The New Yorker movie critic David Denby is in hot water today after he published an early review of Sony Pictures upcoming blockbuster The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in the magazine’s December 5th issue, according to ABC News.
In “the biz” it is customary for reviews to be withheld until the week of release for obvious reasons, including control over the promotion of the title by the Studio’s publicity and marketing machines, a way to keep important plot points out of the public eye or because the Studio hopes that the buzz generated close to the release will lead to more curiosity and increased ticket sales.
However, Denby broke his agreement by running the review eight days before the initial agreed upon date of December 13th. The movie is set for release on December 21st.
As a result, the movie’s producer, Scott Rudin has banned Denby from all future press screenings of any of his works, including Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedy The Dictator and Martin Scorsese’s planned Sinatra biopic.
Indiewire obtained emails between Rudin to Denby where Rudin called it "a very, very damaging move; I could not in good conscience invite you to see another movie of mine again," Rudin said.
Denby’s response, "The system is destructive. Grownups are ignored for much of the year, cast out like downsized workers, and then given eight good movies all at once in the last five weeks of the year. A magazine like the New Yorker has to cope as best as it can with a nutty release schedule… Like many weeklies, we do a double issue at the end of the year, at this crucial time. This exacerbates the problem."
The much anticipated The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was directed by David Fincher (The Social Network, Se7en) and is the story of a struggling journalist (Daniel Craig) and a computer hacker (Rooney Mara) who work together to solve the mystery of a 40-year-old murder.
It is a remake of the critically acclaimed Swedish version released in 2009 with the same title. The movies are based on the popular book trilogy (the Millennium series) written by Swedish author Stieg Larsson. Larsson’s first book was released after his death in 2005.
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