Keanu Reeves faces PR fiasco in Korea

Keanu Reeves, an internationally renowned star with a string of hits under his golden career belt, faced a fierce public relations fiasco in Korea yesterday. Reeves, 44, flew in to Seoul at 5:25 p.m. on Wednesday aboard Korean Air Flight No. 122, and as if recreating the sleek, fast-paced action scene in "Street Kings," he raced to the VIP parking lot, leaving behind clueless Korean fans who had waited for hours to get even a glimpse of him at the airport terminal.
His secret airport escape scheme was relatively a minor blotch compared with what happened with the painful bungling of public relations for "Street Kings," the very cop thriller that Reeves came here to promote. The movie got released nationwide yesterday.
Instead of generating positive reviews and friendly interviews, the local media, both online and offline, was awash with highly negative comments about the extreme measures taken by the Korean office of the 20th Century Fox, the U.S.-based film distributor for the film.



▲Keanu Reeves at a press conference in Seoul yesterday, promoting his upcoming movie "Street Kings" [Kim Myung-sub/The Korea Herald]

Unlike other Hollywood blockbusters whose press screenings were open to all the media companies, 20th Century Fox filtered out what it viewed as "friendly" and "influential" newspapers, magazines and broadcasting stations. The result was dissatisfactory for the entire Korean media circle. On Wednesday, a press screening was held, but 20th Century Fox opened the door to the 20-odd media firms which the company allowed to join the press conference held yesterday at Hyatt Hotel in downtown Seoul - an unprecedented decision that naturally sparked complaints from many snuffed media firms.
The arbitrary selection of participating newspapers and magazines was just part of the media fiasco that seemed to have undermined the public image of Reeves and "Street Kings" among Korean audiences.
The movie, featuring Reeves as a cop who never hesitates to spew racist remarks against Asians, has a scene where he arranges to sell a stash of weapons to a scary group of Korean-American gangsters.
The problem is not that the movie`s fictional set-up is not so flattering to Korean audiences, but that 20th Century Fox put out a press release early Wednesday, asking Korean reporters to refrain from writing about the scene where Koreans are depicted negatively.
Such a demand to supersede the editorial rights of news media confounded the already red-hot media scandal sparked by 20th Century Fox`s restrictive screening of media for the exclusive press conference.
20th Century Fox had originally asked all the photographers to turn in their equipment to the organizers of the press conference and then retrieve them only for the brief photo time. Only after the negative reaction from media firms was splashed all over online did the distributor back off to allow photojournalists to keep their gear.
Noticing the enormous backlash from media and ordinary moviegoers, 20th Century Fox belatedly apologized for its measures by saying they "went too far."
Lee Soo-jung, manager of Megaphone, a movie promotion firm which represents 20th Century Fox and "Street Kings," said some extreme measures were designed to protect Reeves and his privacy.
"We have clearly gone overboard in taking steps to protect Reeves, but that`s not what Reeves wanted. In fact, 20th Century Fox`s headquarters in the United States set such media guidelines, which we just followed faithfully," Lee said in a telephone interview with The Korea Herald.
Lee also confirmed that a written request was made, asking Korean journalists not to write about the sensitive scene in order not to generate a negative impression about the entire movie.
"Keanu Reeves himself did not ask for the extreme measures, and it`s regrettable that our protective measures have created such a huge negative impact," Lee said.
20th Century Fox turned out to have an internal news media guideline about which newspapers and broadcasting companies should be given the right to interview actors or join the press conference. This discriminatory policy is in sharp contrast with other mainstream foreign and Korean film distributors which do not place such restrictions on media.
A question arises about the real purpose of Reeve`s visit to Korea as all the buzz about him and his movie is largely negative.
Reeves`s embarrassing promotion tour in Korea also comes as an unusual development compared with other Hollywood stars.
On Wednesday, award-winning actor Robert Downey Jr. and filmmaker John Favreau met with Korean press at the Shilla Hotel in downtown Seoul, promoting their forthcoming blockbuster "Iron Man," but they did not call for such restrictive screening of reporters.
Nicolas Cage, another big-name Hollywood star whose wife is Korean, showed his deep affection toward Korea without taking any media control when he visited Seoul in 2004, leaving such a positive impression that he is fondly nicknamed "Ni Seobang (Nicolas Son-in-law)" among Korean fans.

By Yang Sung-jin

(insight@heraldm.com)


2008.04.18

I had no idea Nicolas Cages' wife is korean.

From the whole article, your only comment is about Nicolas Cage and his wife, lol.

Well actually I don't have anything to say in regards to Keanu bad image. All I can say is I hope he can turn it around. I know, very poetic and insightful, lol.

__________________

I just can't help myself. Risk it all with me.

[quote=forgetting4u;38036]From the whole article, your only comment is about Nicolas Cage and his wife, lol.
[quote]
LOL

LOL, I didn't know Nicholas Cage has a korean wife either... But the article is implying media censorship by a private source and uncooperative celebs. Essentially saying what do you think Korea is - china?? LOL.

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Info on Nicholas Cage... his wife is korean. Alice Kim. Somehow I get the feeling she isn't the diehard patriotic nationalist the article implies. 20 yr old waitress sees rich american celeb in a sushi bar?? Ok...

imdb.
Nicolas Cage - Biography

Alice kim.
Alice Kim (I) - Biography

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Nicolas Cage's wife is a year younger than me. I understand love should supersede age but...he was born in 64. I mean I hope they are happy but sometimes big age differences make me cringe

Oh yeah, about Keanu...uh..umm...Yeah, still got nothin', lol.

I was wondering if S Korean would over react/act negatively based on a few scenes that depict Koreans in a bad light. I have seen a some American and foreign films where Americans were showns as idiots or power hungry maniacs. The Mummy (American), Love Actually (English) and A Good Lawyer's Wife (Korean)

__________________

I just can't help myself. Risk it all with me.

It wouldnt surprise me if she didn't speak korean.

yea lets hear the bamboo music bros.. dun-din-dun-dun-dun-dun dahh.. if how they met isnt a classical opening to a pron scene i dont know wut is.. haha.