Paddy Considine’s debut feature film Tyrannosaur is making an impression around the world, snapping up awards at the Sundance Film Festival for the performances of its stars Olivia Coleman (Peep Show, Beautiful People) and Peter Mullan (My Name is Joe). Already released in the U.K., the film is set for its U.S. theatrical run this year. Recently IMDB posted a U.S. trailer on its website. With a U.K. trailer already around for months, the time seemed ripe for an investigation into how international films are sold to the American market. Why do film marketers sometimes find it necessary to re-cut trailers for an American audience?
At a quick glance they seem identical. The trailers are edited the same, introducing the story of a violent man, Joseph (Peter Mullan), who finds redemption through a relationship with a battered wife, Hannah (Olivia Colman). Interspersed between powerful dramatic scenes are critical declarations of the film’s acting and pedigree. There is, however, one glaring difference: there is a complete lack of dialogue in the U.S. version. All the talking that appears in the U.K trailer has been muted.
U.K Trailer
Comments from members of IMDB appear below the trailer, almost unanimously declaring its lack of appeal. One posted the following statement-“yeah awesome i like just music and seeing lips move”. God-194-700420, you make a good point although I wish you would capitalise your i’s. The U.S. trailer doesn’t work. Dialogue-less trailers can be enormously effective but as another post points out, you can’t have a silent trailer with shots of moving lips. It just looks weird. Worse than that, it appears like there is something technically wrong with the trailer upload or the film itself. Surely this is not something you want to allude to when attempting to sell a small budgeted, independent film.
U.S. Trailer
Why the reason for the change? It probably has to do with the fear that Americans will not understand what the characters are saying. Peter Mullan has a thick Scottish accent and the rest speak with English accents that are problematically authentic. In other words, no one talks like Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones’ Diary. It’s a shame that a film made in a country with a different English accent has to hide its origins in order to be marketable; who knew British cinema was foreign language film? If the IMDB posts are anything to go by, this marketing ploy hasn’t worked and hopefully this trailer botch will not derail the success of what looks to be a great film.
