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.
Director Frank Darabont’s horror movie The Mist (based on the Stephen King novella) was recently released on DVD. In the film, actor Thomas Jane plays a movie poster illustrator, which has to be a first as far as film character occupations go. The movie poster illustrator as a hero character is interesting when one considers director Darabont’s strong feelings about modern movie posters. In this Comic Con interview with Chris Hewitt of Empire Magazine, Frank Darabont does not mince words about his assessment of the state of film poster art. The Frank Darabont interview begins at 2:10 in the Comic-Con Video Diary #3 (Part 2) (Warning: NSFW language):
“Blow me with that poster art” musings aside, Darabont has long been a strong advocate for movie poster illustration, which is apparent in his film projects, like The Majestic movie poster or the DVD cover art for the anniversary releases of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. The Mist Two-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD even includes a featurette called Drew Struzan: An Appreciation of An Artist about the famed illustrator, who illustrated The Mist teaser poster.
To honor the premiere of the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull teaser trailer, we wanted to direct everyone to a new online article about artist Richard Amsel, who illustrated two of the original Raiders of the Lost Ark movie posters. From the author of the new Richard Amsel article, Adam McDaniel:
The key to his success, beyond raw talent, was the unique quality of his work and illustrative style. Amsel could perfectly evoke period nostalgia (his posters for THE STING and westerns such as McCABE AND MRS. MILLER come to mind), while also producing something timeless and iconic, perfectly befitting both something old and something new. And however different his approach from one assignment to the other, all would bear his instantly recognizable stamp.
Although Amsel illustrated one of the most recognized movie posters of all time (in addition to many other one-sheets), perhaps his greatest exposure was a record breaking run illustrating TV Guide covers in the 1980s. This work for TV Guide marked the last era for illustrated covers for the television magazine, just as the era of traditional illustration would soon end for movie posters.
The McDaniel tribute makes for an interesting read — it was nice to see comparisons between Amsel and American artist J.C. Leyendecker. Although he worked in the same mediums as other illustrators of his time (watercolor, acrylic, airbrush, and color pencil), the “crisp” detailed and flat lighting style Amsel often employed is something that alluded many artists. To see a great example of this type of the detail, look no further than Harrison Ford’s face right down to the whiskers in the domestic Raiders of the Lost Ark one-sheet. Amsel’s Raiders work is an interesting contrast to the dynamic lighting style of Drew Struzan’s recent Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull poster.
Famed movie poster illustrator John Alvin has passed away. Here is a statement from his family courtesy of IMPAwards:
We mourn the loss of JOHN ALVIN.
From Blade Runner to E.T to Beauty and the Beast, John Alvin left behind a legacy of art that will forever be followed, appreciated and respected by millions.
John loved “making movie posters” because he, just to put it plainly, loved movies. Thirty-eight years and over 120 film campaigns show that his contribution to Hollywood was very integral in shaping the landscape of motion picture advertising. Along with Peak and Amsel, John is now a part of an elite group. A group that helped create the “Golden Age of Movie Posters.” An era of art that sadly will never be echoed through the halls of an institution but more through halls and cubicles of our industry.
We lost a giant in our field and there will never be one like him ever again. Ever. John leaves behind his wife ANDREA his beloved daughter FARAH and a forever indebted Padawan.
We love you John and will never forget you.
Really sad news. John Alvin was one of the most important movie poster illustrators in the modern age, and having met him personally, was happy to find him to be extremely thoughtful and a giving person. He will be missed.
We came very close to declaring there was no “best” Movie Poster of the Year for 2007. Our annual pick for the best one-sheet for the year was coming up blank — there seem to be few choices for great movie posters. Looking at key art led to the same conclusion as looking at the movies themselves from the past 12 months: 2007 was not a great year for movies.
This past year, many marveled at the blockbuster eve candy of those sweaty 300 Spartans. Michael Bay’s Transformers was labeled a success mostly because the film was not as bad as many expected it to be. Many people searched eBay for a Spider-Man 3 lenticular 3D poster, which was as hard to find as a good review for the movie itself. Animation continued to be a dominant box office staple — three of the top ten grossing films of the year were Shrek the Third, Ratatouille, and The Simpsons Movie.
Vintage advertising showed its influence with the dime-store pulp of the Black Snake Moan poster. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez wanted you to know how much they love the 1970s exploitation double-bills with the Grindhouse poster campaign. Were they trying to recreate the haphazard aspect of 70s B-movie advertising by creating a Planet Terror poster with Cherry Darling’s gun replacing the wrong leg?
Speaking of vintage, we liked the smokey distressed look of the 3:10 to Yuma movie poster, but is the sweeping (and blurry) duster jacket pose too Bob Fosse?
And speaking of blurry, some singled out the Michael Clayton movie poster as a good movie poster, but the blurred image of George Clooney with large typography seemed to fall into what some film ad creative directors call “book cover” design.
Artist Drew Struzan got to finish his own rejected poster design illustration from 25 years ago for the 2007 (limited theatrical, followed by DVD) release of Blade Runner: The Final Cut. The new Blade Runner DVD release features interviews with Blade Runner poster illustrators John Alvin along with Drew Struzan — a rare opportunity to see and hear film poster illustrators speak about their work. Alvin has some interesting comments about one-sheet design in the DVD’s Promoting Dystopia: Rendering the Poster Art documentary interview.
Topping many film critics best-of lists, Juno was labeled as “this year’s Little Miss Sunshine”. The Juno movie poster took that label literally by following the Little Miss Sunshine one-sheet example of “branding” itself via a strong color element (orange stripes in this case).
Was there a trend for 2007 movie posters? Our vote would be what we will call Big Sky Country, especially when looking at indie film posters. Lots and lots of big fields and big skies. All those vistas are not really a new trend, but there seemed to be fewer big heads floating in those skies lately.
Which brings us to our pick for the top movie poster of the year — The Savages movie poster illustrated by comic book artist Chris Ware. The movie tells the story of the dysfunctional relationship of a brother (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and sister (Laura Linney) dealing with their elderly father. What is interesting about the poster is all the things generally considered no-nos used in the one-sheet that don’t seem to take away from Ware’s illustration. Blue type against a blue background? Check. Overused Bank Gothic typeface set too small for copylines? Check. Rounded corners à la web design conventions influencing print design? Check. Reminiscent of another comic book artist illustrated movie poster featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman — the Happiness movie poster by artist Daniel Clowes? Check. Overbearing title treatment? Check. Inconsistent type justification (using centered, left, and right justified text)? Check. And failing to pass the gold standard test in film advertising ad critique smack-downs: Would your mother understand it? Check.
What we do like about the Chris Ware movie poster illustration for The Savages is that it is different than most key art campaigns (mainstream, indie, or otherwise) — it evokes a real feeling and direction about the characters. The trademark Chris Ware style of detached “coldness” is (literally) on display in The Savages one-sheet. Ware was an interesting choice to illustrate The Savages movie poster, since a common observation about his work is that his cartooning isn’t as strong as his writing, or at the very least, his artwork is overrated. It would be easy to criticize this top movie poster choice as yet another fan-boy sucking at the Chris Ware teet, but anything involving an alternative “comix” inspired illustration in a film advertising movie poster campaign deserves support.
Famed movie poster illustrator Drew Struzan returns to the warm embrace of his long-time client Lucasfilm with the release of the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull teaser poster. Struzan last illustrated the Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith movie poster for Lucas, and this marks his return to illustrating many of the one-sheets in the Indiana Jones series. (Although the first and perhaps best Indiana Jones movie poster illustration credit goes to artist Richard Amsel.)
The poster feels like a visual sequel to the previous Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom teaser poster, with a similar theme of Dr. Jones casting an impressive figure in a backlit entrance promising more things to come. There seems to be some debate about whether this piece of key art depiction of Indiana Jones accurately reflects actor Harrison Ford’s age, but looking at Crystal Skull promo photos it is hard to say how much “wear and tear” the archeologist will be showing on the big screen.
One thing we did notice is that the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie poster is using a different Indiana Jones logo than the previously released official Crystal Skull logo. Rather than an exact recreation of the original “Indiana Jones” logotype, this new teaser poster version of the logo differs significantly — using different letterforms, sizing, and kerning overlaps. Does this revised logo represent more unnecessary George Lucas title tinkering? Have they not settled on the logo for the Indiana Jones brand?
According to Film Junk, the new Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie poster was created by illustrator Richard Corben. (Update: This is inaccurate, see update below.) A respected comic book artist and fantasy art illustrator, Corben is best known for his work for Heavy Metal magazine. He also illustrated the artwork for Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell album cover.
Corben makes would have made for an interesting choice as illustrator for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force poster art. In the late 1970s, Corben created the art for a short story series called “Den” that was published in Heavy Metal magazine. His story was later adapted as one of the segments in the animated Heavy Metal movie. That movie story segment was the basis for a Heavy Metal movie poster, which was also created by, you guessed it, Richard Corben. The poster artwork features a triumphant pose of muscular hero “Den”, towering over a mound of creatures as an attractive female clutches his leg.
The towering hero layout Corben used should be familiar — it is sometimes known as the “King of the Mountain” or the “Conan the Barbarian” pose, since it’s origins go all the way back to pulp cover illustrations for Conan the Barbarian paperbacks and other similar magazines. This type of composition is so prevalent (especially in the realm of science fiction and fantasy art) it would be impossible to list every example of this theme. Although many artists (like Corben) work in this realm, the two most associated with this type of work are legendary illustrators Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta (both movie poster illustrators in their own right).
The ATHF movie poster may be the latest to use this look, but it isn’t the first movie poster to parody it. The Conan cliché has been parodied in past movie posters by the very artists who created this genre of illustration in the first place. For example, the 1982 Conan the Barbarian movie poster (illustrated by Renato Casaro) was a straight forward depiction of “King Conan”. This poster style was literally “lampooned” when Clark Griswald took his place on top of the mountain in the National Lampoon’s Vacation movie poster. Chevy Chase returned to the top again in the National Lampoon’s European Vacation movie poster. Both of these Vacation posters were illustrated by Boris Vallejo — in this case parodying his own work and the genre he helped create. Other examples of “King of the Mountain” inspired layouts in movie posters: Star Wars (Style A), Barbarella, and Army of Darkness.
In the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie poster, the ATHF team of Meatwad, Carl Brutananadilewski, Frylock, and Master Shake take their place on the mountain, complete with the required fantasy “babe” clutching Carl’s leg. No word as to whether this ATHF ad has caused panic in Boston.
Update: We received an email from Richard Corben’s official site saying Corben did NOT create the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie poster. We later received an email from Boris Vallejo’s official site confirming that the Aqua Teen Hunger Force film poster was illustrated by Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo. Glad the confusion has been cleared up.
Movie poster illustrator John Alvin (think Blade Runner and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial movie posters) will be making an appearance this weekend at his one-man art show at the ArtInsights gallery in Reston Virginia.
While the art gallery will not be highlighting John Alvin’s past movie poster illustrations, the show will feature his recent licensed movie illustrations work, which are part of Alvin’s effort to “re-branded himself as a ‘cinema artist’, creating studio-licensed, actor-approved prints drawn from popular films.” We can appreciate this rebranding, as the market for traditional movie poster illustrators doesn’t really exist anymore, which everyone seems to have an opinion about.
You have seen us mention the infamous “Two Big Heads Floating in the Sky” cliché of movie poster design many times in the past. (This “Big Head” type of movie poster could also be called a “Star Sell” — meaning the biggest selling point of the film, the film’s stars, are featured the most prominently on the one-sheet.)
So in honor of the big movie star heads on movie posters we asked one of our favorite artists — Goopy — to illustrate this beast of Hollywood film ad marketing: The Two Headed Movie Poster Monster. This Goopymart creation is available as a poster (natch), on t-shirts, and more.
Fantasy artist Tim Hildebrandt, half of the legendary “Brothers Hildebrandt” illustration team, died on June 11th from complications due to diabetes. “Tim was an otherworldly artist. For 47 years, his captivating work fostered the dreams and fantasies of millions of fans, young and old.”
The Hildebrandt brothers (Tim and his twin brother Greg) have had a long and diverse career in commercial illustration, with subjects ranging from hobbits to pin-ups (NSFW). In the world of movie poster illustration, the brothers creations include the Clash of the Titans movie poster and Barbarella movie poster. Tim also designed The Secret of NIMH movie poster. But most will know the brothers from their contributions to the Star Wars universe, most notably an early Star Wars movie poster that would be a piece of iconic promotional artwork and served as one of the prototypes for much of the Star Wars art to follow.
What’s interesting about the Hilderbrant Star Wars movie poster is that it wasn’t used as a one-sheet for the initial Star Wars theatrical release in U.S. theaters — yet it is, for many, the first piece of artwork they remember for the film. Created as last minute alternate poster artwork, the Hildebrandt Star Wars poster art was an interpretation of a Star Wars movie poster design already created by artist Tom Jung. According to the Star Wars Poster Book, Lucasfilm felt the Jung artwork was “too dark”, and wanted another version:
“They hired twins Tim and Greg Hildebrandt, who were well-known fantasy artists at the time, to paint their own take on the Jung design. ‘The reason they called us is because Tim and I had just done the Lord of the Rings calendar, and we had a fan following.’ says Greg Hildebrandt. ‘We had come through literally overnight for them on a poster for Young Frankenstein. It wasn’t used, but we did it overnight, so they called us and said we need a poster fast.’”
Given the direction to make the image look “comic bookish”, the Hildebrandt movie poster (completed in just thirty-six hours) featured very stylized illustrations of actors Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, as the brothers did not have photo reference for the characters of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. In the end, 20th Century Fox opted to use the earlier “dark” poster art by Tom Jung instead of the Hildebrandt art for the Star Wars theatrical poster — the Star Wars “Style A” movie poster — which had a more accurate likeness of the two main characters. The Hildebrandt artwork did appear on many early Star Wars promo items, a consumer retail poster, and eventually as a U.S. theatrical poster for the Star Wars 15th Anniversary re-release.
Dimension Films has just announced the studio will be producing a remake of the 1978 film Piranha. The original Roger Corman B-movie was directed by Joe Dante (and written by John Sayles), and features flesh-eating piranha fish being released into a summer resort’s rivers. On the surface, Piranha is nothing more than a Jaws rip-off. (Although, the tongue-in-cheek horror film does have its fans — including Steven Spielberg. The film even generated a sequel directed by a young James Cameron.)
The Piranha poster also follows the Jaws poster formula: swimming beauty on the water, in danger from said creature (with large teeth) from below. The Piranha poster illustration does invoke the right look — another example of how exploitation poster artwork was the great equalizer when compared to the advertising of big budget counterparts. After all, hiring a good illustrator wasn’t beyond the expense of lower budget films.
The illustrator giving the Piranha key art it’s teeth was artist John Solie. No stranger to exploitation film posters, Solie illustrated posters for some interesting 1970s films, including Candy Stripe Nurses, Shaft’s Big Score, and Soylent Green. Solie, speaking about his time working for Roger Coreman’s New World Pictures:
If they gave me as much of a free hand as possible to do the work, I didn’t care whether I was working for a B-movie company or a major. At New World, I’d go to lunch with the art director, he’d tell me the story of the movie, I’d make a drawing on a napkin, he’d approve it and I’d go home and do it. I never saw any of the movies, but I made the movie ads and they made a lot of money!
Peter Jackson’s King Kong may be getting all of the attention of late, but a lot of 30somethings may remember the 1976 remake of King Kong — or at least it’s menacing looking movie poster. Courtesy of infamous producer Dino De Laurentiis, the 1970s Kong film wasn’t short on the hype and bombast, even in it’s tagline:
The most exciting original motion picture event of all time.
Interesting copyline considering the film is a remake.
Perhaps the most effective part of the film’s ad campaign was the 1976 King Kong movie poster, featuring a memorable depiction of the giant ape by illustrator John Berkey. A science fiction illustrator who was best known for his impressionist style paintings of spaceships, Berkey was commissioned to do a King Kong illustration by Paramount Pictures even before filming had begun. An interesting choice for the Kong poster key art — Berkey produced a poster far superior to the film itself — the savage looking Kong straddling the two towers of the World Trade Center looks even more arresting than it did in ‘76. Since this artwork was pre-production, it bears little resemblance to the De Laurentiis remake: Kong looks nothing like he does in the film, both in size and appearance, and the daytime scene depicted on the World Trade Center doesn’t reflect the nighttime of the WTC scene in the film. (Would that kind of disparity be tolerated by film fans in modern Hollywood film posters?)
This King Kong poster was also the subject of a “remake” when the U.S. distributer of Godzilla vs. Megalon hoped to ride the wave of King Kong publicity with a Godzilla vs. Megalon poster depicting similar artwork of the two Toho monsters battling atop the two World Trade Center towers. (Which doesn’t actually happen in the Godzilla film itself.) Of course, King Kong and Godzilla have battled each other before, but we’ll save that for another time.
What better way to end our Halloween themed week of horror movie posters than with the one-sheet from John Carpentar’s classic film Halloween? The king of “slasher movies” was shot in just 21 days in 1978. Made on a budget of $300,000, it became the highest-grossing independent movie ever made at that time.
The knife wielding pumpkin Halloween movie poster was created by artist Bob Gleason. The Gleason illustration features a subtle shift from the skin of the orange pumpkin to that of the killer’s hand — each band of the pumpkin’s face is also shaped like a knife. The repeating knife pattern is an effective counter to the image of a decorated jack-o-lantern. This pumpkin head stand-in for killer Michael Meyers is also another example of the “unseen killer” design problem we mentioned previously. Gleason went on to design the “skull pumpkin” image for the Halloween II one-sheet, and the “screaming mask” for the Halloween III: Season of the Witch poster.
Here’s something you don’t see every day: A new Drew Struzan illustrated movie poster that isn’t for a George Lucas film. Ain’t It Cool News reports Struzan has created the poster for the new Spanish film comedy Torrente 3: El Protector. The film is the third in a series of comedies about a “horrendous Spanish detective”.
You might look at the Drew Struzan Torrent 3 movie poster illustration one of two ways: getting work doing traditional illustration for modern-day Hollywood one-sheets is extremely limited or illustrator Drew Struzan has a history of embracing varied film projects that you might not be aware of. (He is, after all, a true “work for hire” illustrator who has done more than illustrate Star Wars one-sheets.)
We’re not sure how well Struzan’s tradmark “kissed by the sun” warm color schemes or color penciled air-brush techniques work as an illustration for a Spanish comedy (a fan boy over at Ain’t It Cool News nicknamed the poster Jake and the Fatman: The Movie), but it certainly makes for an interesting illustration — right down to the hair on star Santiago Segura’s chest.
