Movies With Butter

Movies are teased to death these days, and there isn't anything a director can do about the merciless push to consume high-profile films before they arrive in theaters. Wait, strike that: They can have a sense of humor about it, like J.J. Abrams did last night (October 4) on Conan.

Abrams used his appearance to debut the first-ever clip from his hotly anticipated Star Trek sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness -- but before the audience could get too excited about witnessing a glimpse of the movie, he brought everyone down to earth by saying Paramount forced him to promise the clip would be very brief.

How brief? Three frames -- or just enough time to see a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of Spock (Zachary Quinto) in a volcano. Which is a pretty intriguing way to set up the movie, don't you think?

Though it was clearly intended as a tongue-in-cheek publicity stunt, we're playing into it wholeheartedly -- not only because hey, it's Star Trek Into Darkness news and we have to, but because we think more films should probably be promoted this way. Enough with multiple teasers setting up multiple trailers; enough with plot point-dispensing viral publicity campaigns. Sometimes, three frames and a title is all you need.

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