Oscar Campaign: We All Dream In Gold

The Oscar nominations are these Thursday and so all is left after that is to promote the Big Night. This new Oscar campaign and posters were released this morning and I think they're beautiful. Using the slogan "We All Dream in Gold" and highlighting previous winners is a good look. Below is my favorite featuring Lupita Nyong'o. Meryl Streep, George Clooney, and others were also used. Click here to see them all.

Bonus! The Academy also released a 30-second video narrated by Morgan Freeman:

We all dream in gold. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/zEaKT4LBYo

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) January 12, 2016

Matt Bomer XXL

This new character poster for Magic Mike XXL featuring Matt Bomer hit the internet yesterday and good golly, I've lasciviously enjoyed it since I laid my eyes on it. So count me in when this movie opens in July 1st. I'm only human.

Looking Forward To...

Guardians of the Galaxy
Release: August 1, 2014
Distributor: Buena Vista
Director: James Gunn
Starring: Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, John C. Reilly, Dave Bautista, Lee Pace, Zoe Saldana, Djimon Hounsou, Vin Diesel, Benicio Del Toro, and Glenn Close

I think I would categorize myself as a Marvel fanboy at least in terms of appreciating what Marvel has done to craft this shared cinematic universe. And while their first big risk in The Avengers paid off handsomely, everyone (including myself) agrees that Guardians of the Galaxy, finally opening this weekend, will be their biggest test yet in continuing this multi-billion dollar franchise. The film features characters such as a gun-toting, talking raccoon and a character that's essentially just a tall tree and while the general audience has been conditioned to accepting these sort of characters in Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, it's always still a sticky proposition (see John Carter).

Luckily, the marketing has been top notch from the gorgeous and cheeky teaser poster (above) to the earwormy and irreverent trailers which do a great job in not only introducing us to the characters, but also to the general tone of the film. Plus it seems some have already embraced the film and its characters as highlighted by the following impressive fan-made posters culled by Poster Posse (Phase 1, Phase 2):

Credits (l-r): Marie Bergeron, Matt Ferguson, Kaz Oomori

Credits (l-r): Doaly, Sharm Murugian, Matt Needle

Credits (l-r): Marko Manev, Matt Ferguson, Rich Davies

Looking Forward To...

Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Release: November 22, 2013
Distributor: Lionsgate
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Josh Hutcherson, Jena Malone, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Hemsworth, Sam Claflin, Amanda Plummer, Donald Sutherland, Lenny Kravitz, Lynn Cohen, and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Like most blockbuster films, Catching Fire has about a dozen or so posters used for its marketing. Most are character posters that highlight, you guessed correctly, the characters of said film, but everyone knows the real selling point is Katniss herself: Jennifer Lawrence. Below are two posters made to look like ads that would appear on Panem's Capitol:

Then there's the left one below which is a bit more traditional when you think of action movie one-sheets. The one next to it though is bit more interesting, which makes sense since it's the IMAX poster and they tend to be more visually experimental.

Finally, these last two are my favorites:

I just love the rich colors and painterly quality they both have. The first is part of a series of character posters with Katniss the only character standing up while everyone else is shot while sitting down. The second poster is probably my pick for best poster for the film. Again, the colors are eye-catching, and I just love how she's literally on top of the world with her bow and arrow, with the clouds looking like wings behind her.

How about you? Any favorites from this bunch? How excited are you about the film?

Looking Forward To...

Short Term 12
Release: August 23, 2013
Distributor: Cinedigm Entertainment
Director: Destin Cretton
Starring: Brie Larson, John Gallager Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, and Rami Malek

This movie has been so below my radar, I didn't even know until I was making this post that John Gallagher Jr. and Rami Malek were in the film! It came to my attention when Nathaniel over at his blog started talking the film up especially with regards to Brie Larson's performance. That's really all it took for me. I don't even really know what the film is about, but then again I try to know as little as I can with certain films so I could be pleasantly surprised when I actually see it.

Above and below are four alternate posters for the film designed by artist Caitlin Craggs. In designing the poster for the film, Craggs had this to say:

Set almost entirely on a nondescript, institutional campus, the magic of Short Term 12 lies in the transformative moments between characters— grimaces, jokes, hugs and tears. My hope was to capture the tumult and frustration, as well as the warmth and sense of community for those at ST12 through simple, almost child-like illustrations, alluding to the coming-of-age narratives that underpin the film.

If anything, these posters and Cragg's statement just made me even more intrigued for the movie.

X-Men Teaser Posters Marks the Spot

Apparently the X-Men panel at Comic Con over the weekend went gangbusters with a first look to next year's film X-Men: Days of Future Past as well as a reunion of the large cast consisting of members from the old and new franchises including Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender (who play the old and young Magneto respectively) and Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy (who play the old and young Professor X respectively).

I have nothing but high hopes and best wishes for the upcoming film and the franchise as a whole despite a couple of seriously regrettable films (X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) which nearly derailed the whole franchise. But if the new teaser posters featuring the four actors I mentioned above are of any indication to the quality of the film, then this will be their best one yet.

I mean, right? The design concept is perfectly executed allowing them to feature the main actors while also giving a nod to the time-travel aspect in the film. Plus those colored Xs are just so damn cool. I'm hoping the rest of their marketing is just as well done.

Trailer Break: Much Ado About Nothing

We're just three months away from another Joss Whedon film appearing on the big screen! Last time that happened, Whedon managed to deliver a mega-blockbuster superhero film that was a box office phenomenon as well as an unexpected critical hit. This time around he trades in Marvel Studios and explosions for Williams Shakespeare and elocution.

Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing has been one of my most anticipated film ever since I found out about its existence on my birthday two years ago. That was also the day they wrapped filming and decided to share the news with the world that Whedon was adapting one of Shakespeare's play into a film and was intent on filling his ensemble with who's who of Whedon players such as Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion, Clark Gregg, Fran Kranz, Sean Maher, and Tom Lenk. The film had its world premiere last year at the Toronto Film Festival and was picked up by Lionsgate which will release the film this summer June 7th 2013. And now it has a shiny brand new trailer which I have seen half a dozen times already:



Fun, right? And doesn't it just seem like Whedon videotaping a bunch of his friends who he has invited over his house to re-enact some Shakespeare while partaking in some food and alcohol? There's something so low-key and charming about that and I cannot wait to see the end result.

My Favorite Posters of 2012

Hoping to catch a couple more films before I post my year-end film lists and nominations, but until then I wanted to start it all of by talking about some of my favorite film posters from last year. I had about 50 posters in my longlist, but I managed to narrow it down to the ones below...

1. Cabin in the Woods - This homage to Escher delights me to no end especially with the twists and turns the narrative of the film takes. I also love its woodsy-vintage-comic-book hybrid feel with a touch of horror the perfectly encapsulates the movie.

2. Zero Dark Thirty - No doubt in my mind that this was the best teaser poster for a film that was both highly anticipated and highly guarded. It's bold, stark and really demands a double take.

3. ParaNorman - I actually love all of the posters done for this film so it was difficult to choose my favorite, but the one I ultimately picked is at both simple in its design as well as being visually interesting. The horrified looks of the characters are bonus.

4. The Paperboy - Like the film, this poster really sells the humidity ever present within. The color palette is warm and sensuous and the poster is able to have its main stars on the poster without making them feel like floating heads.

5. The Loneliest Planet - Just beautifully designed with the greenery of the surroundings dominating the poster as it does so in the film. The placement of the actors forces you to take a second look.

6. Safety Not Guaranteed - Not only is this poster hilarious, but it pretty much lays out what the movie is about in such a creative way that should've made more people seek it out to learn more.

7. John Carter - Say what you will about the film (which wasn't as awful as I had expected), but this poster is damn gorgeous. I love showing off the planet as well as the space above and I definitely love how everything feels epic especially with the lead roughly shown to scale.

8. Chronicle - This did its job as a teaser poster making me very curious as to what the film could be about. It even works retroactively after you've seen the film and realized how clever this poster really was.

9. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Just think about to before everyone complained about how long the movie is and how unnecessary a third film would be. Didn't your heart just jump with joy as did mine when this poster came out? I instantly heard Howard Shore's score in my head and I wanted to cry.

10. Beasts of the Southern Wild - I love how confident this feels especially for a smaller film. It's like they knew they needed a poster that demanded attention and I think they succeeded. Just wished they did more posters featuring other equally visually arresting moments in the movie.

Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order):

• Ai Weiwei - Appropriately cheeky and strong.
• The Amazing Spider-man - Love the play on imagery and shadow.
• Django Unchained - Visually bold and striking in its simplicity.
• Gayby - Highlights the drama and the comedy within.
• The House I Live In - Love the interplay between text and image.

• The Hunger Games - Instantly iconic and feels alive.
• Life of Pi - Collage technique done beautifully.
• Magic Mike - Already used cheeky, but perfect adjective to use here, no?
• The Master - Unexpected, but executed perfectly.
• Prometheus - Foreboding; love the use of darkness and light.

What about you? What were some of your favorite posters of the past year? Do you think I overlooked a particularly awesome poster? Feel free to share!

Final Dark Knight Looks Fly High

How cool is this poster? I'm shocked I hadn't seen it until today. It's being used to advertise the marathon screening of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy today leading up to midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. My friends and I did our own low-budget marathon of the prior two films last weekend with our DVD copies of the film. The Dark Knight Rises is aiming to take down the record-breaking weekend of Marvel's The Avengers, which to refresh your memory made $207.4 million on its opening weekend just a little more than two months ago. The Avengers managed an $18.7 million in midnight screening gross which is the highest midnight gross for a superhero film just eking out The Dark Knight's $18.5 million. Many believe that The Dark Knight Rises will easily win this battle.

As for the rest of the weekend, it'll certainly be a close race. With no 3D surcharges and a longer run time, many seem to think Nolan's film will just miss out on the record, but I think the anticipation for this film is as big as it can be with plenty of people still loving the prior film. Just this afternoon, Fandango is reporting that advanced ticket sales for this film was outpacing The Avengers. With many theaters surely devoting most, if not all, of their screens 24/7 this weekend to this film, I think the weekend record is well within reach.

Looking Forward To...

The Cabin in the Woods
Release: April 13, 2012
Distributor: Lionsgate
Director: Drew Goddard
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz, Anna Hutchison, Richard Jenkins, Amy Acker, Tom Lenk, Bradley Whitford, Kristen Connolly, and Jesse Williams

This film has been in development for years and was actually supposed to come out nearly two years ago so it's been crazy to have this film be released finally and on Friday the 13th no less. Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, it's a film about five friends who spend some time in a remote cabin in the woods and I'm assuming that's where all of the horror and hilarity will ensue. I honestly don't know anything else about the film than that and that is just the way I like it. Now as it is a horror film, I'm probably going to check it out when it comes out on DVD and not in theaters, but I still wanted to highlight the film because of Whedon's involvement and the great cast he and Goddard have compiled.


I've also got to give credit to the beautiful posters used to market the film. The big one at the top of this post is my favorite. It's obviously an homage to Escher, but I love its woodsy-vintage-comic-book hybrid feel. I especially like the subtle honeycomb pattern towards the bottom with the title treatment. I also liked the first poster of a Picasso-like cabin floating on air up against a foreboding background of the woods. The second one pretty much copies the first, but amusingly populates the cabin with the good reviews the film has been getting. Speaking of, as I write this, its Rotten Tomatoes rating is a very fresh 89%. Hm... maybe I will end up seeing this if only to fill up on my Whedon quota until The Avengers come out!

The Walt Disney Biopic that Never Was

Two thoughts crossed my mind when I saw this poster over the weekend. The first is that I couldn't believe I hadn't heard of this film since it sounds pretty great. The second is that Ryan Gosling might actually get his second Oscar nomination and first win since the Academy is all about biopic performances. Sadly this magnificent poster is for a movie that doesn't exist. It was imagined by a French graphic designer Pascal Witaszek and as of now there's been no reports as to why he just randomly came up with this.

With that said, I would still like to profess my love for the non-existent film and poster. The choice to cast Ryan Gosling as Walt Disney is unusual and yet oddly perfect while I can see Ron Howard do a solid job at this. As for the poster, the look is appropriately whimsical and the colors chosen well. The tag line "Of A Mouse and A Man" is tongue-in-cheek, but also an instant classic. And the Mickey Mouse cloud design in the background is a slight and wonderful touch. So basically I'm hoping that Witaszek is a secret bajillionaire who own the rights to Disney's life story and has the money and clout to make this happen. Maybe if I wish upon a star... really, really hard?

Looking Forward To...

So there's a movie coming out this weekend that stars Taylor Kitsch who wowed critics in Friday Night Lights. The rest of the cast is even better--from former Oscar nominees like Samantha Morton, Willem Dafoe, and Thomas Haden Church to some of TV's best actors like Bryan Cranston, Polly Walker, Ciaran Hinds, and James Purefoy. Director-writer Andrew Stanton (aka the man responsible for Wall-E and Finding Nemo) is helming the film along with two co-writers whose credits include the amazing Spider-Man 2 and the upcoming Pixar film Brave. If that wasn't enough the film's music is composed by Oscar-winner Michael Giacchino who has given us beautiful scores from Lost to Up.

That film is... John Carter. Oh.


God, even its poster above looks amazingly brilliant doesn't it? So what went wrong? Why is NO ONE excited about this film at all? In fact it seems like most are absolutely dreading it. At the moment it's barely fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at 60% and will probably trend downwards as more reviews start to come in. If this does crash and burn with audiences (since it's pretty much DOA with the critics it seems) that's just too bad since I like most of the names I mentioned above. With that said, it hasn't happened yet. It could still surprise and take one of the top spots at this weekend's box office. Its only competition seem to be Dr. Seuss' The Lorax which surprised this past weekend with its $70+ million take. If that didn't make you shake your head, maybe this will. The entire top 10 comprised of films that were rated rotten:


Ouch! It's worth to note that Best Picture champ The Artist (at 97%) was ranked #11 for the weekend. Now there are two films I am actually looking forward to (well sorta) that's also coming out this weekend and thankfully they both are getting okay-ish reviews. Since they're coming out in limited theaters, I'd be shocked if either one cracks the top 20 at the box office charts.


Friends with Kids stars Jennifer Westfeldt (she wrote and directed the film as well) and Adam Scott as two friends who agree to have kids while remaining unattached to each other. I'm guessing this movie's selling point is less its story and more its cast which also includes modern day brat packers Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Chris O'Dowd. The other film, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, is about... well salmon fishing in the Yemen. Written by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) and starring Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, and Kristin Scott Thomas, it looks like a romantic film masquering itself as a human interest film. Like the first film, the cast is the selling point for me, but similarly I'm just not sure that's enough for me. We'll see.

Williams and Fassbender Turn Up the Heat

Michelle Williams and Michael Fassbender both may well be nominated for an Oscar this upcoming Tuesday for their critically praised work this year. It'll be a little easier for her having been nominated twice before, winning at last week's Golden Globes, and for playing the famous and beloved Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn. He, on the other hand, headlines Shame, an NC-17 film where he plays a sex addict, and that combination maybe just too much for the relatively conservative Academy. It's worth it to note that Williams received her second Oscar nomination last year for a film that almost got the "dreaded" NC-17 rating.


In any case, their publicists are doing quite well to keep them both in the spotlight and it's a sexy spotlight indeed. She appears on the cover of GQ wearing nothing but a blonde wig and negligee which are also highlighted within with a few more sexy poses. He has a spread in W Magazine that includes him wearing very little clothing in bed. We can analyze both of these for what it would mean regarding their film careers and/or their Oscar chances... or you know, we can just ogle. I'll choose the latter, thanks. But after all of that, make sure to read the articles, especially the particularly heartbreaking one for Williams.

My Top Ten Favorite Posters of 2011

Still trying to catch up on a few 2011 films so my year-end film lists and nominations are on hold, but I did want to share with you guys some of my favorite posters from the past year. My longlist was about 36 posters, but I narrowed it down below to my top ten, five honorable mentions, and a poster that should've been in my top 10 but I forgot.


1. Martha Marcy May Marlene - This is just such a beautifully composed poster. From the colors to the overlapping images, it creates a sense of ethereal beauty as well as a sense of chaos and danger. Positioning her lips in the center right next to her "names" is an inspired choice.


2. Tree of Life - For a teaser poster of a most anticipated film that no one knew anything about, this was tops them all. And it really was the best way to advertise Malick's visually arresting film seemingly showing us everything and yet telling us nothing. My favorite part is of course the dinosaur.


3. One Day - It seems fitting that this poster for a love story was love at first sight for me. While the movie itself was less than I expected, this poster is just perfect in its romanticism. The color treatment is gorgeous and the image used just lovely.


4. Shame - The unkempt and empty bed is such an interesting and bold image and yet it really is such a fitting image for the film hinting at the sexually charge nature of the film, but being subtle about it. There's also a sense of lonliness that is conveyed here.


5. Ides of March - Not gonna lie, I think this poster was particularly creative. It's a wholly imaginative way to have your two stars on the poster without doing the tired designs of floating heads. The TIME Magazine motif as well as the tagline tells you a lot about the film.


6. Jane Eyre - Reminds me a bit of my #1 choice though this came out first. It's simultaneously romantic and haunting. Plus this poster is multipurpose--can work as a Criterion DVD cover or a book cover!


7. Drive - Yes, I questioned this poster a few months back saying it wasn't particularly doing a good job marketing the film. With that said, I want to own it so badly. Basically how can you go wrong with Ryan Gosling wearing a henley? The white space and bold pink font are icing.


8. Cowboys & Aliens - The movie may have disappointed, but this teaser poster was well done. It was really the only poster in their marketing campaign that adequately mixed the brown earthy tones of Western films with the blue cool colors in sci-fi films. Plus it highlighted the best feature of the film: Daniel Craig's leather-chaps framed backside.


9. The Iron Lady - I love this poster, I'm not even kidding. It's grotesque, bold, hilarious, ridiculous, and eye catching. It's also very polarizing. Sounds like Margaret Thatcher herself, doesn't it? The tagline for the film is "Never Compromise" and they certainly didn't at least with this poster. Also love Streep's Giaconda-like smile.


10. In the Land of Blood and Honey - Haven't seen the film, but this poster is able to highlight the love story and the violence contained in the film. The font is a bit curious, but the map graphic background is a nice touch.

Honorable Mentions

• Carnage - Goofy, brash, memorable, and eye-catching.
• The Girl with Dragon Tattoo - Elegant and appropriately chilly.
• MI4: Ghost Protocol - Wonderful and exciting perspective.
• Moneyball - Great use of color, text, and space.
• Submarine - Confident, fresh, and quirky concept.

I forgot to include this poster from Weekend in my original post so instead of changing my list above and figuring out where it'll rank, I'll just mention it here to end the post. So romantic. So mysterious. The font/text design is just so pretty. And with that said, what were some of your favorite posters of the past year?