We were all there: yawning a little from already having watched "Planet Terror", but soon to be awakened by the intermission entertainment during Quentin Tarantino's "Grindhouse". There we were again: popcorn on shirt, dying of laughter during the first twenty minutes of Ben Stiller's "Tropic Thunder". Fake movie trailers. We couldn't get home fast enough to watch a slew of them on YouTube. Now they're coming to you.
Red Hour Digital, a recent branch of Stiller's own Red Hour Productions, has recently let the world know of The Fake Trailer Project, a twelve-part web series to be launched later this fall that will consist entirely of fake movie trailers. Its success seems nearly assured by Stiller's decision to recruit some top comedy talent for the project including Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant of "Reno 911!" and Amy Heckerling, director of "Clueless", "European Vacation", and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".
There are two schools of thought in the fake-movie-trailer universe. In the first, you've got your re-cut trailers that mix clips from the actual production with new voice-overs and music to present the film as an upcoming release in an entirely different genre. Prime example below: "The Shining" re-packaged as a romantic comedy. In the second camp are fabricated story lines for non-existent films such as those in "Grindhouse" and "Tropic Thunder". No matter which you prefer, however, these pretend previews have made a name for themselves.
