Supermodels have always been great at selling magazines, but not so bankable at the box office — unless you count Zoolander (although, to be fair, that didn’t become a cult hit until well after it was released on DVD/cable).
Let’s take a look at some of the best and worst beauties over the years…
If you like fast cars and fast women and somewhat shaky story development (at least in the 2000 version since I haven’t seen the ’74 original), then you’ll probably get revved up for Gone In 60 Seconds.
Graphic novels have surged in popularity in the last decade — and not just comic books about superheroes. Arguably, the most inventive artwork of our time is now being done by indie cartoonists/graphic novelists. And they’ve also branched out into movie posters.
Here’s a few of my favorites from Chris Ware (author of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth), Adrian Tomine, Dan Clowes (Wilson), and the creepy/touching/funny doc featuring one of the genre’s forefathers, Robert Crumb.
Is it me or do 90’s Sean Penn and 70’s Dustin Hoffman strangely resemble each other? Maybe it’s just the posters — and some of their choices of roles.
From now on, every Monday I’m going to feature posters from remakes — so let’s get to work and start with the movie that recharged the Mini, The Italian Job (1969) vs. The Italian Job (2003).
Master autuer, Quentin Tarantino, not only reinvented action movies with his trademark funny/violent fight scenes as well as recharged the careers of John Travolta and Pam Grier — he also re-established the artful marketing of character posters with Jackie Brown. And many more movies like Pearl Harbor and The Hangover have since jumped on the bandwagon.
Uh-oh, J-Lo. Looks like somebody went all Banksy on this bus stop poster of her new movie, The Back-Up Plan…
But it’s not like this poster couldn’t’ve used some serious retouching since it bears a very strong resemblance to this Target ad for mens t-shirts!
What’s up with all these movie posters now that mimic fashion apparel spreads? See Surrogates and Law-Abiding Citizen.
Last month, I wrote about an “unknown” artist named R. Dorero who did the Never Say Never Again one-sheet. Well, the reason this Dorero character was such a mystery is because he doesn’t exist!
The real artist who did this James Bond classic happens to be a very accomplished illustrator named Rudy Obrero who has done a whole slew of other movie posters, including The Postman Always Rings Twice, Oh God You Devil, A Fish Called Wanda as well as work on more recent pics such as The Cat In The Hat and Russell Crowe’s Master and Commander.
But I wasn’t the only one fooled — it appears that LearnAboutMoviePosters and EMoviePoster also made the same mistake. My best guess is that someone misread Obrero’s signature on the original Never Say Never Again poster and the search engines ran with it, thus the confusion. Anyway, the truth is that Rudy Obrero is the real creator behind 007’s NSNA and is still doing great work. So sorry, Rudy. I will never again mistake a Dorero for an Obrero!
I came across these handsome “re-envisioned” posters of old Hitchcock and Stephen King movies on WP by young graphic designer, Laz Marquez, who’s also busy at work on more current movie print ad campaigns.
Movie Poster Museum 