If you thought marketing a film about the forbidden love of two cowboys had some challenges, how about one about a gay political activist?
Focus Features, the specialty film division of Universal Pictures, is no stranger to selling movies that touch a nerve with the public. In 2005, it successfully steered "Brokeback Mountain," a drama about two Wyoming ranch hands who fell in love that pundits said would never find a wide audience, into a hit.
But this time Focus may be touching the third rail of movie marketing. On Wednesday, the studio is releasing "Milk," a $20-million drama starring Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the San Francisco city supervisor and gay activist who was gunned down in 1978 by a disgruntled former supervisor. Penn is already being touted as a potential Oscar nominee, and the film is being embraced by critics.
Unlike "Brokeback," which starred two young Hollywood heartthrobs against majestic scenery in a story about the spell of enduring love, "Milk" is about a leftist politician in anything-goes 1970s San Francisco. As such, Focus could find "Milk," with its unapologetic liberal political and cultural themes, a tougher sell to general audiences, especially in parts of the country more conservative than urban markets.
"It's a fight, but we're ready," said Focus Chief Executive James Schamus, who added that " 'Brokeback' is a bit of the bane of our existence at the moment," given the high expectations it puts on "Milk" to perform accordingly.
Movies about political figures and events rarely set the box office ablaze. Although director Oliver Stone's 1991 film "JFK" did well, his 1995 "Nixon" flopped, as did his recent release "W.," about President Bush. Penn's previous turn as a larger-than-life politician in the 2006 drama "All the King's Men," in which he portrayed the fictional populist Southern governor Willie Stark, also bombed.
But Focus hopes to turn what Hollywood marketers would normally consider "Milk's" chief liability -- a political movie carrying a message -- into a virtue. The company is trying to capitalize on the current political mood in the country and its call for change, especially among younger people who were galvanized by the recent presidential election.
Indeed, Milk's successful effort against a California proposition 30 years ago that would have barred gay teachers in public schools closely parallels today's battle against the recently passed Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in the state.
