Lord of War movie poster

Got Guns?

Lord of War movie poster
Lord of War movie poster

Nicholas Cage is Gun Crazy

For the new film Lord of War, Nick Cage plays an arms dealer dealing with the moral implications of his line of work. As a gun runner, Cage is (at least as he’s represented in the movie poster key art) literally made for the job.

Lord of War Got Guns? banner
Lord of War "Got Guns?" banner

A Lord of War teaser banner spelled out a “Got Guns?” tagline (derived from the ubiquitous “Got Milk?” campaign) with the lettering composed entirely of guns. That photo mosaic via firepower idea is taken a step further in the Lord of War one-sheet, with a portrait shot of Nicholas Cage formed out of bullets. This particular style of illustration invokes a magazine cover/editorial feel, which is probably appropriate to the film’s subject matter. That and people love guns.

Another interesting feature of this one-sheet is the placement of the poster’s billing block. Rather than running the credits at the bottom, the Lord of War credit block is on a single line running around the 4 outer edges of the poster. While some film advertising art directors love doing this, this type of credit block placement rarely makes it into a final one-sheet design. The reason: if there’s one thing that producers hate is not being able to read their names in the already tiny/compressed credits on a one-sheet, much less running upside-down, sideways, and so on. (The only other example of an outer edge billing block we can remember on a one-sheet is for the Miramax film 54, starring Mike Meyers.)

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