(features)
To Hell and Back
Tucker Max’s tour bus sits outside Piper’s Alley located on the North Side of Chicago.
The Ride
For three days, I was fortunate enough to shadow Tucker Max on the promotional tour for the movie I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.
As I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell was being screened for the premiere audience, Tucker Max and I sat in the back room of the tour bus eating ribs and drinking beer. Our fingers were covered in barbeque sauce as we talked about creating an independent movie, and coming from outside the Hollywood machine.
“I would rather die standing than live with a studio’s boot on my neck,” Max said in response to attaching a studio to the movie, or selling the script he and buddy Nils Parker had written together.
Before Darko Entertainment (of Donnie Darko) came along to finance the movie, Max and Parker had turned down an over two million dollar offer from Fox Searchlight Pictures for the script they had written, all because they would have lost creative control.
When I heard about the turning down of a cool two million, I asked if there was ever any hesitation on the offer.
“No, none at all, we wouldn’t have been able to make the movie we wanted to make, so we didn’t even have to think about it,” Max said.
It blew my mind that an offer that big wouldn’t be given at least some thought. Max noticed my disbelief and went on.
“OK, it’s like this: If a gay man came back here right now and asked to have sex with you, what would you say?” he asked.
“No,” I said.
“Would you even have to think about it?” he asked. I shook my head in response. “That’s exactly what it was like.”
It’s been that way since the beginning with Max: he has done things the way he’s wanted, and it’s paid off.
What started as emails traded back and forth between Max and his friends quickly became the popular TuckerMax.com. Max gained millions of fans as the site spread like wildfire across the net.
“People were sending me my own stories and asking me if I’d read them before, not knowing that I was the author,” Max said.
“The cover, the content…every single word in that book is there because I wanted it to be. No one else had any say in the matter.”
— Tucker Max
It wasn’t long until Max was approached about writing a book. Max said he was uninterested in writing what the publishing company wanted. But they agreed to let Max have full control over the book.
“The cover, the content…every single word in that book is there because I wanted it to be. No one else had any say in the matter,” said Max.
The same went for the movie, which was a much more impressive feat. Max and Parker held strong to never attach a studio to the movie, which was a ludicrous idea for an independent film that would be released across the country.
Max came into Hollywood as an outsider, and almost everything that he is doing is different in some way, from the independent production, the 18-month production blog and even the marketing of the film.
Max and crew have just wrapped up a nation-wide, 31 city premiere tour—the first movie tour of its kind. For the past six weeks, the crew of 11 toured the country in a huge black RV emblazoned with the movie poster. In each city, the movie was shown to hundreds of fans that were privy to a pre-show storytelling and post-show Q&A. Fans were allowed to stay after and get anything signed by Max and take a picture. Max met every fan that stayed and then invited them out drinking at a pre-determined bar.
Max’s handiwork
Max went back to his grassroots for the promotion. He went to the people that got him where he is today, his fans.
Promotional videos were also made at every stop. They were uploaded to the movie site and to YouTube, each getting thousands of hits. The videos from the premieres I attended are well worth watching, they’re both hilarious and insulting. ( Lexington – Bloomington – Chicago )
The tour generated buzz in Hollywood, creating the need for an upgrade in size for the L.A. premiere. Beer in Hell went from a smaller theater to the Cinerama Dome at Arclight, one of the biggest theaters in the world. Max and Parker’s marketing tactics paid off.
The promotional tour wasn’t the only brilliant idea, though. A year and a half ago, when the movie got the okay, Max started a production blog that chronicled the making of the movie. Posts from Max, Parker, and the actors were featured over the year and a half before the release, teaching people what goes on behind the scenes of making a movie.
The most important part of the marketing campaign was word of mouth. Everything possible was done to ensure that the fans at the premieres were having a good time. Word of mouth only works however, when you have a great product to begin with, and faith in it to sell itself as well. Max has the product, and the faith.
When Bill Dawes (MC) asked her who she was she answered, “I like to call myself the Purple People Eater.” Dawes replied, “I would like it more if you were a purple penis eater.”
There is much on the horizon for Max and Parker. The newest book Assholes Finish First comes out in February; and if the movie does well, there are sequels which have already been plotted out.
As I walked through O’Hare airport to catch my flight home I noticed I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell in one of those tiny bookstores. The books sat in a small pyramid with the new cover portraying the actor who plays Max instead of himself, and the seemingly ever present “Now a major motion picture!” tagline. I thought less about what was happening in the “now”, and more about the future for Max and Parker, because it is sure to be bright.