STARRING
ROLL
Greyhound
ready for latest movie close-up
By Katherine Yung / Staff Writer of The
Dallas Morning News
Published 04-01-2000
In Pleasantville, Reese Witherspoon says goodbye to her brother and then
climbs aboard it on her way to college. In Bowfinger, Heather Graham rides one
to Hollywood, hoping to land a big break inTinseltown.
Who says image is everything and sex sells? The newest star of the
silver screen is turning out to be none other than a Greyhound bus.
Greyhound Lines
Inc., a symbol of cheap, no-frills public transportation, is landing an
increasing number of movie appearances for its buses and depots.
Buses are slated to appear in eight upcoming films, including Macarthur
Park, Auggie Rose, Big Momma's House and a starring role in Shiver, which
re-enacts the heroic deeds of a Greyhound
bus driver who saved many lives during a freak snowstorm in
Canada.
Already, Greyhound buses
have been featured in a number of movies, including Here on Earth, The Insider,
Ed TV, Inventing the Abbotts, My Dog Skip, October Sky, He Got Game, Dance with
Me, My Giant, The Rainmaker, Get Carter, Mars Attacks! and Sleepers.
The buses have also made their way into several prime-time television
shows such as Touched by an Angel, The X-Files, Angel, The Sopranos, Party of
Five and Beverly Hills 90210. One episode of TV’s Senseless Acts of Video even
features a professional motocross racer jumping over a Greyhound
bus and bus depot.
"During the last year or two, we have accepted more movies than
usual, " says Terry Austin, Greyhound's
manager of media marketing support. "We're putting our name and logo out
for the public to see."
Greyhound's
burgeoning film career comes as the company defies the normal parameters of what
it takes to succeed in the Hollywood product- placement world.
After all, these buses lack the hip image and curvaceous appeal of the
new BMW Z8 featured in last fall's James Bond thriller The World Is Not Enough.
Nor are they status symbols on the scale of sport-utility vehicles such
as the Mercedes Benz M-Class, which made its debut in Steven Spielberg' s The
Lost World in 1997.
And given its fleet of 2,600, the company's buses are about as common as
a highway rest stop.
That doesn't bother Dallas-based Greyhound,
the nation's largest bus company. Greyhound
simply wants exposure to mass audiences of moviegoers, says Mr.
Austin.
"We are not trying to create an image," he says. "We are
really living up to an image that's already there."
Certainly, the company isn't the only business using product placement
as a marketing tool even when its products lack the flash of new luxury sports
cars or the eye-catching appeal of gadgets such as Apple Computer' s iMac.
GE Appliances, Freightliner, Norelco, Maidenform, Converse and Maxwell
House are among the brands that have hired agents to try to land appearances in
movies and television shows, according to the Entertainment Resources &
Marketing Association, a trade group for the product-placement industry.
"Product placement is a low-cost way to get a high return of
viewers, " says Stacy Jones, director of production resources at Creative
Entertainment Services, a product-placement firm in Burbank, Calif., that
represents such clients as Lexus, Toyota, Intel and Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
Greyhound doesn't
have to bother with negotiating high salaries and star perks. UPP Entertainment
and Marketing, its Hollywood agent, receives an undisclosed annual fee to put
its buses into movies and television shows.
Based in Burbank, UPP is most famous for giving Ray-Ban sunglasses a
marketing boost in such movies as Risky Business, The Blues Brothers and Men In
Black.
Greyhound provides
the bus in exchange for an appearance in a scene, however minor. Greyhound doesn't make any money from the arrangement.
"If it [a scene] is scripted for a bus, usually it's not too
difficult to get a Greyhound bus
in it," says John Choplin, a production coordinator at UPP who works with Greyhound.
Many films, such as Pleasantville and The Hi-Lo Country, take advantage
of Greyhound's fleet of
historic buses dating to 1914,when the company got its start transporting miners
in Minnesota for15 cents per round trip.
And Greyhound Lines
gets exposure in a few that don't use buses at all.
In the opening scene of the new drama Erin Brockovich, a frustrated
Julia Roberts discovers a parking ticket on her car, which is parked near a Greyhound
ticket counter.
Like any Hollywood star, Greyhound
doesn't accept just any role or any script.
The company avoids movies or TV shows where people carry or use drugs on
board
a bus or threaten other passengers verbally or with guns or knives.
Ditto for bus accidents and bus vandalism. Greyhound even goes so far as to get producers to change
scenes featuring a seedy-looking bus terminal to one that's pleasant and clean.
Greyhound recently
turned down an appearance in a series called GvsE because a bus terminal gets
blown up in one scene.
Other movies rejected because of their content: Very Mean Men, Road
Trip, Pay It Forward, Knock Around Guys and Where the Heart Is.
Greyhound has
little to worry about if its Hollywood career hits the skids. Like Madonna, the
bus has a thriving career awaiting it in music.
It is cited in Garth Brooks' Nobody Gets Off in This Town; Reba McEntire'
s He's in Dallas; The Allman Brothers' Ramblin' Man; B.B. King's I Go Simple, I
Go Easy; and Roy Clark's Thank God and Greyhound She's Gone.
And country music superstar Randy Travis sings: "Some people like
to fly around first class. But a Greyhound
bus goes pretty danged fast" in his new song No Reason to
Change. MORE BIG MOMENTS
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research
The thrills just keep coming as The Bus takes to the road in other movie
favorites: The Gingerbread Man (above): Hotshot Savannah lawyer Rick Marauder
(Kenneth Branagh) picks up lover Mallory Doss (Embeth Davidtz) at The Depot.
Inventing the Abbotts: The Bus carries poor but proud Jacey Holt (Billy Crudup)
off to the University of Pennsylvania from Haley, Ill., in 1957. As for the
Abbotts, well, let's just say they do a lot of bussing but no buses.
My Giant: This movie pulls out all the stops with five minutes of
footage. Imagine: The Depot, The Ticket Sales Agent and The Bus.
Don' t miss The Bus's big finish as it rolls down the Las Vegas Strip,
all aglow from neon.
October Sky: In this film based upon a true story, The Bus steps back
into another vintage ensemble to transport Homer H. Hickam Jr. (Jacob Gyllenhaal),
the son of a coal miner in Coalwood, W.Va., to the destination of a lifetime in
the 1950s.
PHOTO(S): 1. The Norris family sends one of its own off to fight when
Martians attack Earth. The bus arrives on cue as Mom bids a tearful goodbye. 2.
Carla Tate (Juliette Lewis) and Danny (Giovanni Ribisi) grab a snack and get
acquainted in the Depot. Fans will feast on the interior. 3. It's the vintage
Bus that transports Pete (Billy Crudup) from the Army back to his ranch at the
end of World War II in this Western flick. It's no more than a fleeting roll! 4.
Time after time in Hollywood, lawyers show their trust in The Bus. In this case,
rookie lawyer Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) uses it to get to an important meeting in
Cleveland. 5. (Polygram Films) The Gingerbread Man (above): Hotshot Savannah
lawyer Rick Magruder (Kenneth Branagh) picks up lover Mallory Doss (Embeth
Davidtz) at The Depot.