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  • December 5, 2011

    Film embargos are the bane of any film critic’s existence.  I very much dislike not being able to share my thoughts on movies immediately, but I play by the rules, since it’s really the only way to do things.  Breaking an embargo is a real no-no in the industry, and can carry some stiff penalties.  That hasn’t stopped one notable colleague of mine from deciding to post his review of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ very shortly (it may even be up by the time you read this)…ahead of the date Sony Pictures has requested for review publication, which most people would never even consider doing, so I wonder why this particular person is choosing to do this (as have pretty much everyone else in the industry).  This letter went out late Saturday night reminding everyone to not break the embargo and shunning the critic:

    Dear Colleague,

    All who attended screenings of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo agreed in writing to withhold reviews until closer to the date of the film’s worldwide release date. Regrettably, one of your colleagues, David Denby of The New Yorker, has decided to break his agreement and will run his review on Monday, December 5th. This embargo violation is completely unacceptable.

    By allowing critics to see films early, at different times, embargo dates level the playing field and enable reviews to run within the films’ primary release window, when audiences are most interested. As a matter of principle, the New Yorker’s breach violates a trust and undermines a system designed to help journalists do their job and serve their readers. We have been speaking directly with The New Yorker about this matter and expect to take measures to ensure this kind of violation does not occur again.

    In the meantime, we have every intention of maintaining the embargo in place and we want to remind you that reviews may not be published prior to December 13th.

    We urge all who have been given the opportunity to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo to honor the commitments agreed to as a condition of having early access to the film.

    Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

    Sincerely,
    Andre Caraco, Executive Vice President, Motion Picture Publicity
    Sony Pictures Entertainment

     

    I’d love to not have the embargo issue out there, but it is, so I deal with it.  I wish studios would be more flexible on this, but Denby seems to have broken a cardinal rule.  I can’t imagine this will end well for either side.

    -Thoughts?  Discuss on the Forum!

    About Joey Magidson


    When he’s not obsessing over new Oscar predictions on a weekly basis, Joey is seeing between 200 and 300 movies a year. He views the best in order to properly analyze the awards race/season each year, but he also watches the worst for reasons he mostly sums up as "so you all don't have to". In his spare time, you can usually find him complaining about the Jets or the Mets. Still, he lives and dies by film. Joey's a voting member of the Internet Film Critics Association as well. Today the IFCA, tomorrow the world!

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    8 Comments

    1. Ah nice. Never knew what a film embargo was until now.

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    2. Hey Joey is it possible for you or anyone else on The Awards Circuit to lose their position on the site for breaking an embargo?

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      • Well, that would require Clayton firing us, and I don’t think that would happen, but the studios and PR firms have penalties in place for that sort of thing.

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    3. This is something I’ve always wondered. What kind of penalties are there for breaking an embargo?

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      • Well, you could lose your credentials in a worst case scenario, but it can range from a warning to that studio no longer allowing you to see their films early…

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    4. I hate the embargo because it prevents us from getting our reviews out asap, but it’s a rule and we gotta follow them if we want to keep getting invited to screenings.

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      • I hate it too, but we’re given a real privilege, so nothing in life is perfect. I’d love to not have them, but we deal with them…

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