine of dreams (and money). Congratulations even to Baci & Abbracci, that has been able to dress the main actors of the movie in many important scenes with the help of Alist Entertainment in Los Angeles, the Product Placement agency that has managed this great operation. One year ago this young and bold brand had got faith in this opportunity and now it has been gathering the success throughout all the 105 Countries where the movie will be distributed this week.

Something has told me that on “Project Facebook” there can be a few surprises. The Sony movie about the social network most famous in the world (we have already talked about), is really prudential about the new production. Usually this happens when you are working upon something really good or becomeing such. I do not think we should expect nice comedies about “Nerd” as already seen in the past. For the moment there are no more news, nor in Hollywood or in any blogger of the network…. a cover-up not so bad ! But even a good chance to get inside a project that will obtain a good visibility by sure…. I had alraedy informed you !!!

It has not been talked so much here around but the S.A.I.F.F., celebrated a couple of weeks ago in New York (the big town a little bit lab and workshop together), is one of the most interesting world movie event.

It’s a festival dedicated to the Southasian film-makers that work in the United States. The countries interested by this event are India, by sure, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and above all the Indian Diaspora. It’s the celebration of the cross-over movie, a sort of inter-ethnic and bipolar marriage, that in the last few years has proposed different good works (lots of them pointed out in this blog) able to attract public from anywhere to make it closer to different kinds of reality.

During this sixth edition, where everything has been showed, rewarded and reviewed, the most ambitious prizes have been won by the actor and producer Sunil Shatty for his interpretation in “Red Alert the War Within”, based on the true story of a poor worker (Narasimha) become a terrorist in order to give a better future to his sons, that lives the contradictions and the ethical, moral and spiritual conflicts of his land and the whole world.

The prize for the best direction has been given to Anjali Menon for “Manjadikuru” , the story of a woman, her ideals, faith, perseverance and courage. Two projects that would have been a great chance for product placement, to propose to different and faraway people a philosophy of brand able to unify and communicate as much as these pioneers from the West Coast. Men and women full of ideals, courage and creativity, able to give us some fresh new air… as well as a bucketful of cold water.