Picking Up the Spare: The Birth of the Nation, The Girl on the Train and More

The Birth of the Nation

• Skywriting spelling out “Nat Turner Lives,” which was a key copypoint during the movie’s marketing, appeared over Los Angeles but it wasn’t clear whether it was actually a promotional stunt tied to the film or not.
• The Nat Geo channel will air a special on Nat Turner. The special is being executive produced by Nate Parker.
• Parker continues to address the controversy surrounding his past actions and is still taking a combative tone, which isn’t helping him in the court of public opinion.

The Girl on the Train

• Not directly tied to the movie’s marketing, but The Playlist has a great feature on turning beloved or bestselling (or both) books into potential blockbusters.
• Emily Blunt showed up on The Late Show to promote the movie and engage in hijinks.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

• Ben Affleck has made comments saying he loves how the movie turned out. Take it all with a grain of salt because he still has his own Batman solo movie coming out in a couple years, so he still has a dog in this hunt. But he’s out there seemingly refuting the “disappointed Affleck” meme that made the rounds several months ago.