*The reason we have discussed Terminator: Dark Fate leaks/spoilers is due to the fact that we were asked by numerous Terminator Fans to do so; to breakdown and give our opinions on the information.
Following the recent Terminator: Dark Fate leaks on Reddit, we began to have suspicions regarding the validity of the ‘screeners’ leaking potentially movie-ruining information on the internet. So we put on our tin-foil-hats and clambered on into the rabbit-hole to do some digging around…
We previously suggested that a test screener who repeatedly leaks information might just pop up on a studio’s radar as being a possible saboteur, an egotist on the make – someone to be punished via legal means, you know, what with movie studios being richer than Croesus… ?
Why wouldn’t someone who is diminishing the financial value of a asset/property of a studio, such as Paramount, be held accountable? Perhaps Paramount don’t mind or…
Perhaps the person leaking the information is a studio plant, sent out into the the ether with the express task of “Terminating the naysayers”, or at least persuading them around a little.
Many have suggested that we get our heads tested as “studios wouldn’t waste their time on changing the opinions of a fan base, they don’t really need fans to make money…” a Terminator Fan emailed to tell us. To an extent we’d agree, there are plenty of other audiences (possibly more agreeable audiences) who might hear unpalatable aspects of a movie but pay to see it anyway – Youtubers? Vloggers? Social media-erers? That guy from work… ?
But we have already experienced the terminating of “negative” opinions via studio subterfuge, misdirection and legal jargon – the Terminator 3 forums were rife with studio moderators extending a choke-hold on the fanbase to stifle the possibility of angry fans causing a revolt against the movie pre-release. Issuing “cease and desists” like nobodies business to any prospective dissenters.
Terminator Salvation took a slightly different approach; rather than “moderate” the affray of the fanbase from the top-down, the studios decided to infiltrate the fan community at its core. Creating fake “fan” accounts to nip any differing opinions in the bud before it could spread. This isn’t just tin-foil-hat conjecture. No, this information was confirmed to us by a credible and connected source.
Terminator Genisys… ? Yes, the Terminator community had plants then too, and we had a source confirm it. People who went out of their way to befriend and aggressively stamp out any detractors. The problem? The internet, forums and social media had changed, they had evolved since the days of T3 and T4; becoming far too difficult for the studios to snuff out the perceived “negative” opinions of, not just the fans but the audience at large.
So what? Well, the question is… how can leaking information about the possible demise of a beloved character benefit the studios behind Terminator: Dark Fate? I know, it makes little sense… except… maybe the studios want the audience to not only accept that demise but to ask for it.
Doesn’t that death make the movie R Rated? Isn’t that everything you’ve ever asked for?!
Yes. We asked for a return to an R rating for a decade, it was a part of the criteria (as far as we could see) to making a good Terminator movie once again.
No. That death doesn’t necessarily make it R rated. The scene, as described by the leakers suggests an on-screen death (suggests) – the issue is… what if that death actually takes place off-screen? What if we’ve all been lulled into a false sense of security, and come November, the scales fall from our eyes to reveal something altogether different… ?
What if the studios are simply getting us to beg for the scene, with its implied R rating, just to throw that character away off-screen, and move on to (what it perceives) newer (and more “diverse”) pastures?
Okay, now back to the leakers, or should that be leaker? Since ViewerAnon wants to be front and center in the T:DF leaking universe…
- ViewerAnon leaked the Last Jedi information after a test screening.
- ViewerAnon leaked Terminator: Dark Fate information after a test screening.
- ViewerAnon leaked Joker (2019) information after a test screening.
The Last Jedi is Disney <-> Disney bought Fox <-> Fox were set to distribute Terminator: Dark Fate <-> Disney will now distribute Terminator: Dark Fate under the 20th Century Fox brand <-> Paramount head honcho, Jim Gianopulos, was the head of 20th Century Fox before moving to Paramount <-> Paramount Pictures have a feature deal with Martin Scorsese, and Scorsese’s production company ‘Sikelia Productions‘ <-> Sikelia Productions are producing Joker (2019).
ViewerAnon popped up again to ‘leak’ information about the Joker movie after the script had already leaked online, and the fan community had questions/concerns about the content and direction of the movie.
Once again V.A was right there to reassure and correct the public perceptions surrounding it.
ViewerAnon himself has admitted to having a “contact at Paramount” – he also, for a person not financially or emotionally invested in the positive outcome of Terminator: Dark Fate (or any of the other above listed projects), has allowed fans a level of access/contact that is somewhat curious.
How many non-studio movie fans would cede such accessibility to anonymous/unknown members of the public? As V.A stated “I was trying to counter more negative dog piling on the film” – that seems like one big intrusive investment to a movie he’s supposedly not connected with…
Unless… wait, let me adjust my hat… unless, ViewerAnon isn’t some anonymous viewer who just happens to illegally possess multiple fake I.D’s in order to risk his career (he has admitted to having an “industry status”) to view and spew important movie information ahead of schedule… what if V.A is a studio plant?
Is ViewerAnon the Paramount/Disney/Fox gun for hire, regarding the preemptive termination of naysayers?
Or, is he simply the ‘Alan Smithee‘ of studio spin doctors – the pseudonym used at will by a select number of suits with the aim of talking an audience around… ?
Further reading –
The movie/media industry has been faking it for quite some time:
In 1999…
“The Blair Witch Project,” a low-budget horror film that’s generated more buzz than the chainsaw used in that Texas massacre. Before it even opened, the indie had inspired over 20 fan sites, a mailing list, a Web ring, a Usenet group — and more than its fair share of glowing reports on the influential movie site Ain’t It Cool News. But was all the excitement genuine?
Salon
“Internet marketing,” notes Gordon Paddison, director of interactive
marketing at New Line Cinema, “is the most inexpensive and efficient mode of marketing around. And it’s available to those with limited resources. Online is all about word of mouth.”
ALSO…
“A fan site for American Pie boasts an electronic counter labeled “Days UNIVERSAL Hasn’t Shut Us Down” as well as a disclaimer that “I scammed some stuff of this movie off friends that work for a movie company in CA and posted some clips up on the net.” OK. But wouldn’t those purchase order numbers — clearly visible on the purloined files — give Universal a good idea of which employee had leaked it?”
Salon
In 2006…
“SONY HAS been outed by bloggers who have discovered the maker of exploding batteries has been running a fake PSP fan site.
The Inquirer
Alliwantforxmasisapsp.com appeared to have been designed by two mates and featured downloadable PSP cards and t-shirt transfers. There was even a Youtube video with one of the mates’ cousins rapping about the console.
However all that disappeared when Sony fessed up that the site was a part of a marketing campaign designed to promote the PSP in the run-up to Christmas.
The site had been registered by marketing outfit Zipatoni which offers “integrated multimedia marketing initiatives”, which is not something you get out of a backstreet in Soho although it is equally viral.”
In 2001…
“David Manning of The Ridgefield Press is one of Columbia Pictures’ most reliable reviewers, praising Heath Ledger of “A Knight’s Tale” as “this year’s hottest new star!” and saluting “The Animal” as “another winner!” The studio plastered Manning’s raves over at least four different movie advertisements, including “Hollow Man” and “Vertical Limit.” But Manning’s own life story should be called “Charade,” because he doesn’t exist. Challenged last week by NEWSWEEK about the reviewer’s authenticity, Columbia parent Sony Pictures Entertainment admitted that Manning is a fake, a product of the studio’s advertising department.”
Newsweek
ALSO in 2001…
“two employees in Sony’s worldwide marketing department appeared in a television advertisement for ”The Patriot,” a Mel Gibson epic set during the Revolution that opened over the Fourth of July weekend last year. The ad, known as a testimonial spot, presented several people presumed to be ordinary moviegoers who had just emerged from seeing ”The Patriot.”
Variety
One was Tamaya Petteway, the executive assistant to Columbia’s executive vice president for creative advertising, Dana Precious. Ms. Petteway described the film as a ”perfect date movie.” Standing next to her and smiling quietly was another Sony staff member, Anthony Jefferson.”
AND…
“The 34-year-old computer whiz in Silver Lake got a phone call from the friend of a friend–the head of publicity for a movie studio. The offer was $10,000 a week for an Internet “project.
LA Times
“Was he interested? Absolutely.
Details quickly followed from the studio’s department of new media.
The job was to construct a phony fan Web site for a new movie.
He selected ugly lettering, the better to mask his sophistication. He scanned in photos from magazines, just like fans do. He wrote blushing and gushing copy.
In no time at all, those photos appeared on other Web sites, the objects of fevered fan adulation. The computer whiz, whose contracts prohibit him from disclosing project details, performed about 15 such jobs for studios, television networks and publicity companies in the last year. The work, which he considers “extracurricular,” pulled in about $150,000.
Such guerrilla marketing–covertly launched alongside traditional TV, radio and print campaigns–holds the promise of the most elusive element of a Hollywood project: good buzz.
For entertainment companies marketing to a generation raised on the Internet–teenagers and twentysomethings who regularly comb the Web–good buzz reigns supreme.
It’s a simple process: Tap into any of the big search engines, such as Yahoo or Ask Jeeves, type in the name of a favorite star or movie, and a world of possibilities pops up that includes promotional sites, movie reviews, recent articles, chat rooms and fan sites.
Because fans crave “real” or unfiltered dialogue with other fans, these unofficial sites are popular and powerful. It is a culture that is ripe for manipulation.
The success of the 1999 horror movie “The Blair Witch Project” is testament to the Internet’s hype potential. The film industry was blindsided by the appearance of block-long lines of ticket-holders who had gotten hooked on the film through its Web site. The movie was made for about $1 million and became one of the most successful independent films in history, grossing $128 million in its first five weeks.
After that, marketing tools that masquerade as one fan’s obsession became part of the studios’ promotion machines.
“The logical extension is for entertainment companies to try to create buzz on projects,” said Jim Moloshok, former head of Warner Bros. Online. Moloshok is a founder and managing director of Windsor Digital, a new entertainment company founded by Terry Semel, former chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Studios. “It’s a viral marketing technique. . . . I’ll put money on the fact that those message boards have what we call ‘seeding’–like you seed a lawn. They ‘seed’ the message board with [propaganda].
“If you can lock onto someone and make them an evangelist for your project, it’s worth it,”
Have you had a conversation with ViewerAnon? Comment below…