'Scooby Doo' producers battle terrible rumours

In a sure sign of the growing influence of Internet movie buffs on Hollywood, Warner Bros. has launched a campaign to win over online film fans after some horrid advance word-of-mouth on the studio's in-progress "Scooby Doo" movie.


Variety reports Warner Bros. has taken the unusual step of flying in five reporters from Internet movie sites to "Scooby Doo'"s Australian film set, including the Canadian site Coming Attractions and the Australian site Dark Horizons.

The film is based on the '70s cartoon series about a group of ghost-chasing teens and their talking dog.

Already, some of the sites invited for a tour of the set and meetings with the cast members have posted optimistic advance reports on the film.

The full power and influence of the online movie crowd was felt last year when Fox faced a firestorm of online disapproval from comic fans who were furious about the apparent portrayal of "X-Men" -- although most ultimately gave the movie a thumb's up, and it went on to solid box office.

A representative from Ain't It Cool News -- arguably the most popular movie buzz site -- were not invited because they have been hammering the film, based on advance reports and an advance read of the script.

On Feb. 2, AICN posted a story headlined "Scooby Doo is going to suck so hard its lips will have friction burns," attacking the cast -- including teen stars Freddie Prinze Jr., Matt Lillard, and Sarah Michelle Geller -- and lambasting the costumes and makeup created for the stars.

"Hell the (animation studio) Hanna Barbara (sic) ink and paint department put more life into the cel's eyes than Freddie has," the site said of Prinze.

The site has also published stories with headlines like "SCOOBY DOO SET TO BE THE WORST MOVIE... EVVVEEERRRR!!!," and speculated the film's screenplay was nothing more than "the diarrhea of Hollywood." When Lillard's casting was announced, AICN greeted the news with a story headed "JESUS CHRIST NO!!! F*CK WARNERS! THIS SUCKS DONKEY GNADS!!!"

The story went on to refer to Lillard as "that vegetable ... that legume" and declared "I CURSE THIS FILM! I hurl the double whammy, I turn an evil f--king eye on this film ... I hurl blasphemies and all sorts of animal dung at its posters", before vowing to sue the studio for "psychological duress and damage."

In a recent posting, AICN declared that despite the positive word filtering back from the online junket to Australia, the film's script is "a canker" and challenged the studio to screen the film for detractors.

"If Warners really wants to change the buzz on "Scooby Doo" ... it'll have to begin with the film itself and they'll need to not only screen it, but screen towards those with questions and doubts about the project."