The Movie's Marketing that Made Me, 2

The first full-on theatrical release that I personally managed was a dream project for me. It was 2008, and I had just joined Warner Music Entertainment and a deal had been done to distribute a film written by Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden. You had me at Bruce. I was a headbanger in my teens and I even remembered Bruce from being the singer in Samson - (I knew my NWOBH - New Wave of British Heavy Metal!).

The film had been written and directed by legendary Monty Python editor, Julian Doyle, who had edited 2 of my favourite comedy films of all-time - The Life of Brian and The Holy Grail. This was shaping up to be a 'meet your idols' project for me - and neither of them disappointed, not in the least.

Chemical Wedding had been produced by Bill and Ben Productions, Ben Timlett and Bill Jones, the son of Python's Terry Jones, who was my favourite Python ("He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy"!!) as well as David Pupkewitz and Malcolm Kohll. Rounding off the talent package was Simon Callow, the bellowing veteran thespian who was probably best known by Brits for his tour-de-force performance in 4 Weddings and a Funeral, where he became the subject of said funeral.

We had a lot of meetings planning this release. Some were in the pub, some were in the Groucho Club and some were actually at Phantom Music - Iron Maiden's management offices in Soho - oh and in the pub next door to that too, where I sank a few pints with Bruce and Rod Smallwood - another legend, this time for being the manager of Iron Maiden. No, I don't think I was seen much in the office during this period!!

We had some mighty big plans afoot to promote this whopping indie release - a somewhat leftfield film about the long-deceased iconic Satanist, Aleister Crowley who was resurrected (on screen) in modern day Britain. The biggest idea we had was a whopper - for Bruce to fly (yes he is a fully licensed commercial pilot) into the Cannes Film Festival on 'Ed Force One' - Iron Maiden's full liveried 747 tour jet, carrying a group of U.K. journalists on board, for a midnight screening of the film in Cannes. Flight 666 was born and it was going to Hell and Back!

When Bruce announced, 'this is your captain speaking' over the tannoy after lift-off - a loud cheer resounded in the packed cabin - everyone on this flight knew that they were part of something very special!

This audacious stunt was accompanied by a branded goody bag, containing a T-Shirt and other quaffable items and special Bruce Air Flight 666 tickets (no digital tickets for this flight!). Bruce flew us from Gatwick into Nice, where we were transferred onto coaches and then bussed into Cannes. I'll never forget the looks on people's faces as Bruce walked the busy gauntlet from the bus stop to the steps of Le Palais, where my good friend and photographer, Mark Mawston took snaps of Bruce, and two of the stars of the film, Lucy Cudden and Esme Bianco - overlooking the old harbour. I have no idea how we afforded any of this, that is all very hazy to me!!

During this time I got really friendly with Julian, Bruce, Bill and Ben, as well as with some of the other producers and the film's publicist, Dana. I felt as though I was part of the production team, even though I only came on after the film was finishing its post.

The Flight 666 stunt was such a big undertaking that I forget what else we did to market the film, other than cutting a trailer, creating a cool poster and placing some ads in the film mags and specialist publications, like Fortean Times. We also did some direct marketing stuff with the Iron Maiden fan database and this was a large part of what we thought would drive sales of the film.

One of the other things we did, seeing as we were also a music label, was to produce a soundtrack CD for the film, which we also sold and distributed. I was to follow this up soon afterwards with the release of the documentary film, Sounds Like Teen Spirit (see my previous blog in this series).

Ironically, we thought that the band's fans would really make the film a hit, but it seemed that they were far less interested in side projects like this one, and the film ended up being a box office non-starter. That was a real disappointment to everyone, but without the support of Bruce's fans the film was ultimately a piece of curiosa for audiences open to sci-fi fantasy ideas to discover.

For me it was a fantastic baptism into theatrical releasing, The Cannes Film Festival (although I had attended several times previously) and a chance to get to know some truly talented and wonderful people, some of whom I am still in touch with today.