The trailer for Todd Field’s “ Little Children,” which used the sound of an oncoming train in lieu of music? That was Woollen, too.
The brilliantly odd trailer for the Coen brothers’ “ A Serious Man,” punctuated by a rhythmically recurring shot of Fred Melamed bouncing Michael Stuhlbarg’s head off a chalkboard? That was Woollen. This was not unusual for Woollen, who is known for producing iconic, inventive mood-piece trailers for tough-to-market, tougher-to-summarize films by such directors as Terrence Malick, Steven Soderbergh, Michel Gondry, and Alejandro González Iñárritu. The story of the cover-song trend in movie trailers began nine years ago, when the veteran trailer editor Mark Woollen found himself grappling with a difficult assignment. Every story, as movie trailers never tire of informing us, has a beginning.