Teens an unexpected audience for 9/11 film

HOLLYWOOD – Typically, when movie studios set out to market an adult drama about a historic event, they write off teenagers.

But when Paramount Pictures executives first screened Oliver Stone’s upcoming release, “World Trade Center,” for a test audience last month, they realized there was nothing typical about selling a movie about Sept. 11, 2001.

In a focus group attended by Paramount marketing staff, teens who were just kids when the Twin Towers fell said the movie resonated strongly with them because the events it portrayed occurred during their lifetimes.

“I remember back in 2001 when it happened on the news,” one 14-year-old girl said. “I kept thinking, ‘This isn’t real, it’s just one of those disaster movies.’ This movie made me feel Sept. 11 was real for the first time.”

Five years after terrorist attacks leveled New York City’s iconic towers – and about three months after a rival studio released the first Sept. 11-themed feature film, which did little business in theaters – Paramount is selling “World Trade Center,” which opens Aug. 9, as a story of heroism, not terrorism.

In Hollywood, where blatant sales pitches tend to be the norm, the studio’s approach to marketing the movie that some are calling Stone’s triumphant return has been unusually low-key. Call it respectful hype.

Paramount’s worldwide marketing president, Gerry Rich, has faced many challenges on this project, and chief among them, he says, was avoiding looking like “Hollywood trying to cash in” on a tragedy. But he also caught an unexpected break.

Teenagers’ responses to the film have been so great, Rich said, that Paramount completely reworked its $35 million marketing campaign to court the most faithful and frequent movie-going demographic: young people.

“Every generation has a defining moment,” says the voice-over of a 30-second TV spot aimed at the under-25 crowd that began airing last week. The melodic “Fix You,” by rock group Coldplay, plays as the screen goes black and three words appear in stark white letters: “This Was Ours.”

On Friday, MTV, Paramount’s sister company, aired a 30-minute “town hall” special in which young adults discussed their reactions to the movie, rated PG-13, with filmmakers, cast members and one of the Sept. 11 survivors depicted in the film.

Much is at stake for Viacom Inc.-owned Paramount. “World Trade Center” cost $63 million to make. To break even, the studio needs the film to reach a much broader audience than did Universal Pictures’ lower-budget April release “United 93,” which grossed $31.5 million at the domestic box office.

Paramount Chairman Brad Grey, a former talent manager who’s been in his job just 17 months, also has a lot riding on the film.

“World Trade Center” is the first homegrown production to be made from start to finish under Grey and Paramount President Gail Berman.

“I felt that it was an extraordinary story and one that people would be entertained by,” Grey said. “And I know that ‘entertainment’ in this context is a complicated definition.”

While the terrorist attacks provide the backdrop for “World Trade Center,” the focus of the film is the bravery and valiant rescue of two Port Authority police officers – Will Jimeno (Michael Pena) and Sgt. John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) – who were buried in the rubble.

It fell to Rich and his senior vice president of creative advertising, Josh Greenstein, to highlight that theme, combating the preconception that “World Trade Center” would be another bleak tale about the horrors of Sept. 11.

To distinguish the movie from “United 93,” they emphasized the uplifting, emotional and inspirational aspects of the story in trailers, TV spots and the poster, which reads, “A True Story of Courage and Survival.”

It was the realization of the film’s impact on young people after the “World Trade Center” test screening in Minneapolis that led the studio to revamp its marketing campaign.

In fact, Greenstein got the idea for the youth-focused TV spot that very night, when a 20-something male college student noted, “It’s like your grandparents knowing where they were when they heard Pearl Harbor got bombed, or your parents hearing of JFK’s assassination. For my age group, this event is for us.”