Gary Collinson on the Art of the Movie Scoop…
The movie scoop. In the early days of the internet, it was a glorious thing to behold, with an online writer unearthing a golden nugget of information and dropping it to the masses, leaving studio executives scratching their heads and wondering just how this super top secret piece of news managed to leak out of their vault and make its way onto the interweb. Fast forward a decade or so, and the landscape has shifted dramatically. And not in a good way.
Everybody loves a good scoop, but these days you can’t go an hour without a big “exclusive” from one site or another, the majority of which leads to a huge stir on social media, before fading into obscurity, never to be mentioned again. And of course, 99% of these “scoops” revolve around superhero movies and Star Wars Why? Because superhero movies and Star Wars just so happen to be the biggest traffic drivers for movie sites. It’s all about generating traffic, which in turn generates income. If you can fool a few hundred people on Twitter, that’s great, and if you article gets picked up by the movie news sites, you’re laughing.
These big scoops used to be confined to a select few websites, who got things wrong sure, but more often than not they were on the money. When they said someone was cast, they were cast. Not “auditioned”. Or “discussed behind the scenes”. Or “completely made up” (okay, you’ll not see that admission very often). Nowadays, even the best scoopers are batting around a 20-25% success rate, and some former giants have faded into irrelevance, having dropped debunked story after debunked story. Now, we have a whole tonne of websites pulling names out of hats left, right and centre, dropping “exclusives” like they’re going out of fashion, and nine times out of ten, completely fabricating their stories. There are sites batting 0% who still drop “scoops” on a weekly basis, and sure enough they spread like wildfire, despite a complete lack of a track record. Hell, claim Betty White is going to play Janet van Dyne in Ant-Man and you can be sure Yahoo! Movies will pick it up at the very least.
Before we get into the meat of this article, it should be noted that Flickering Myth reports many of these rumours, or at least the ones from “reputable” rumour sites, if that even makes sense. So you could argue we’re just as bad as the sites that peddle the original stories. I’ve wrestled with that very thought myself, especially when I’ve spent time writing up a news story, only for the “scoop” to be debunked by the time I’ve finished typing. For sites like us, who aren’t in the business of seeking out scoops, it’s a catch-22 situation. It’s tough to ignore a piece of “news” on Batman vs. Superman or The Avengers: Age of Ultron when virtually every website on the internet is reporting it. We ignore all the rumours, and we’re not keeping our readers informed. All we can do is make sure we clearly mark the story as a rumour, and advise you to take it with a pinch of salt. And of course, there’s also handful of times when these scoops turn out to be true. It’s pretty hard to distinguish between truth and fiction when there’s so much information, misinformation, and blatantly false information floating around.
Now, I’m not suggesting that every single “scoop” is guesswork. Obviously that’s not the case, and many of the main offenders do deliver genuine scoops. On occasion. Any website can get a genuine scoop, and many do. Hell, we’ve even had one or two ourselves in the past, and we’re not in the scooping game. But beyond the trades, it’s rare for a website to consistently drop genuine scoops time and time again, no matter how hard they’ll try to convince you of their track record. Manage to get one scoop confirmed, and you can use this to justify another five or ten dubious scoops, directing any dissenting voices to that one that turned out to be true. Clearly there are 100% genuine scoops, provided by an insider, which will eventually get confirmed and the site can rightfully claim “TOLD YA”.
By the same token, there are “scoops” that are 100% rubbish, designed purely to a) attract hits, b) attract links, and c) spread like wildfire on social media before fading into obscurity, hopefully before being debunked. If they do happen to be debunked, everyone will have moved on to a new rumour anyway, so the damage is minimal. But of course you can’t just go throwing out random statements and stick an “exclusive rumour” tag on it – there’s an art to this thing. Fortunately for the wannabe scooper, it’s not a very complex art, and if you’re so much as half decent at it, you could be up and running in no time. Be clever about it, keep it simple, believable, and probable, and you might even get your first scoop “confirmed” without any insider information whatsoever. Take this for example:
“EXCLUSIVE – James McAvoy to reprise the role of Professor X for X-Men: Apocalypse”
“With Bryan Singer set for a quick return to the X-Men universe in 2016, we’re hearing from our source that James McAvoy will be back as Professor Xavier in X-Men: Apocalypse. This is 100% confirmed by our source, who we trust implicitly. We’re trying to get confirmation on other returnees, so be sure to follow us on Twitter so you don’t miss any more of our exclusive scoops.”
If we ran this story today, there’s a good chance it would be confirmed in the next twelve months or so. McAvoy has already said he’s signed up for another X-Men movie after X-Men: Days of Future Past, and unless Bryan Singer decides to stick with the original X-Men cast, he’s going to be in the movie. You could substitute McAvoy for Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence… chances are, they’re all going to appear in X-Men: Apocalypse. Hey, we could get four or five “scoops” out of this one.
We’ll call this “The Educated Guess” scoop, and aside from actually having insider information, it’s probably the best way of building a reputation as a “scooper”. Occasionally you’ll get it wrong, like suggesting Iron Man 3 would set up Guardians of the Galaxy when every man and his dog was expecting it anyway, but keep it within the comfort zone – “The Millennium Falcon / Lightsabers / Opening Crawl confirmed for Star Wars: Episode VII!!” – and most of the time, it’s a safe bet. If and when this story is proven to be correct, you can use it to deflect criticism of any future scoops you feel like making up. And once you’ve got this “track record”, you’ve got plenty of room to maneuver and really step up your game.
Beyond the Educated Guess, there’s the “Cover Your Arse” scoop, which is massively growing in popularity and follows a rather simple formula:
– Choose a movie, preferably a superhero movie. Or Star Wars.
– Choose an actor who’s popular (or unpopular).
– Link the two.
– Cover Your Arse.
Here’s an example of a Cover Your Arse:
“EXCLUSIVE – Zac Efron wanted for The Fantastic Four”
We’re hearing from our source – who revealed to us that James McAvoy will reprise the role of Professor X in X-Men: Apocalypse – that Fox is considering Zac Efron for a role in The Fantastic Four. We trust him 100%, cos, y’know, he was right about McAvoy. Now, we don’t know what role Efron is up for, or if the studio is going to make him an offer, or if Efron is aware that he’s under consideration, or if the story has any more depth than his name being brought up in general conversation between two execs at the urinals, but his name HAS been mentioned. Expect denials from the studio. Expect denials from Efron and his people (who might not even know that he’s in the frame).
The above is a perfect 10 when it comes to Covering Your Arse. It can be proved true, in the unlikely chance that Zac Efron ends up cast in The Fantastic Four, but it can’t be debunked. If Fox or Efron say there’s no truth in it, you signpost your critics to the “expect denials” part, and remind them about your previous successes. And then when someone else is cast in the role, you can justify your scoop by stating, “I never said he’d get the role, just that he was mentioned as a possibility by someone at the studio.” Which he possibly might have been at one point, even for the briefest of seconds. Along with a hundred other names. It’s a win-win situation for the movie scooper.
We’ve looked at the Educated Guess, we’ve looked at the Cover Your Arse, but there’s one more tool at the movie scooper’s disposal, which we’ll call the “Nostradamus”. With this one, you pick a film that’s so far in the future, and concoct whatever rubbish you think will bring as many hits as possible. For example:
“EXCLUSIVE – Man of Steel 3 will not feature any other DC superheroes apart from Superman”
It seems that Warner Bros. has listened to fan concerns about the Man of Steel sequel shifting the focus from Henry Cavill’s Superman to include the likes of Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot). We’re hearing from our source that Man of Steel 3 will not feature any other DC superheroes apart from the Big Blue Boy Scout, giving Superman fans the sequel they’ve been clamouring for.
The Nostradamus is a fantastic way of building links and traffic, and as with the Cover Your Arse, it’s virtually impossible to disprove (before it becomes long-forgotten, anyway). Man of Steel 3 won’t arrive until 2017 or 2018 at the very earliest, and should it turn out to include the entire roster of Justice League Unlimited as supporting characters, you can deflect criticism with two simple words: “Plans changed”. Another win-win situation for the scooper.
The expert movie scooper is able to incorporate elements of the Educated Guess, the Cover Your Arse and the Nostradamus to deliver the “Mother of All Scoops”:
“EXCLUSIVE – Thanos WILL battle Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in The Avengers 3”
It’s been expected since we glimpsed the villain during the closing credits of The Avengers, but we can exclusively confirm that Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will battle the Mad Titan Thanos in The Avengers 3. This is 100% confirmed by our source. The same source who told us that James McAvoy would appear in X-Men: Apocalypse, and who told us that Zac Efron was in contention for The Fantastic Four, which he was, honest (remember, we never said he’d get the part). So take this to the bank. Thanos is the villain. 100% official. FACT. Expect denials from Marvel. They don’t want fans knowing their plans this far ahead.
Oh, and of course, with several years still to go before the film arrives, there is a chance that those plans might change.
BOOM. You’re trending on Twitter.
So, if you fancy yourself as a movie scooper, it’s easy to get going. Lots of folk are doing it. All you need is a computer, an internet connection, and an active imagination. I’d suggest starting out with a few Educated Guesses to build your rep, maybe incorporating some Cover Your Arse conventions until you get in the swing of things, a link-baiting Nostradamus or two, and then you can build up to the big one, setting the internet ablaze with the Mother of All Scoops. If you play your cards right, you’ll be able to scream “TOLD YA” in no time. But even if your MOAS turns out wide of the mark, we’ll all have forgotten about it anyway, due to the thousand other scoops we’ve had to suffer through since you dropped it. So what are you waiting for? There’s no better time to get started – we’ve got a tonne of superhero movies on the horizon, and plenty of Star Wars. You’ll be laughing all the way to the bank in no time.
Gary Collinson is a writer and lecturer from the North East of England. He is the editor-in-chief of FlickeringMyth.com and the author of Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen.
