Can Sam Worthington Suck In The TWILIGHT Audience?

Editor's Note: This post is written by Mike Retter, a dedicated MarketSaw reader and as it turns out, a half decent writer :-)

The girls who long for the vampire to come into their room at night and devour their necks with passion. The boyish, foundation and eyeliner look of Hollywood's vampire, far removed from hunchback, balled, monstrous Nosferatu is what psychologists describe as a bridge to adult female sexuality. It’s a bridge because of the boyish image, coaxing young girls into the realm, being attracted to masculinity via a more androgynous figure. It is like a bridge, a transition. Like Zac Efron, Donny Osmond, boy bands, Leonardo DiCaprio etc, the teen idol is what covers the wall of a young girls bedroom, not Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sly Stallone. This concept of the young, handsome and androgynous teen idol is not a new concept and happens consistently.

You wont find body builders or football players (except for David Beckham) on these posters. Jake Sully is an all round handsome young man and when he becomes his AVATAR he is somewhat beautified. He makes a transition to a more androgynous being, almost supernatural. No facial hair, new exotic markings, slender figure and big wide eyes. Could this element of the film have a similar effect to the young female audience that has occurred with Twilight? This is after all a romance as well as actioner. He will exhibit characteristics of a hero but his image could have as strong effect as the female character Neytiri is having on the male geek audience, which is plugged into this production, and experiencing geekasms as we speak.

I don’t think this is the core of the films appeal, unlike Twilight, but is an element amongst many to help this film cover all the bases. This was called Project 880 and was designed to have a wide appeal. The young girl market is huge. Cameron's experience with TITANIC would have taught him a lot about audiences, in that the audience was almost the entire cinema going public and he would no doubt have analyzed what happened. Back then, Leonardo DiCaprio was the idol on the wall in young girls bedrooms.

Mike Retter
http://mikeretter.tripod.com