The EX2 Enigma

The enigma around the EX2 poster is starting to take some interesting proportions. There is obviously a certain effort on Millennium's part and Stallone's? through his number one fan site to make the EX2 poster pass for a forgery. This is not the first time that a piece of information is leaked through some reliable source that is directly or indirectly linked to Millennium/Nu Image or Lionsgate and then denied by the foregoing.

1-The Plot: back in May an official plot was revealed (some claimed by Nu Image) around the same time when the first teaser poster was released at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. A few days later StalloneZone on behalf of Stallone reported the plot to be fake and that a real plot would be forthcoming (6 months later we are still waiting, thank you).

2-The Cast: back in early September Millennium's official website published the official cast to only take it down 3 days later from their website, creating a huge buzz and a certain enigma.

Then in late September the French distribution company for EX2 released their own teaser poster at the distributors congress in Lyon with the same cast .

Interestingly enough the same cast (with the addition of Hemsworth) was posted in October by sylvesterstallone.com making it official this time.

As of today Millennium has yet to post the official cast on their website... 

3- The EX2 Poster: it was first posted as an exclusivity on a movie website called JoBlo on Nov 18, 2011.

Very quickly other movie websites followed by reporting the release of the poster. A few hours later some of the websites were asked by Millennium Films to remove the poster from their sites. Millennium claimed that the poster was a forgery and could damage their product. JoBlo has nevertheless kept it on their website.

Later on Dolph Lundgren posted the poster on his Facebook stating that it was only an artwork. Terry Crews also posted it on his Facebook but when told by a fan that Millennium was asking websites to remove it, responded that the poster was "still cool"! The actors seemed clueless.

The whole thing looked like as if the poster had leaked and Millennium was trying to cover it up, or some even say that it was leaked on purpose to gauge fans opinion. And Fans did overwhelmingly welcome the poster and it was greatly received by almost all. A few days later StalloneZone claimed to have received a message from Stallone himself stating that the poster was unofficial and bogus!

I think the EX2 production/distribution companies are using what I call buzz marketing tactics to gauge fans reactions. There is a pattern that has followed since the release of the first teaser poster in Cannes. I just hope they know what they are doing and the end result will not be disappointing to fans!