Trailering: "Thunder" goes meta.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008 | 2:28 PM

Meta-marketing: "Rain of Madness" is a purported documentary about the disastrous making of the movie they try to shoot in the upcoming comedy "Tropic Thunder"... got that? It's a perfectly po-faced parody of "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse" and its behind-the-scenes brethren, claiming to document the cast and crew as they "attempted to make the most expensive war movie ever attempted... to make." There's a trailer here on iTunes, which notes the film's presence at the non-existent Pennsylvania Dutch Film Festival and Bangkok Adolescent Film Festival, and an official site complete with a statement from "German born filmmaker Jan Jürgen," who looks not unlike a "Fitzcarraldo"/"Burden of Dreams" era Werner Herzog, and who insists his film will offer "a raw, unedited, look behind the fetid flesh curtain known to you and me as simply 'Hollywood.' "

"Hell Ride" actor/writer/director/producer Larry Bishop has become something of a Quentin Tarantino protégé -- and Tarantino executive produced the film -- so it's no surprise that the trailer comes across as something between a slavish salute to the man and a near-parody. You can find it here.

I didn't care for Courtney Hunt's "Frozen River" when I saw it at Sundance, but plenty of others seem to, to my mild bewilderment. The film comes out August 1st; the trailer is here.

"Death Defying Acts" is the latest film from respected Australian director Gillian Anderson, and it's about the trendy topic of vintage magicians, and it stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Guy Pearce. And yet I can't recall hearing one peep about it, and it's set to open this Friday. Not a sign of positive foreshadowing -- still, you can see the trailer here. At least everyone looks pretty.

[Photo: "Rain of Madness" poster, "Tropic Thunder," DreamWorks Distribution, 2008]

+ Trailer: "Rain of Madness" (iTunes)
+ Trailer: "Hell Ride" (ComingSoon.net)
+ Trailer: "Frozen River" (Apple)
+ Trailer: "Death Defying Acts" (Moviefone)