Montreal: Distributor Alliance Atlantis Releasing says it’s hunting down a brand new demographic, teens and young adults 18 to 25, as it preps for the April 23 launch of David Cronenberg’s near-future science-fiction thriller eXistenZ.

The $31-million Serendipity Point Films/Natural Nylon Canada/u.k. coproduction stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law in a depiction of a society where assassins, in the name of dark reality, target virtual game designers who have attained the status of superstars.

aar’s Canada-wide, 150-screen release is backed by an $1-million-plus p&a promotion budget, including an unprecedented $250,000 ante from exhibitors Cineplex Odeon and Famous Players.

In the u.s., Miramax Films’ simultaneous release will play the top 40 markets with an art-film-style 80-plus print launch.

The movie’s English-track tv campaign rolled out nationally April 12. And the film’s promoters have been especially encouraged by the 20,000 or so call responses to a full-page ad in the April 10 (Saturday) edition of the Toronto Star.

Only hours before throwing out the ceremonial opening-day pitch at the ’99 Toronto Blue Jays season opener against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Cronenberg told Playback he had ‘a feeling a younger audience may tune in for the first time [to one of his films].

‘A lot of kids who haven’t seen my earlier movies might not have been interested in seeing Crash or Naked Lunch or M. Butterfly,’ says the director.

The film’s in-theatre promotion includes eXistenZ artwork on popcorn bags and trailers on over 550 Cineplex screens.

Jim Sherry, vp/gm at aar, says eXistenZ should play off the traditionally strong reviews associated with Cronenberg pictures and is aimed ‘at a primary core demographic of 18- to 25-year-olds.’ aar’s media plan includes television, radio, outdoor billboards, alternative and daily newspapers.

Miramax’s ‘platformed’ release strategy in the u.s. means the number of prints and marketing dollars may be upgraded for the May 7 weekend, based on per screen averages, reviews and word of mouth, says Sherry. ‘We don’t speculate on the performance of our motion pictures. However, for a release this size in Canada, I would think that a $4,000 or $5,000 or better screen average would be something that we would be excited by.’

Cronenberg says he may try a prayer or two before the opening, but ultimately theatrical results are determined by a higher authority. ‘It’s totally a crap shoot,’ he says. ‘Anybody who has ever had that experience is aware of it. You can work on a film for three or four years and be dead on the first Friday, or at least have everybody act as if it were dead.

‘I’ve gone through this over a dozen times,’ says the director. ‘A lot of it is timing and a lot of that is timing you can’t control, and neither can your distributor. It depends on the zeitgeist and the mood of the people.’

A case in point, he says, is whether or not eXistenZ will benefit from the current success of Warner Bros.’ sci-fi box-office hit, The Matrix.

And while theatrical is the main event and impacts directly on the price paid for subsequent windows, Cronenberg says the revenue stream for motion pictures is shifting. ‘Revenues from videotape, laserdisc and dvd, which I think is really the medium of the future, can justify the making of a film that costs quite a lot of money.’

The road to release

The road to eXistenZ’s release has stretched over three months. The film had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in mid-February where it was screened for 2,200 journalists, going on to win a Silver Bear. Interviews were subsequently done in Berlin, Paris and London.

Earlier this month, in prep for the North American release, Cronenberg crisscrossed the continent, traveling to New York, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, and then back to nyc for the u.s. premiere, April 19.

The April 21 Canadian premiere goes at the Cineplex Odeon Uptown Cinema in Toronto.

ugc gave the film a wide release in France, where the director is much admired, April 14.

Lantos to the rescue

eXistenZ was initially developed for mgm. Going back five years or more, Cronenberg says he had just written Crash and was looking for financing for the film. He was invited by the head of mgm to pitch other movie ideas, and ended up writing eXistenZ. Following a willing rewrite, Cronenberg says, ‘I then felt they were trying to turn it into something else.’

And indeed they were.

The director says at one point the head of mgm/ua expressed concern that, among other things, ‘the film was not linear enough.’ But Cronenberg says ‘non-linearity is sort of what the movie is all about. In other words, the conservatism of Hollywood is so deep that it runs to that kind of structural criticism.’

The upshot was the film (or perhaps more accurately some other film with the same title) could have been made three years ago, before Crash was shot in 1996. ‘It ended up in turnaround, and Alliance snapped it up just as they had done with Crash,’ says the director, who has a deal to do another movie with Serendipity’s Robert Lantos.

Selected craft credits on eXistenZ go to longtime Cronenberg collaborators, cinematographer Peter Suschitzky, production designer Carol Spier, costume designer Denise Cronenberg and special-effects supervisor Jim Isaac. The pm was Michael MacDonald. Title design is by Cuppa Coffee Animation, Toronto.

F/X with feeling

eXistenZ’s special effects are subtle and seamless, mechanicals aside. The f/x include classic rear-screen projection and cgi elements done at toybox in Toronto, including a scene where a twin-headed, salamander-like creature climbs up on a gas pump. In other instances, the cgi is used to enhance on-set pyrotechnics.

But like Naked Lunch and his earliest films, mechanicals rule the day in eXistenZ. The mechanicals respond directly to Cronenberg’s personal view of his craft, ‘a very tactile, sculptural thing.’

‘I don’t do storyboards because I really need to be there with the actors in their costumes, in their makeup on the set, the real set with the real props. If you only have cgi with the blue screen then you don’t have that integrated environment.’

Cronenberg’s selected filmography includes Crash (1996), M. Butterfly (’93), Naked Lunch (’91), Dead Ringers (’88), The Fly (’86), Cronenberg’s most popular film with some $80 million in worldwide theatrical receipts, The Dead Zone (’83) and Videodrome (’83). Cronenberg is jury president at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, May 12-23.

eXistenZ received important equity investments from Telefilm Canada, TMN-The Movie Network and The Harold Greenberg Fund.