You Can Download A Looper Commentary Track From Director Rian Johnson
Take a pair of headphones and listen to the director while you rewatch the film.
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In addition to being one of the more interesting young directors working today, Loopers Rian Johnson has a knack for fan service. With his film currently earning tons of critical praise, Johnson has just served up an excuse for any Looper fans to go back and see it again in theaters. He’s posted a downloadable commentary track, the idea being that you can pop in some headphones and listen to him talk while watching the movie on a giant screen. How cool is that?
This isn’t the first time Johnson has done something like this. He also released a downloadable commentary for his previous film, The Brothers Bloom. When Looper arrived apparently many of his fans asked him to do the same thing for Looper, and lo and behold: he has. Even better, this commentary isn’t just going to be repurposed for the eventual Blu-ray/DVD release. Johnson says that release will get an entirely different commentary. Johnson says that this “in theater” commentary is “more technical and detailed.” Here’s his intro from the Looper tumblr.
I recorded a commentary track to be downloaded, put on an ipod and listened to in the theater as you’re watching Looper. This is an odd thing I tried with Bloom, and have gotten a few requests for it again, so here it is. It is totally different from the commentary track that will be on the Blu/DVD, a bit more technical and detailed. Needless to say, this is NOT to be listened to on a first viewing, or before you’ve seen the film. Also, please work it so that a glowing screening is never out of your pocket during the movie.
Listen to the introduction before heading to the theater, it has instructions. And lemme know how it works.
This is just another example of a content creator finding interesting ways to reach fans outside of the usual studio marketing rigamarole. Johnson certainly didn’t have to go to the trouble of making an extra commentary track, but the fact that he did will no doubt earn him some very dedicated fans. It’s the sort of thing that we’ve seen before with people like Joss Whedon and J. Michael Straczynski, where a creator goes the extra mile to really interact with their fans.
You can download the commentary right here, or you can stick around here and listen to it via the embed. Looper is currently in theaters.
