FOX decides not to promote ‘The Happening’
Interesting headline I used, it’s not entirely accurate, but what else can one think?
I love quotes as you guys know, and a line from one of my favorite shows ever, Sports Night, popped into my head after an email I got today:
Dan: I’ve got the intellectual property cops crawling up my butt.
Isaac: The intellectual property cops?
Dan: Yeah.
Isaac: Are crawling up your butt?
Dan: The heat’s all over me.
Isaac: What the hell are you talkin’ about, Dan?
Dan: I sang happy birthday to Casey on air.
Isaac: When?
Dan: Well, on his birthday, Isaac…
The intellectual property cops…that may not totally apply in this situation, but whatever the case, that’s the term that popped into my head when I got the email below:
——
Dear Mr. Olbinski:
We are writing to you on behalf Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and/or its subsidiaries and affiliated companies (hereinafter collectively referred to as “Fox”) which owns intellectual property rights in and to “The Happening” motion picture film. It has come to our attention that a teaser trailer has been posted on your website at http://www.popcritics.com/2008/02/m-nights-the-happening-teaser/ without authorization from Fox.
We must request that you immediately disable the link to “The Happening” teaser trailer from your website and cease and desist from all other activities in connection with the teaser.
Please confirm via e-mail that you will immediately comply with our request.
Sincerely,
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Intellectual Property Department
—–
Okay, I will admit that obviously this happens all the time, to likely many, many websites out there, so it’s really not that big a deal. Of course it’s the first time for me, so I’m going to write about it!
Isn’t it funny that a movie studio goes to such lengths to halt promotion and buzz surrounding an upcoming release?
It’s just amazing to me that in the world we live in with viral marketing and online videos, that movie executives would run around trying to catch people doing them a favor.
I have half a mind to never talk about The Happening on this site again, but I think I’m too excited about it for that to “happen.” *grin*
Regardless, that’s why the teaser no longer appears in that blog post and why those that had a chance to see it were among the “lucky ones” I guess.
Comments
There is NO reason to turn this on its head and call the studios morons. None.
You have no idea what the real reason is. It could be simply a music rights clearance issue, that is the main reason why stuff gets pulled off of YouTube all the time.
Which is why the studio go after YouTube itself in those cases, and not just those that simply link to the video. As far as I can tell, Mike just copied and pasted embed code. If they want the video down, they should go after those hosting it. For that reason alone, they are morons.
I kind of think it’s a hoax, to be honest. Just someone out there trying to see how much he can get away with.
Adam’s last blog post..“The Moment of Truthâ€Â?
Michael, I never called them morons and I really don’t appreciate you putting words into my mouth.
I do find it funny when a simple teaser gets pulled for no stated reason, but I think I’m allowed to. Please don’t get all huffy and tell me what not to write about…
Adam - Pretty sure it’s not a hoax….Jason Clark posted this and the first one he had got taken down, then the second one was from Break.com and that one was taken down on their site, but somehow still worked for me…strange.
Not just some random guy. Fox actually did run around trying to take this teaser down from everywhere. The first place I know of that it popped up was here:
http://www.iklipz.com/MovieDetail.aspx?MovieID=9a23b518-c25e-44af-8582-77dcaf45b8c6
Clearly gonzo.
But, while looking around that site, I found this:
http://www.iklipz.com/MovieDetail.aspx?MovieID=b585b1a8-9afa-44f5-90b2-20dca525347a
Which is freakin’ HILARIOUS. It doesn’t use a whole lot of the teaser, but what it does use, it uses well. 
Well they got to alot of sites to take it down, but this one still has the video if you want to see it…
http://the-happening–trailer.blogspot.com/2008/02/happening-trailer.html
Olbinski - I’d write Fox back and tell them that they need to cease and desist immediately copying and pasting a link to your blog posts without first obtaining written permission from you. They are unlawfully distributing your intellectual property without consent and you shouldn’t stand for it.
I’ll picket if you want me to! 
Wow! How can I get one of those notices? That would make me think that I was important or major illegal.
Oh wait, is that not a good thing?
Nice Eugene
if you guys missed his comment above, he posted a link to a goof on The Happening teaser.
I really wanted to see the teaser. Anything would be better than some of the junk I’ve seen recently.
This happens all the time. Almost every film has this happen at one time or another. It’s all about rights issues, otherwise it wouldn’t be a big deal.
OMG RT, how did you see it?????
You’ll be getting an email soon I suspect asking you to return the images in your head.
Well, I gave a link above to an alt. showing where to see it… and someone who we all know also has the trailer on their site as well (but we wont mention Jason’s name or website of Inner88, in that he gets forced to take it down too..) oh dammit..wait a minute…
…hey…wait a minute…that’s not cool…
Jason A Clark’s last blog post..Survivor Is Back! - “Survivor: Micronesia - Fans vs. Favoritesâ€Â? Premieres Tonight
[...] official, I mean this site has a highly unlikely chance of getting its hand slapped by FOX for posting illegal versions of The Happening trailer. Mainly because at this point, the [...]
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I can’t believe that! Was it actually *hosted* on your site? I assume so, but even then, what idiots. I can see them asking you to take it down if you had parodied it or otherwise changed some aspect of the video, but just having the video up is going to get people’s attention on the movie and generate a buzz. What absolute morons. Then again, they clearly have no idea how the internet works, as the AMPTP keeps telling the WGA “the internet is too new to figure out!”
Adam’s last blog post..“The Moment of Truthâ€Â?