Can you throw gorgeous teens together, give them a supernatural power or
two, and expect a hit? That’s what several studios are banking on in a
post-Twilight world, and one of these offerings is I Am Number Four.
Four is a fledgling series penned by James Frey, the notorious liar behind A Million Little Pieces.
Apparently after you’ve been scolded by Oprah on television, you turn
to writing young adult literature. It’s win win, because you’ve still
got enough buzz to get your series optioned by Michael Bay before it
even hits store shelves.
Four centers
on nine teenagers from an alien planet who have sought refuge on Earth.
They’re being methodically picked off by their longtime enemies the
Mogadorians, and it’s up to Number Four to stop them.
Of course, none of this Roswell-ish
plot is evident in the teaser. The marketing surrounding the book and
the adaptation really assumes there’s a massive and fanatic Four following the way there was with Twilight.
As far as I know, there isn’t. That’s too bad, because this trailer
It’s filled with money shots that only someone with insider tween
knowledge would be psyched about. The rest of us can only shrug and
think things like “Who are these numbered people?” “Why do they have
Sookie Stackhouse-like powers?” “Is this part of the Resident Evil or Underworld series?”
D.J. Caruso directed Four,
which stars Alex Pettyfer, Kevin Durand, Timothy Olyphant, and Dianna
Agron. (It once featured Sharlto Copley, but he dropped out due to schedule conflicts.) Only
Pettyfer gets a close-up, offered up like some dewy and virginal
sacrifice to appease preteen girls. “Look at his soulful eyes. So much
like Robert Pattinson. And you like Pattinson, don’t you?”
Will
that approach work when the trailer itself doesn’t? I doubt tween girls
are that easy — but then, I’m not a tween girl. And if you cut this
trailer with Gerard Butler or Viggo Mortensen in place of Pettyfer,
well, I’m not sure I could speak for my ticket buying actions. (Hey, don’t judge. If it
was Christina Hendricks, I’m pretty sure you boys might go similarly
mindless ….)
Check out the trailer below: