How Aidan Tanner Markets Hollywood's Biggest Releases
Aidan Tanner was on the red carpet at the New York City premiere of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey on July 14, working with a self-built camera-iPhone rig under a social media marketing brief from Nolan's Syncopy production company and Universal Pictures. The 29-year-old is one of a handful of independent creators Hollywood now brings in to generate buzz around major theatrical releases.
Tanner's production company, Propellerhead, has handled social content for Stranger Things, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and One Battle After Another. Its next assignment is Digger, the Tom Cruise film slated to premiere October 2.
In an interview with PRWeek, Tanner argues that movies now live a "second life" online — through behind-the-scenes footage, red-carpet clips and fan memes — filling the role once played by DVD special features. His own path ran from a cold email to Will Smith's team to five years working with the actor, then onto Tom Cruise sets and into a short film made with Jessica Chastain, The Sands Between. He says his "Advice to Young Filmmakers" series has interviewed Cruise, Jim Carrey and Glen Powell, and describes his goal as becoming "the A24 of movie marketing."
What 'Second Life' Marketing Does for Studios
Why Syncopy and Universal Brought in an Outside Creator
Tanner's social coverage of the The Odyssey red carpet works as promotion, but the real value is access. Instead of relying only on studio-issued press materials, Universal and Syncopy get a creator whose audience follows him as a personality rather than as a corporate account. His hybrid rig also lets him capture the casual, handheld moments a traditional unit might miss — the same instinct that led him to film Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie blocking scenes on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning when the official behind-the-scenes crew did not. That differentiation is a plausible reason studios keep hiring him: platforms reward content that feels native rather than produced.
What 'Second Life' Replaces
Tanner describes the online aftercare of a film — pre-premiere teasers, red-carpet clips and fan memes — as the successor to DVD special features. In practical terms, that extends a film's commercial conversation beyond opening weekend, at a moment when studios traditionally shift attention to the next title. The implication is that marketing no longer ends at release; creator-led and fan-made content keeps titles discoverable for streaming windows and home entertainment later. The model's inherent risk is control: once a film's second life is partly in the hands of independent creators, a studio's message competes with memes and commentary it does not produce.
Propellerhead's Next Test: Digger
Propellerhead's upcoming campaign for Digger, starring Tom Cruise and due October 2, tests whether the approach scales beyond individual projects. Repeat work for Stranger Things, Gladiator II and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning suggests studios see value in his format, even though the interview offers no figures on campaign performance. Tanner's stated ambition to become "the A24 of movie marketing" points toward a business that takes creative ownership rather than just executing social clips, but he remains a hired partner rather than a producer or distributor, and no equity or profit-share arrangement is disclosed.
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