Posterwire.com is a movie poster weblog. From images of the latest Hollywood one-sheets to vintage movie posters, this film poster weblog hopes to offer a bit of insight into film key art.
Looking through the new book The Independent Movie Poster Book, which we discussed previously, we came across one of our favorite posters for the 1991 independent film My Own Private Idaho.
Directed by Gus Van Sant, the unusual film stars River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves as two male hustlers in Portland, Oregon. In a way, the film’s poster offers a snapshot of the “golden age of indies” — the independent films of the 1990s. With it’s torn and blurry photographs of the two stars, the poster’s imagery represented something outside the Hollywood mainstream. (And when is the last time you saw someone being depicted smoking a cigarette on a mainstream Hollywood film one-sheet?)
For movie poster art director Rigel Morrison, the film My Own Private Idaho represented a chance to create a piece of memorable key art: “It was nice working on such a hip movie at that time”, says designer Morrison. A movie poster art director for over 15 years, Morrison continues film ad design work, most recently on key art for the upcoming Aeon Flux.
“For the design of the My Own Private Idaho poster, we were just trying to think outside the box. What started out as a lark for coming up with ideas became sort of an improvisational moment — I took unit photography of the actors and actually ripped them into pieces. This was back in 1991, and I was doing it all by hand, before everything was done in Photoshop as they are now. It seems like a common thing now [ripped edges], but back then it worked well for the film’s look.”
That particular movie poster design must have also pleased Fineline, as it only took the film studio a few months (quick by film marketing standards) to take Morrison’s first round movie poster concept to a final approved My Own Private Idaho one-sheet. “I’m happy with how the poster turned out. It’s gotten some nice feedback over the years.”
The first book devoted solely to movie poster one-sheets for independent films, The Independent Movie Poster Book features over 200 full-color one-sheets. The artwork featured in the book are from the collection of the Posteritati Gallery in New York City.
The book chronicles images from the independent movie explosion that began in the 1980s, when independently produced and distributed films became synonymous with quality, variety, and artistry. The one-sheets for these films often reflected the freewheeling cultural sensibility that distinguished the films and their creators from their big-budget Hollywood counterparts — provocative, enigmatic and unpredictable images that signified unusual stories and original characters. A diverse selection of “indies” are represented, including: critically acclaimed dramas like Breaking the Waves, vivid design of foreign films like Pistol Opera, and a pre-Hollywood Wings of Desire.
In addition to hosting images from the book in their NYC gallery, Posteritati has also made images of movie posters from the collection available on the web in an online gallery.
Warner Bros. has released the new poster for the upcoming film The Dukes of Hazzard. All of your favorites are here: Bo, Luke, Daisy, Uncle Jesse, Boss Hogg, and most importantly, the General Lee. But is The Dukes of Hazzard movie poster missing some other aspect of the Dukes visual lexicon?
When discussing the original Dukes of Hazzard hit TV series (which ran from 1979-1985), many people think of two things: Daisy Duke shorts and a reddish orange 1969 Dodge Charger marked “01” with a very large Confederate flag painted on the roof. And while Jessica Simpson seems to be filling in the “Daisy Dukes”, the familiar Southern flag seems to be missing in action — no where to be seen on the film’s poster or the movie’s official site. Is the studio going out of their way not to display the “rebel flag” on the roof of the General Lee car? Is what was once used to decorate toys now a symbol of history or hatred?
From the December 24, 2004 Wall Street Journal:
Despite the car’s enduring popularity, Warner Bros. executives were concerned about it — or more specifically, about the giant Confederate flag painted on the roof of the Dukes’ Dodge, a person involved with the film’s production said. Some studio executives were afraid that a lot of potential viewers would see it as nostalgia for the old segregationist South.
The filmmakers fretted they’d lose the show’s spirit and anger old fans by ditching the flag and the car’s name (or the horn, which honks “Dixie”). So they struck a compromise with the studio: Show the flag, but include scenes where it’s derided as an inappropriate symbol of the dark past, the person involved in the film said.
Setting aside the civics argument about the Confederate flag, it’s interesting how what was once considered a visual asset in selling a TV show 20 years ago is now suddenly a liability.
For the upcoming 2005 remake of The Bad News Bears, Paramount went with an interesting illustration of Billy Bob Thornton and the rest of the Bears Little League baseball team for the new Bad News Bears poster. We say interesting, because: A. film studios rarely use traditional illustrations as a one-sheet anymore, and B. the new Bad News Bears movie poster is in itself a remake of the original 1976 Bad News Bears one-sheet.
Jack Davis is a well-known illustrator and cartoonist, who influenced generations (beginning in the 1950s) with his work in a number of varied outlets, including Mad Magazine, Tales From The Crypt horror comic books, and even Time magazine. His distinct and humorous style of cartooning is easily one of the most copied styles of cartoon illustration, even to this day.
Davis had a long career illustrating movie posters, which brings us to his cartoon one-sheet for the Walter Matthau and Tatum O’Neal comedy. Davis did a great job in his caricatures of the films players, especially of Matthau — the one-sheet’s cartoon style fit the tone of the film perfectly.
As for the Billy Bob Thornton poster remake, we can only wonder what approval process gauntlet this artwork went through, so it’s hard to knock any occasion when a studio uses the near-extinct animal known as movie poster illustration. It is an interesting choice in that the new poster is patterned so closely (at least in layout and concept) after the original Davis art. (We’re still trying to find out the identity of illustrator of the new Bears poster, so let us know if you have any ideas.)
Update: We just found out that artist Phil Roberts did the illustration for the new Bad News Bears poster. (Thanks for the info, James!)
We end our Star Wars poster week with the end of the Star Wars saga… or rather the middle of it: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (Episode III), which was released in theatres this week.
We’ve already covered the final Revenge of the Sith one-sheet illustrated by Drew Struzan. Like the previous films, the final Star Wars key art began with the Revenge of the Sith teaser poster. The art itself is a stylized image of Anakin Skywalker, with his dark flowing cape filling most of the poster area. Looking closer (well, not that close) you can see the folds of Anakin’s black cloak forming an image of Darth Vader’s familiar mask… sort of. As with most things Star Wars related, the Sith teaser art generated a love it or hate it type of reaction. (The idea of his cloak forming Vader’s mask and helmet sounds good on paper, but we’ll leave it to you to decide if the execution was successful or not.)
But just to slip into the world of Star Wars geek obsessiveness, some fans believe you can see hidden images of several characters in the Sith teaser poster. Do you see images of The Emperor, General Grievous, Boba Fett and additional Vader helmets tucked away in that large cloak? While we’d be the first to embrace hidden images in a one-sheet, we think these examples belong in Jar-Jar territory — best forgotten.
If you want to see what happens when this “Where’s Waldo?” style poster art game turns ugly among Star Wars fans, you can follow the very long thread here [Link: Spoiler Warning].
From the most popular (the “Circus”) to the most beautiful (the “Gone with the Wind”), we now come to the most bootlegged Star Wars movie poster: the 1982 teaser poster for Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Episode VI).
When first announced, the third (of the original trilogy) Star Wars film was titled Revenge of the Jedi. The Revenge of the Jedi teaser poster (designed by Bill Pate and Drew Struzan) is easily the most counterfeited Star Wars one-sheet (and probably the most bootlegged movie poster of all time). Two versions of the Revenge teaser were released (one with and one without the May 25, 1983 release date), with a majority sold at the time through the official Star Wars Fanclub. If you see a Revenge of the Jedi teaser poster with claims it’s a vintage original, chances are it is a fake. There are countless Revenge bootlegs (4 distinct types at last count), along with methods of spotting the forgeries. (Example: A blurry 20th Century Fox logo is one dead giveaway.)
There are several reasons given for the title change from Revenge of the Jedi to Return of the Jedi. The most recent explanation comes from George Lucas himself: “The title was always intended to be Return of the Jedi, but we made the film under the code name Revenge of the Jedi. Unfortunately, what happened is Fox started promoting the film before we could tell them not to use the title.” Lucas is also quoted as saying a “jedi doesn’t seek revenge” and that the different title was an attempt to flush out bootlegs before the films release.
The other (and probably more accurate) reason given for the title change is that 20th Century Fox was concerned about confusion with the release of another science fiction film around the same time: Star Trek II: The Vengeance of Khan. The Revenge title was quickly changed to Return, even though Paramount decided to later change the Star Trek II film title to Wrath of Khan. Return, Revenge, Vengeance, or Wrath — this is what film executives spend their time thinking about.
Title changes aside, the Revenge of the Jedi teaser poster is in stark contrast to most of poster art generated for the Star Wars saga. It is a true teaser in both design and elements used (the artwork is clearly based on images from the previous film The Empire Strikes Back). The poster’s bold neon red color and stipple/posterized style illustration made it a worthy addition to the ever expanding catalog of Star Wars related key art.
While the previously mentioned “Circus” poster may be one of the most sought-after Star Wars one-sheet for collectors, the most beautiful looking might be a popular poster for the 1980 sequel, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V).
The Empire Strikes Back Style A poster was painted by artist Roger Kastel. The “Style A” poster is better known as the “Gone With the Wind” poster. The obvious reason being Kastel’s artwork is based on artist Tom Jung’s iconic Gone with the Wind movie poster, with Han Solo and Princess Leia standing in for Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara. Like the Empire film itself, the poster’s deep blues and image of the romantic couple certainly hinted at more story than one might expect in a blockbuster science fiction / fantasy film sequel.
After this ESB one-sheet appeared in theatres, actor Billy Dee Williams reportedly complained to 20th Century Fox that he wasn’t featured on the poster, despite his contractual billing in the film. The studio responded by immediately pulling the “Style A” poster from theatres, hence making it even more attractive to collectors. Later versions of the same artwork used combinations of new elements, including images of Billy Dee Williams (as Lando Calrissian), the Cloud City of Bespin, Yoda, and fan-boy favorite: bounty hunter Boba Fett.
You can also buy something called a “Sculpted 3-D Poster” version of this same Empire Version A artwork, although looking at the sculpture itself, we don’t know why you’d want to do that.
With this week’s release of the final Star Wars film, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, we wanted to take some time this week to review Star Wars movie posters from the entire saga. Star Wars one-sheets still remain a top choice for movie poster collectors, even if the current trilogy has taken some sheen off the franchise.
For the 1978 re-release of Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV) in theatres, Lucasfilm hired airbrush artist Charles White III to create a new one-sheet artwork. White was uncomfortable with painting portraits, so he asked fellow artist Drew Struzan to collaborate on the poster by handling all the portrait work. According to Drew Struzan: “Somehow, he asked me to paint the portraits while he would paint the droids and the like… Only an extraordinary individual does anything so generous and unselfish.” This fateful gesture would lead to Drew Struzan’s first piece of artwork for Lucasfilm, and certainly wouldn’t be his last.
The Star Wars Style D poster is more commonly known as the “Circus” poster, named for it’s distinctive circus-style “posted bill” look, which includes torn edges and glimpses of a plywood wall background. This appealing layout was a “happy accident”, explains Struzan. “They found out there wasn’t enough room for the typography and the billing block they had left in the design. What can we do to make more space on a poster that’s already been printed? Let’s pretend it’s posted, then they can put the type below the actual poster. We painted Obi Wan down the side and stuff across the bottom to make it wider and deeper.” (If you look closely at the poster itself, you can see where the original artwork was later surrounded by the “poster wall” effect. Note that the color pencil rendering of Ben Kenobi on the left side differs from the style of the rest of the poster’s painted artwork.)
The original collage artwork was recently sold at auction. It’s interesting to note some of the subtle differences between the original illustration (besides color correction) and the final Star Wars one-sheet artwork. One other often repeated piece of trivia about the artwork is that this is one of George Lucas’s favorite posters — it’s easy to see why.
Each year, the world of cinema descends on the Cannes Film Festival in France. JoBlo.com has posted pictures from the infamous Croisette boulevard, which is covered with billboards and movie posters for many upcoming new movie releases. This year, there seems to be more Hollywood advertising at Cannes than ever before:
“Everywhere you look, there’s a poster for a studio picture. The studios have certainly upped the ante this year.”
In addition to releasing the teaser trailer for the fourth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Warner Bros. has also released the teaser poster for the new Potter film… twice.
The Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire teaser poster features a smoke laden silhouette of Harry, wearing his “Triwizard Tournament” cloak with the appropriate Potter 4 back lettering. But it seems several fans on various Harry Potter web sites noticed the copyline at the top of the teaser poster was missing a comma: Difficult times lie ahead Harry.
Faster than a marketing exec can say “Damn you obsessive grammatically correct muggles!”, the studio published a new revised version of the advance one-sheet on the film’s official website, with a comma magically added: Difficult times lie ahead, Harry.
Which just goes to show you that even Warner Bros. domestic marketing is out there reading comments on the fan sites, forums and weblogs.
No, Mona Lisa isn’t sporting a milk mustache for the latest Got Milk? print ad campaign. It’s the teaser poster for the book publishing phenomenon turned motion picture known as The Da Vinci Code. The film, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, is a mystery thriller about the murder of an art curator in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
The advance poster uses a close-up image of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting (and arguably the most famous piece of artwork ever produced), the Mona Lisa. Completed around 1503-1507, the identity of famous portrait and smile is something of an unknown, with theories ranging from the wife of Florentine businessman Francesco del Giocondo to a self-portrait of Da Vinci himself.
The Da Vinci Code teaser poster invokes the underlying plot element of the film — various “codes” and clues hidden in famous artwork — by peeling away a close-crop of the Mona Lisa canvas and morphing it into some sort of overlapping code lettering page curl only a first year design student could love.
Each year, the film industry trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter holds it’s awards ceremony for film advertising and marketing, known as The Key Art Awards.
The phrase key art is a general movie industry term, referring to any artwork or imagery created to market a film, most notably a movie poster one-sheet.
Key Art Awards are given to the best movie posters, trailers, and other pieces of film advertising in a number of different categories. Special recognition is also given to selected projects and individuals who have contributed to the field of film advertising.
You might think of the Key Art Awards as the “Academy Awards of Film Advertising” or the “Oscars for One-sheets”.
During last night’s 34th Annual Key Art Awards ceremony, hosted by comedian Kevin Nealon, some notable movie poster winners included:
Best Action Poster: Open Water, Best Comedy Poster: Sideways, Best Drama Poster: Ray, Best International Poster: Saw, Best Teaser Poster: Saw
You can see a complete list of Key Art Award nominees at The Hollywood Reporter website. More importantly, you can also buy a copy of the highly coveted 34th Annual Key Art Catalog, which is the print catalog companion to the awards, showing all the movie poster submissions. (It’s also a reason many attend the ceremony; to get their complimentary copy of the $50.00 catalog.) Buy your copy today and you can see what every art director and ad executive in Hollywood will be thumbing through to copy get inspiration from for next year’s batch of movie poster designs.
Written by Rudy Franchi and Barbara Franchi of The Nostalgia Factory, the book Miller’s Movie Collectibles is a guide to collecting movie memorabilia, with an emphasis on vintage film poster one-sheets. The book is nicely illustrated (over 300 full-color photographs) and categorized, offering information on movie poster sizing, collecting terminology, specific illustrators working in the field, genre films including the Star Wars saga, and other background on movie poster collecting.
A passage from the Miller’s Movie Collectibles guide:
“This book outlines some of the major areas of movie memorabilia, highlighting trends and warning of any potential land mines buried deep in the field of cinema collectibles. With over 65 year’s combined experience dealing with the topics discussed, the authors would advise collectors to regard acquiring this material as a hobby, and to temper their passion with common sense and caution.”
If you’re interested in the collecting side of movie posters, this book would be a great place to start.
