Invictus Poster

Yahoo! just debuted the Invictus poster, and I kind of love it. Much better than last year's atrocious Changeling one sheet, anyway.

Toy Story 3 Character Posters

The Princess and the Frog Poster

/Film got an exclusive look at this new poster for Disney's new 2D musical, The Princess and the Frog. I actually like the teaser poster a bit better, but this one works well with the Holiday release (December 11). Looks like we'll have plenty of new characters to (hopefully) fall in love with this winter.

Get Low Poster

I'm dying to see this miraculous performance from Robert Duvall that everyone is speaking of. Now if only it could snare a US distributor...

Antichrist Marketing

As I admitted back in August, Lars von Trier's Antichrist is a film I have no intention of seeing. Ever.

Reviews are pouring in from Toronto and while plenty of people seem to admire the genius and daring of the film, there are plenty saying that the film contains the most horrible and disturbing images ever seen in cinema. That's not something I feel comfortable puting myself through, quite frankly.

But for those who are interested, I have some more marketing for you. First, there's this as-yet-unapproved poster, which I've heard is very appropriate, and I have to concede it's intriguing:

And then there's this trailer:

If the film is well-received after its release on October 23rd, we could see a surge of support for Charlotte Gainsbourg, who took home the Best Actress prize from Cannes last May. Somehow I think this is one film that AMPAS will be holding at arms length, however well-liked.

The Road Poster

Am I the only one who thinks this just looks like a father and son in a snowstorm?

Moore Posters

I've always been a closet fan of Michael Moore's in-your-face marketing tactics. Love this new poster for Capitalism: A Love Story. Great color, and those chunky letters seem to be popular on posters lately (Burn After Reading, The Informant!).

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Indiana Jones and the Inglourious Basterds

This fun poster didn't make it into The Weinstein Company's marketing plan for Inglourious Basterds, but it's pretty neat nonetheless. Remember the days when posters weren't simply blown-up movie stills? Wish we could get back to that era.

Whip It Poster

From MTV, we have a poster for Drew Barrymore's directorial debut Whip It, starring Ellen Page as a teen who defies her mother by joining a roller derby team. The release date was recently bumped up to October 2nd after Shutter Island's banishment to February left the date wide open.

I'm interested to see what Barrymore does behind the camera, anxious to see another lead performance from Page, hopeful because of Fox Searchlight's involvement, and in love with the edgy-cute color scheme on this poster. Pending reviews, I think I'll be in line to see this one.

One more thing: I think the tone of this film seems like a good fit for both Barrymore and Page right now. Smart for Barrymore to make her first foray into directing with something fun, and smart for Page to follow Juno with something non-baity. Ku-dos.

Not My Cup Of Tea

In case you can't read that rating strip underneath the title, Lars von Trier's Antichrist contains real sex, bloody violence and self-mutilation.

Clearly the makers of this sad excuse for a poster are aiming to sell the film on its shock value, a tactic that seems to be working, as bloggers and critics everywhere write about their anticipation for its release.

This all in spite of the fact that it caused complete outrage at the Cannes film festival back in May, where its female lead, Charlotte Gainsbourg, took home the Best Actress prize.

Since Oscar tries to make itself as much a stranger to controversy as is possible, I doubt it will receive the same attention from AMPAS next year, and so I plan to skip it. I have to draw the line somewhere.

The Avatar Teaser Has Landed

I've been trying very hard to pretend that I am above all the Avatar hype. Nevertheless, I found my heart racing as I watched the first teaser, which you can find here. Apple is having issues with its version, so for now we'll have to deal with the French title cards.

(UPDATE: Apple has apparently fixed the problem. The U.S. version is now up and running.)

The Na'vi look less realistic than I was expecting, which I assume I'll get used to, but the rest of the visuals are stunning. Quite frankly, I'm a little underwhelmed. This is James Cameron we're talking about though, so I'm still fully expecting some great entertainment.

"Avatar Day" is tomorrow, so if for some reason you're interested in watching a mish-mash of footage from the film instead of waiting for the real thing to be released in December, hurry to the film's official site and get your tickets. I for one will be sitting that one out.

500 Photos Of Summer?

I would love to know if there are exactly 500 pictures of Zooey Deschanel's Summer on this poster, but I'm far too lazy to count. I hope to finally catch this film early next week. I'll be talking about it more after I do.

Fox Searchlight definitely outdoes itself again and again in the marketing department. From the iconic Little Miss Sunshine VW bus to the orange and white Juno stripes, they know how to sell them over there.

By the way, this is a tagline I can get behind: "This is not a love story. This is a story about love."

Double Vision

Here are a few sets of posters for upcoming films and my take on which ones are the better efforts.


I really don't see the much of a point in this second poster. The only thing I think they've improved is the view we get of the island, which seems a bit clearer without all that rain getting in the way. But I like the color palette, fonts, and expression on Leo's face much better in the first take. They create a more ominous feeling, which fits the story well. Another note: I'm not a fan of the tagline at all. "Someone is missing" can't possibly the best they could come up with, can it?

Whoever is in charge of the marketing for Precious deserves a hefty pay raise. These two posters for the acclaimed urban drama, due November 6th, are some of the best I've seen all year. I prefer the first to the second, personally, since I think it shows the state of the main character's life a little better. The second looks a little too matronly. Both get points for not relying on the all-too-common "floating heads" imagery, though.

While there's definitely something a little off about the character placement in the first poster, I can't say I think the second looks much better. As a fan of symmetry, I find it way annoying that the suitcase isn't completely in the picture on the latter. I'm glad that they included a reference to Thank You For Smoking, though, since Juno isn't necessarily everyone's brand of comedy. It's appropriate also that Clooney is standing alone in the second, since a main point in the story is his character's lack of personal connections. I give the win to the second, by a hair.

Up In The Air Poster Arrives

As a huge fan of both Thank You For Smoking and Juno, I've been anxiously awaiting the release of Jason Reitman's third feature film, Up in the Air, since it was announced last summer. Based on the novel of the same name by Walter Kirn, the story involves a corporate man named Ryan Bingham who avoids personal connections by traveling for his job. His main goal to amass one million frequent flyer miles is put in jeapordy when his company decides to cut its travel budget. Making matters even more complicated is his sudden romantic interest in a fellow compulsive traveler.

George Clooney takes on the lead role with Vera Farmiga (The Departed) playing his love interest. The film has been earning raves out of test screenings, and there's a lot of awards talk for Clooney and Reitman, as well as a decent shot at one of those 10 Best Picture slots.

Today we have the official poster for the film, which will premiere at TIFF in September and is probably headed for a December release. The trailer will no doubt find its way online in the next couple of weeks, so check back for that soon.

NOTE: A large portion of the film was shot in my hometown of St. Louis, and Clooney's presence inspired a frenzy the likes of which I have never seen. Visiting Presidents garner a small amount of interest, but when Clooney comes to town people take off work to drive around the airport in the hopes of glimpsing him, and local radio stations report "Clooney Sightings" on an hourly basis. The man truly is a movie star.