Following the lead of Fox's huge success with Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat, which went to ComicCon and Toronto before release, Universal is hitting their first festival with Bruno this weekend at SXSW in Austin, Tx. (Note: ComicCon '09 is a few weeks after Bruno hits theaters, so while I expect stunts to follow at Cannes, Tribeca, and maybe even Seattle, this is the first and last Geek-A-Thon available for Universal to exploit.)
And they seem to be aiming for a Bruno-astic riot.
They are having a ticket-free screening of about 22 minutes of footage at the Alamo Draft House this Sunday night, just before one of the festival's midnight movies. How big a crowd do you think will gather, hoping to get in and if not, hoping to see Bruno do a press stunt before the show?
To quote the studio: "SXSW/Fantastic Festers: First-ever look at BRÜNO footage! Sunday night 11 pm at Alamo Drafthouse Lamar. No badge needed, free admission!" and again, "it's 11 pm and open to anyone who comes."
I wish I could be there to smell the insanity.
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2009/03/bruno_goes_to_a.html