Owen Wilson’s story trumps his new movie debut

 

“Drillbit Taylor,” the new Paramount Pictures comedy starring Owen Wilson as a bodyguard hired by several high school students looking for bully protection,  is being released this weekend to not so good reviews. That doesn’t neccessarily mean it will do badly at the box office but the publicity machine that accompanies films like this has been hampered by Owen Wilson’s circumstances. While Drillbit Taylor has been accompanied by most of the marketing efforts typically associated with a national theatrical release Owen Wilson has not been out in front conducting the kind of interviews that stars of his caliber usually do when they have a big movie to promote.

The studio intentionally chose not to sit Wilson down with television reporters, print journalists and talk show hosts because they worried that rather than let Wilson plug the movie and its comic pedigree (“Drillbit Taylor” was produced by “Knocked Up’s” Judd Apatow), his interviewers would steer the conversation toward the 39-year-old actor’s hospitalization last summer following an apparent suicide attempt. There is a built up desire by the mainstream media to question Wilson about the incident because he has  never discussed it publicly.

So rather than put Wilson in such a situation, Paramount had the actor record “Drillbit”-themed introductions to Fox’s Sunday-night prime-time lineup, with Wilson appearing in front of ” The Simpsons,” “King of the Hill,” “Family Guy” and “Unhitched.”
On the record Paramount said Wilson has done all that the studio has asked of him, and his publicist said the actor’s availability was affected by “Marley & Me,” an upcoming movie Wilson is currently shooting in Florida with Jennifer Aniston.  One wonders how and when Owen will be able to do the interviews again for his upcoming movies without the same concerns.

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