Studio Starts Blood Diamond PR

Movie studio Warner Brothers is starting to roll out its buzz machine ahead of the release of the Blood Diamond movie, slated for release later this year. Though lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio is currently promoting Departed, another of his movies, he has already discussed the Blood Diamond movie with film and entertainment press and the studio has already setup a mini-site with trailers.

If the diamond industry was hoping the build-up period would go easily, its hopes are starting to be dashed. Warner Brothers is already promoting the movie, which is expected to be released on December 15.

However, the first press reports from the studio mention a January release date for the movie. If that is the case, the diamond industry may well be spared the bulk of the commercial fall-out from the movie, which looked set to hit the U.S. at the heart of the holiday season.

As well as DiCaprio’s promotion, another effort to generate interest in the movie is a mini site created by Warner Brothers with Apple on Apple’s website (apple.com/trailers/wb/blooddiamond). The mini-site includes trailers for the movie in a variety of formats.

It is unclear why the movie’s producers choose to link to NGOs that have a negative stand against the diamond trade in Africa. Possibly, pressure on the studio to soften the anti-diamond stand has backfired, or maybe they just want to back the movie with a ‘politically correct’ stand.

As the movie promotion continues, the diamond industry is continuing its preparations for the battle of the season. The Diamond Facts website (DiamondFacts.org) continues to be updated with additional information about the trade in diamonds, its role in Africa, and how the trade in illicit diamonds is being fought.