Set Visit Contest

Hot news! The Weinstein Company, the VA movie's U.S. distributor, is running a contest to give one lucky American winner and a guest the chance to go to London next month, see the movie being filmed, meet the cast, and more! If that's something that works for you, then go to this page and enter right away. There's a link there that will lead you to all the fine print and rules if you want to check those out too. Good luck!

As I stated above, the contest is for Americans, and this has caused a fair amount of confusion that I wanted to address. But let's start by taking about books first. When I write a book, I can't instantly make it appear in all bookstores around the world. I start by selling it to an American publisher, who gets it into American stores. My American publisher understands U.S. laws and sales regulations, has people whose sole job is to work with a single store (like Amazon or B&N), and knows the English language. They don't know any of that stuff for, say, Bulgaria. So, if I want my book there, I have to find a Bulgarian book company and make a deal with them to get my books over there. I have to do the same for France. And for Slovenia. Basically, my office is filled with contracts from countries all around the world that I've had to make separate deals with to publish my books, and once I sell the book to a foreign publisher, the schedule and advertising are all in their hands (which is why there can be delays for a book to come out, especially since sometimes I can't even find a publisher who will buy the book in certain countries).

A similar process works for movies. There's an amazing team working on the VA movie right now, but they don't personally send it to theaters around the world. They make deals with different companies--called distributors--who operate in each country (or in some cases, set of countries), and each of those distributors is responsible for advertising the movie, getting it in theaters, and dealing with that country's laws and business. The Weinstein Company, who is running and paying for this set visit contest, is the American distributor, so they are working with American laws, theaters, and advertising. That's why their contest is only open to Americans. Contests and sweepstakes have legal requirements around the world that they must follow.

Now, is it possible a distributor in some other part of the world might run a similar contest? Absolutely. And if they do, I'll certainly let you know! I hope this explanation clears things up and helps people understand that this is all about legal technicality and international business--NOT some exclusion of international VA fans. I saw that some people thought the movie makers had something against international fans, which of course makes no sense considering what an amazing international cast we have! The VA family is a global one, which makes it so incredible. Also, to be clear: the movie makers are not the ones even running this contest. They're too busy making the movie to deal with advertising and whatnot right now. :) That's why they have distributors.

I hope that helps explain things! And if you aren't in a country eligible for a set visit, rejoice in the news that the winner of this contest also gets a flip cam to document their trip, so we can expect some more behind-the-scenes footage soon. Believe it or not, I'm just as excited as you guys to see more of what's going on. I've seen exactly one still from the movie, and that nearly made me faint. Hope I can handle what else is to come!