Word: fanboy
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...course, another movie that fanboys were panting about at Comic-Con was last summer's Snakes on a Plane, which New Line Cinema pumped to the Web audience but declined to screen for mainstream critics. "We thought it was a stupid title, but we wanted to see it," says Garabedian. "There was swearing, snakes biting into breasts." But the fanboys are outsiders for a reason: the rest of America doesn't always share their taste. And the poor performance of Grindhouse, the double feature from two fanboy deities, directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, shows that fanboy love...
While the best-known fanboys, including Knowles and Garabedian, are caressed by the studios, which invite them to events and film sets and even have publicity divisions to work especially with them, the fanboy effect is most pronounced for smaller-budget releases like Smith's. Shaun of the Dead, 2004's romantic comedy with zombies, became a sleeper hit when horror buffs embraced its zombie-movie in-jokes and morbid humor. Simon Pegg, 37, the British comic who co-wrote Shaun and plays the film's lovelorn zombie hunter, remembers wishing he had someone with whom to share...
Being a fan helps with the tricky business of winning over fanboys of established franchises, who tend to be a protective bunch. When Chris Weitz was tapped to direct this fall's His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, an adaptation of the first book in Philip Pullman's fantasy series, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, the About a Boy director made the mistake of going online and reading a poll of fan reaction. "I had just barely beaten 'nobody' as the person who would be the best director for the series," says Weitz, who eventually invited some fans onto...
...Bart, who once was a Paramount Pictures executive, and to other Hollywood sachems, the ascent of the fanboy critics must be like manna falling from above. They rose from the culture they speak to, they're as obsessed with horror films and special effects as the industry currently is, and they love nearly everything they see. Whereas the mainstream critics--they're so damn critical...
...they do, they invite everyone but critics. Until the fall, that is, when they want their prestige releases on 10 Best lists. Those citations sell tickets and tip off the awards folks. In that sense, Hollywood uses us as heralds to our own constituency. We're the fanboy brigade for Oscar films...