EDDIE THE EAGLE : Promotion and Box Office

[jo]

Hugh Jackman ‏@realhughjackman · 2m2 minutes ago
Awesome 1st time hosting the Townie screening of @eddieeaglemovie with @dexfletch and @taronegerton. Thank you FOX

[jo]

[mamaleh]

Was this the first time Hugh has attended the Sundance Film Festival? I think so. Looks like he had a fine time.

Ellen

[jo]

Yes. This is his first time at Sundance. Not unusual because most of his films are wide studio releases. Sundance is primarily intended for indie type movies.

If I recall right, he has attended other film festivals --

*I remember him recounting that he attended a Film Festival in Deauville, France for an Australian movie in his early years as an actor. He did come back to Deauville ( if I recall right, this is in Normandy or Brittany) when he was already a Wolverine star.

*He did not attend the Venice Film Festival for THE FOUNTAIN, which was controversially-received.

*He attended Cannes for XMEN 3 but it was not in competition.

*He attended the Toronto Film Festival for PRISONERS. Not sure if he also went to Telluride when PRISONERS was also presented there. He also attended the San Sebastian Festival in Spain, also for PRISONERS. I am not sure if he attended a film festival in Zurich to present PRISONERS as well as to receive an honor accorded him.

*Not sure if any of his films were shown at the Berlin Film Festival as well as in Shanghai.

Jo

[jo]

deadline.com/2016/01/taron-egerton-hugh-jackman-eddie-the-eagle-olympic-ski-jumper-sundance-screening-1201691148/

Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman Help ‘Eddie The Eagle’ Soar In Secret Sundance Screening


by Mike Fleming Jr
January 26, 2016 10:06pm



As Deadline revealed days ago, Eddie The Eagle landed at the Sundance Film Festival tonight. Fox took the secret “townie” screening berth as an opportunity to launch the Dexter Fletcher-directed Fox film about the British ski jumping folk hero. In tow for the Library Theatre premiere were Taron Egerton, who played the foggy-goggled Brit with the jutting jaw, and Hugh Jackman, who played the coach who prayed each of The Eagle’s jumps would not be his last. Eddie Edwards not only survived as Britain’s first ski jumping representative in the 70 and 90 meter event; he managed, without funding or that much talent, to be far better remembered than the skiers who took home medals in 1988. The film opens February 26.


Eddie Edwards made his living plastering walls, and was woefully short of funds when he pursued his Olympic dreams. He was also longsighted and wore thick glasses that would fog up on the slope, so he could barely see before taking his leap. He’s a bit like some of those Sundance films that don’t sell in splashy deals. They both start off in good shape, but by the time they’re airborne, you don’t know where they’re going, and the ending is often ugly and hard to watch.

In the Calgary Olympics, Eddie the Eagle finished last in both the 70 and 90 M jump contests, but is as fondly remembered as the Jamaican bobsled team whose underdog story served as the basis for Cool Runnings. In fact, it was that bobsledders that got this whole movie started. Matthew Vaughn, who directed Egerton as the protagonist in Kingsman: The Secret Service, produced this through his MARV Films banner and was the catalyst.


Said Vaughn: “This started a year ago, when I was watching Cool Runnings with the kids, and halfway through the movie, they turned around to say, ‘dad, you’ve got to put that fat guy in one of your movies.’ I said I would love to, but sadly, John Candy died. But the more I watched them laughing, and seeing how engrossed they were by it, it got me thinking. I’d taken them to the cinema to see some blockbuster the day before, and every time I do that, I ask what did they think? They said, ‘eh,’ and moved on. I realized they were not engaging in those films because there was a lack of storytelling and a reliance on massive visuals and not necessarily stories they could relate to and be inspired by.

So here, they said, ‘why doesn’t anyone make movies like this anymore? I thought, good idea. I should do a Cool Runnings-style film,” Vaughn said. “I remembered the script for Eddie The Eagle that I’d read 15 years ago when it was slipped to me by Gareth Wigan, who was a mentor, God rest his soul, and who said, do you and Guy Ritchie want to make this movie? Back then I read the title, Eddie The Eagle and said, ‘are you joking? Who the hell would want to see a movie about him?’ Then I read the script and thought there was something here and it could be its own version of The Full Monty.”


A rights tangle ensued and Vaughn abandoned it way back then, but after some sleuthing, he found the script and bought the rights, and found himself with a reason to take a leap, quickly.


“My whole team was finishing Kingsman, and I didn’t want to lose them so I said, let’s make Eddie The Eagle,” Vaughn said. “I loved Dexter’s film Wild Bill and rang him and said, ‘I got this movie ready to go, and Taron would be great in it. I told him all about it and he said, ‘Eddie The Eagle? Are you joking? Why would I do that?’ I asked him to read and he did and said, ‘My god, this guy’s not an idiot. He’s a hero.’ Now, I’m guilty of this too, making pretty violent chaotic movies, but here I just thought, let’s make one that makes people feel good, and realize that anyone can achieve anything if they have tenacity and heart. And I wanted to make a movie where I’m not cringing if my kids try and watch it. I spoke to studios and some said, who wants to watch ski jumping? I said, You know what? Chariots of Fire is about fu*king running, and people enjoyed that.” Fox, where Vaughn made Kingsman, X-Men: First Class and where he’s prepping the Kingsman sequel, signed on. “We started shooting three months later,” Vaughn said.

Egerton, who wasn’t born when Eddie the Eagle soared into folklore in the 1988 Winter Games, signed on right away. He said it wasn’t as hard as the action hero paces Vaughn put him through on his breakout role in Kingsman, but close. “There was a lot of time spent in the cold, filming at the top of those ski jumps,” he said. “I’m not so good with heights and it was so high up. Plus, I’d never skied before, so I had to find a pair of skis and rise to the challenge of getting myself to look as much like Eddie as possible.”

Jackman also signed on quickly to play his coach, Bronson Peary, even thought X-Men star also got queasy so high up, filming those jumps. “I remember Eddie so well, he was almost an honorary Australian because he embodied our ‘just have a go’ attitude toward things,” Jackman said. “This was a kid who couldn’t walk and who said, not only am I going to walk, I’m going to the Olympics. Not only did he do it, he did it in the craziest, wildest and most ridiculous sport on the planet, where people die all the time. He was the every man who proved you don’t always have to win, to be a winner. Taron and I play these two losers who bring out the best in each other. Eddie’s front was the class clown, and there he was at the top of the 90 meter jump, facing life and death and it turned out he had never really jumped from that high, before.”

Considering Vaughn helmed Kingsman, X-Men: First Class and the Daniel Craig-starrer Layer Cake, his characterization of Eddie The Eagle seems surprising. “He’s the true superhero, the epitome of what a hero should be in the world right now,” Vaughn said. “He was honorable and stuck to his guns. You look at the IOC and FIFA and these governing bodies and they’re steeped in scandals and it’s all about bribes and money. It like the Olympic spirit has been forgotten. Eddie reminds people it isn’t just about winning, it’s about partaking. I think that’s important because these days, kids are too intimidated to try things, when they should be encouraged to go out there and have a go.’

Not everybody had such fond memories of Eddie the Eagle. “First, I thought I could do this with the stunt team and they could do the jumps but they looked at me and said, ‘No fu*king way we’re doing anything like that,” Vaughn said. “These are guys who’ll drive cars into pillars and all kinds of crazy stuff.’ Vaughn then turned to real jumpers to capture what he called the essence of the sport. “The wipeouts are spectacular and when people watch racing of these kinds of things, they secretly hope for a crash now and then. It’s why boxing movies work; at the end of the day, it’s two guys in the ring and one is going to get knocked out. Ski jumping is very similar. They start from the top and either they land, or they’re going to break every bone in their body.”

Turns out that group hated The Eagle. “I got these ski jumpers, and the head coach said, ‘I haven’t had a crash in 11 years.’” That streak had to end, because The Eagle had his share of crashes. “It was interesting that none of those guys liked Eddie,” Vaughn said. “The ski jumping community felt he got famous for crashing and they said they were in it for the sport and for excellence. I said, ‘no, this guy was brave, he didn’t really have any training and they were finally turned around by the reality of who Eddie really was.”

Now that The Eagle has landed for the last time, Vaughn said his nest mission is to get Egerton to lose the goggle-like glasses and get back in Kingsman mode.

Jackman, who, in his final turn as Wolverine is still so obsessed with being in hero shape that he writes down everything he eats which is the only way he stays so ripped, thought Egerton’s transformation came with a high degree of difficulty. “I was blown away, that if you look at Eddie and then look at Taron in the trailer, it’s hard to know who is who and I don’t know many actors who could follow Kingsman with Eddie the Eagle, that charming, goofy, endearing character,” Jackman said. “The idea he could do that turn right after being the action hero, I don’t know another actor who could pull that off.”

Going back to his suave former self will be easier with the help of Vaughn: “I have to beat Eddie The Eagle out of Taron, who I love dearly and who is close to Eddie in that he’s at heart nice and sweet. But I told him, you are back to being cool, suave and edgy.’” Egerton said that he was happy to obey that order and especially to lose the skis, but acknowledges that it’s taking time to completely shake off The Eagle.

“For the past couple of months, my mother has been telling me, stop jutting your jaw out,” Egerton said. “I think that when you play someone there’s always a little bit of them that stays with you awhile. I think Eddie’s mostly gone but he might resurface during the Sundance Festival a little bit. But they should keep the skis away from me, if they want me to survive long enough to make the next movie.”

[jo]

An entertainment editor tweets --

SPOILER ALERT for the first tweet

SPOILER************SPOILER**********SPOILER

SPOILER: Click to show

Anna Klassen ‏@annajklassen · 2h2 hours ago
The best part of EDDIE THE EAGLE is Hugh Jackman faking a full on orgasm for 30 seconds on screen. Not a joke. #Sundance

Giggle

Anna Klassen ‏@annajklassen · 2h2 hours ago
EDDIE THE EAGLE is a fairly paint-by-numbers underdog story, but you'll be smiling so hard by the end of it. Great performances. #Sundance



Anna Klassen ‏@annajklassen · 4h4 hours ago
I have been mistaken for member of Hugh Jackman's entourage. I'm in a private room w/ him & all his friends. So confused. I stole some food.

[jo]

Posted on IMDB --

100 preview screenings today!

image for user Sagardoa
by
Sagardoa
» 3 hours ago (Tue Jan 26 2016 20:03:05) Flag ▼

IMDb member since September 2011

I just got back from a screening of this movie and one of the guys running the preview mentioned there are 100 screenings going on today across the country! Mine was one of 5 just here in Los Angeles today.

I expect word of mouth to start rolling out tommorrow for this movie so keep an eye out if you care about reviews. They told all of us to publish our reactions to #flylikeeddie so they definitely are pushing for good word of mouth to help promote this movie!

Funny, before I left to see the movie today the rating was at 6.6 and now I get back home and it's gone up to 7.7 in the span of about 5/6 hours lol.

That was why a flyer was given during the screening --






I guess the advance word from earlier screenings in the UK and some in the USA gave them an indication that the film could be very well-received. The strategy seems to be working well. Social media posts are practically 100% favorable.

What a pity that the release dates in other countries, including the UK, are not close to the opening date in the USA because very positive word of mouth can help the movie a lot.


Jo

[jo]

Featured on EOnline -- Hugh having lunch at Park City/Sundance :




The snowy mountain air must agree with him -- his photos all look great!


Jo

[jo]

PEOPLE.com likewise features a similar photo --

[jo]

One of the major media outlets, USA TODAY, writes about EDDIE THE EAGLE...and cites tweets that highly endorse the movie.

www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2016/01/27/sundance-hugh-jackman-sneaks-eddie-eagle/79412762/

Word of mouth is starting strongly ...


The IMDB average rating( based on numerical reviews by IMDB posters) has now risen to 8.0, based on 78 reviews.

[jo]

An interview with JoBlo --

[jo]

For a while I thought that the media diversion to the status of WOLVERINE 3 project had taken away part of the spotlight on EDDIE THE EAGLE...

until I realized it could work the other way, too. Wolverine/XMen fans who have read about the script update now know that there is a great lighthearted movie that Hugh is involved in, soon due for release. And since EDDIE is both a guy movie ( sports-oriented/focus on determination and triumph of the human spirit/ fun and exciting) and a gal movie ( hey, it's Hugh and Taron...and the human story behind Eddie's determination) -- that should create some excitement among the fanboys and the fangirls.

This update on WOLVERINE 3 carries a trailer of EDDIE THE EAGLE in its featured article --

www.empireonline.com/movies/news/hugh-jackman-offers-wolverine-3-update/

Jo

[jo]

This is turning out to be quite a media junket


www.yahoo.com/movies/eddie-the-eagle-surprises-at-sundance-where-011843101.html

SUNDANCE 2016

'Eddie the Eagle' Surprises at Sundance, Where Hugh Jackman Endorses Taron Egerton for Han Solo Role

Kevin Polowy
Senior Editor

January 28, 2016



Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards is not a household name in the U.S. — and frankly, said Hugh Jackman, that’s the reason why a biopic about the British Olympian was kicking around Hollywood for 15 years before it got made. Jackman and friends are hoping that changes with the inspirational new sports drama Eddie the Eagle, which premiered to cheers last night as the surprise, unofficial screening at the Sundance Film Festival.

The film stars Kingsman breakout Taron Egerton as Edwards, who, despite his working-class London background and severe athletic shortcomings, was so determined to become an Olympian that trained himself how to ski jump in less than a year and found loopholes in the entry process enabled him to compete in the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary. Edwards didn’t win any medals, but he became a media sensation and British folk hero when all was said and done.

Eddie the Eagle, helmed by actor-turned-director Dexter Fletcher from a script by Sean Macaulay and Simon Kelton, plays like the U.K.’s answer to Rudy. Amazingly, both the Aussie Jackman (47) and the Wales-born Egerton (26) admitted to never hearing of the 1993 football crowdpleaser starring Sean Astin when we caught up with them in Park City a few hours before the premiere.

But they were full of laughs as Egerton admitted he couldn’t really see anything in Eddie’s huge glasses and Jackman (who plays Eddie’s reluctant, hard-drinking coach Bronson Peary) shared his failed childhood plan to break a Guinness World Record. Also discussed: the fact that Egerton has been long-rumored to be the next Han Solo, is reportedly in running (among a handful of other promising young actors) to play a younger version of the beloved bounty hunter. Jackman hadn’t yet heard this, but was quick to endorse his Eagle co-star for the gig.




Eddie the Eagle is so ‘80s there’s a training montage set to Hall & Oates. And a van-surfing scene that, correct me if I’m wrong, felt like a Teen Wolf homage.

Taron Egerton: We love that! I was actually the cultural consultant for the '80s, having been there from start to finish. [Egerton was born in 1989.]

Hugh Jackman: People are going to see that surfing on top of a van moment and think we’ve gone a step too far, but that’s actually true. That’s how he first tried to get used to the feeling of the wind. Often when people [ski jump] for the first time the skis smack them in the head. So you have to scream consciously into the wind… They do really do that.



Was Eddie pretty excited to see his story get the movie treatment?

Egerton: Yeah!

Jackman: He’d signed his life rights away 15 years ago for this. So it took 15 years getting the film up. He was probably like, 'Oh, finally!’ But he’s a very knockaround guy. As it shows in the movie, I don’t think he went into it to become famous…. He just loved jumping, he loved the Olympics, and everything else was a byproduct.



Taron, you’re barely recognizable in this movie. What did that physical transformation entail?

Egerton: I don’t know, really. It was something that just kind of happened, it just felt right. I was very aware of how he looked, and his mannerisms, and I watched interviews with him. I mean a lot of it was done for me, those glasses do a tremendous amount. I could not see in those glasses, so I sort of found myself looking a bit bewildered the whole time. … I thought I was going to be suffering from crippling migraines after a couple days wearing those glasses. Thankfully it didn’t happen.



Hugh, you didn’t have to undergo that many physical tweaks, though Bronson does have a great hairstyle. It’s kind of a half-mullet, business up front without the party in the back.

Jackman: Well, I did that maybe not so well in Chappie. I had a good mullet but with blond tips. Done. Deb [his wife] always says a good thing about being married to an actor is you get to have an affair every three months. That was a lean three months to be honest, with the ol’ mullet.

Egerton: [bursting into laughter] It came back after that haircut.

Jackman: “Turn the lights off, honey.”

Well, Wolverine probably does all right in that department.

Egerton: The muttonchops are better.

Jackman: Which is good, because I’ve had so many years playing him.

[jo]

On MSN, Hugh heads the photo gallery (WONDERWALL) of actors/actresses who attended SUNDANCE.

www.msn.com/en-us/movies/celebrity/hugh-jackman-bryce-dallas-howard-brooklyn-decker-and-more-stars-hit-sundance-2016/ss-BBoAdC6




Unfortunately, there was no mention that he was there for the premiere of EDDIE THE EAGLE.

Taron was not among the 107 actors/actresses who were featured in the gallery, maybe due to the lack of recognition factor?

[jo]

[mamaleh]

Yes, Taron is not exactly a household name or face, at least not yet. They probably thought he was a P.A. or something.

Ellen

[jo]

Josh Horowitz comes up with the best trifecta selfies with Hugh and Taron -

http://instagram.com/p/BBFo-7vRRfi

[jo]

A new poster for the release in the UK ( Lionsgate) --




Is Hugh really driving on the right side of the road? Are some parts of the movie supposed to happen in the UK ( where Michael Edwards comes from)?

But I think they did say that the ski-jumping scenes take place in a supposed competition at Garmische in Bavaria, Germany.

[mamaleh]

Maybe they just flipped the photo when creating the poster.

Ellen

[hughmanity]

Some very positive reviews posted today from youthful "critics" on youtube. Keep spreading the word, young people!

[jo]

It has also sustaind its average rating of 8.0 for 90 voters ( presumably those who have seen it) and is rising abruptly in the popularity index on IMDB --

www.imdb.com/title/tt1083452/

Readers reviews on IMDB ( 2 so far and both rating the movie at 8 of 10 stars) have started --

www.imdb.com/title/tt1083452/reviews?ref_=tt_urv

[jo]

This is the full COLLIDER interview --

collider.com/hugh-jackman-taron-egerton-eddie-the-eagle-kingsman-2-interview/






"Gatecrashers at SUNDANCE!!"


Jo

[jo]

twotrey23#movie screening #2 today... #EddieTheEagle with #HughJackman #TaronEgerton #DexterFletcher in the house. #film #cinema #movies #films #sports #Olympics #skijump

Maybe this was earlier scheduled so Hugh can attend it before going to G'DAY USA ?


Many of the attendees are from media, so that was probably the reason for the post-screening Q&A.

[jo]

Jeff Sneider Verified account  ‏@theinsneider · 1h1 hour ago
Hugh Jackman had to bail on EDDIE THE EAGLE Q&A. Mantz introduces Dexter Fletcher. "He looks like Hugh Jackman!" DF: "I should be so lucky!"

[jo]

Thanks to JackmansLanding for the link to this blog --

barinan.wordpress.com/

*Be sure to look at photos of Hugh and Taron at the ski resort which they visited with one of the producers of the movie

*There is a video clip of Hugh engaging the audience at Sundance, esp the blogger of the site.

*When that clip is over, there is another clip showing Taron and Dexter during the Q&A for the movie. Hugh is not there, so maybe this happened on January 28, when Hugh was busy entertaining his fellow Aussies


Jo