> > May 26 - X-Men: The Last Stand
> >
> > Can the series maintain its track record with a change of director? Brett Ratner is no Bryan Singer, but he *can* be very good, and the trailers look fantastic.
>
> I'm worried that without Singer to steady the boat, the franchise is going to capsize. When the heck was Ratner ever very good?

"Red Dragon" was what I was primarily thinking of. After reviewing his filmography on IMDb, I now realize that that was certainly the *only* thing I was thinking of.

> > The Lake House
> >
> > ...something like the chick-flick version of "Frequency."
>
> "Frequency" wasn't the chick-flick version of "Frequency?" That was a pretty sappy movie to start with.

You thought so? Sentimental, sure, but not unearned and not ultimately a retread of a dozen other movies. I loved it. "The Lake House," however, looks to be a lot more rigidly formulaic: tearjerker romance so pure it spans time itself! Maybe "Kate & Leopold" is a better analogy.

But maybe I'm wrong. Movie marketing often accentuates genre characteristics and hides the originality.

> > July 28 - Little Miss Sunshine
> >
> > My distaste for the current crop of witless slapstick comedies hasn't changed since I wrote about "Click." This Steve Carell vehicle could scarcely interest me less.
>
> Are you joking? This is a slapstick comedy? Have you seen the trailer?

Er, no. I totally misreported this one.

An IMDb StudioBriefing news item: "Little Miss Sunshine, the film that has generated the most buzz -- some say the only buzz -- at the Sundance Film Festival, was bought by Fox Searchlight over the weekend for a reported $10 million following intense bidding. Daily Variety reported that the Fox specialty unit also agreed to pay the producers ten percent of the film's gross. 'This is what Sundance is all about,' Searchlight President Peter Rice told the trade publication after signing the deal. 'The film got a rapturous response. People broke into applause during the movie, and people were crying and laughing. For first-time directors, the film is made with such an assured hand.'"

> > August 18 - Snakes On a Plane
>
> They even added in dialogue that was taken from joke fan trailers. A movie made by the Internet is something I have to see.

This seems like a first. Can you think of anything else where pre-release fan buzz had a direct effect on the final product?