First Poster: The Danish Girl

[UPDATE: We have been asked to remove the posters] 

I currently have the film predicted in all five top categories (Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, Actress) as well as three more craft categories. Is this putting too much faith in it, too little or just right? How bullish are you feeling about this one? It's certainly timely in the year of Caitlin's coming out party.

Can Eddie Redmayne can be the first actor to pull off consecutive wins since Tom Hanks 21 years ago? 

Thoughts I had while staring at that new Bridge of Spies Poster

Manuel here. I had to check but it strikes me that for a film that ranked #8 in TFE’s collective “We Can’t Wait!” list, we haven’t really discussed the upcoming Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg film, Bridge of Spies. I saw this poster displayed at my local multiplex and well, I had to share some of my thoughts on it.

• Floating head? Noooooo!
• It is a bit of an improvement over that floating head/flag one from a few months back.
• Hanks does give good furrowed brow.
• Red and black and white makes for a clean design and the typography clearly alludes to the film’s Cold War themes but this poster really isn’t helping you figure out the plot other than reminding you that Hanks is (yet again) playing an “honest man." To be fair, from the trailer, it looks like a hard one to boil down to a simple plot synopsis.
• Why isn’t Spielberg’s name more prominently displayed? Even those Daniel Day-Lewis-heavy posters for Lincoln had the “A Steven Spielberg” line a tad more visible.
• No “Academy Award Winner”? (but then Hanks has never been one to brag)
• At least the bottom of the film aims to remind you of that other Hanks/Spielberg’s collaboration, Catch Me If You Can, and its amazing opening titles. Still one of the best Spielbergs and just think of its young actressy roster: Amy Adams, Ellen Pompeo, Jennifer Garner, Elizabeth Banks, even a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her Amy Acker!
• That bottom half is also slightly Hitchcockian (and by that, I mean it’s a Saul Bassian riff on North by Northwest, no?)
• It’s also giving off The International vibes. 
• Are the red I's… bridges? I’m baffled by that design choice but maybe that’s why I’m not in movie poster designing business since I’d have squeezed in Amy Ryan into this poster and somehow made sure to remind you that Mark Rylance and Billy Magnussen are also in it.

Does this poster boost or dim your excitement?

Shanté, Link, You Stay.

The Playlist shares what is supposedly the first poster for Silencio -- which makes it look like a lesbian drama -- but it looks incomplete since it's not regular poster size and even looks a little square for the European quad size. Or do my eyes deceive me?
Interview talks to Gal Gadot the new Wonder Woman, with photos by Chris Colls. Let's hope Gal has some screen charisma to go with the beauty since her body type is so teensy-tiny for that Amazon princess.
Vogue and Nicole Kidman are really getting along, huh? Now she's talking about Fashion and Film at the Met. Plus she this bit about her Galliano/Dior at the Oscars that one time...

Madonna came up to me at the after-party saying ‘Best dressed, best dressed!"

 

AV Club comic book artist Annie Wu has created a superhero for all of us "General Dread."  This is, in a word, awesome
Rope of Silicon Miles Ahead to close NYFF this year - will it generate any Oscar heat?
Buzz Feed looks at that controversial doc Open Secret which has had a rough road to theaters
Cosmopolitan gets on the set stories from 5 extras in Magic Mike XXL
Film Stage new trailer and poster for The Assassin starring Shu Qi and Chang Chen
Forbes wonders whether Terminator Genisys and Mad Max Fury Road have been labelled "flop" and "hit" respectively despite the same box office tally and budget. Interesting observations about media power and biases but this ignores a fundamental... when it comes to previous grosses from their own franchises there's no other way to label them. 

icymi
This story is a week old but I hadn't seen it and WTF?!? According to Variety, silent film genius FW Murnau's (Nosferatu, Sunrise) head was stolen from his grave early this month. Creepy!   

...

Cast Them Queens!
RuPaul has announced the second RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars season. He's even asked that people chime in on twitter with their dream lineups, so I did. Assuming they're only drawing from the three seasons that came after All Stars (though perhaps they'll go older than that) what would your picks be among these queens?  Will it be a coronation for Katya, Adore, Alaska Thunderf**k or someone else entirely? 

Curio: Paperback Love

Alexa here with your weekly film curios.  I am an unabashed lover and collector of vintage paperbacks, especially movie tie-in paperbacks. Kayo Books is always a stop when I'm passing through San Francisco (and where I found What's Up, Doc? and King Solomon's Mines tie-in paperbacks).  I have been known to scan some favorite covers from my collection, and then print and frame them for quick wall art.  So the recent trend of movie posters re-imagined as paperbacks is one that I can't resist.  Of course, Penguin Classics are a favorite inspiration, as well as designs of the more pulpy variety like Dell (a hat tip to Pulp Fiction's 90s marketing).

Here is a collection of some favorite designs I've seen out in the wild.  

Click to read more ...

Secret in Their Eyes Character Posters

Manuel here sharing these new character posters for the English-language adaptation of the Oscar-winning film, The Secret in their Eyes. 

We talked at length about the film's trailer a few weeks back and the marketing for the film will surely continue revving up as we near its October release date.

The poster series is bold (if a tad on-the-nose) to deny us three sets of expressive eyes but it does force us to focus on these gorgeous movie stars' lips and eyebrows, while denying us another opportunity to gripe about the film's look (those wigs!!)

And yet, I'm surely not alone in flashing back to a handful of other eye-less character posters:

If you're going to ape a marketing campaign, you could do worse than reminding us all of that perfect Michel Gondry/Charlie Kaufman film. But perhaps that wasn't the intention, especially as it ends up being an unfair comparison on every single count; look at all the detail and suggestive plot elements we get in those 2004 posters and then turn to these new photoshopped images of Nicole, Chiwetel and Julia. They're much emptier and only tell us

Julia: Don't look back
Chiwetel: Don't look closer
Nicole: Don't look away 

Here's hoping the final Secret poster is a bit more inventive, though floating head composites are always a very real threat for all star movies. I'm personally hopeful about Julia's performance; are you?