movie poster Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I'm not exactly sure where IMP Awards dug up this alternate poster for Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno, but for my money, it's an equally creative and eye-catching way to sell the stars compared to the current stick-figures-and-'Porno'-free campaign ... a campaign which, it should be said, hasn't stopped the flick from grossing $20 million by this past weekend, which is about on par with most of Smith's recent work and (again) not bad for an advertising angle that didn't push either his name or the faces of leads Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen.

Besides, I really don't think the bright colors and cute animals would have led anyone to believe that the (admittedly sweet) Zack and Miri falls in line with, say, Happy-Go-Lucky, but we'll honestly never know if swapping colors for controversy would've had the same effect. (Hey, I still think that the Canadian poster would've done just fine.)

Check out this new (cutesy?) poster after the jump ...

While in Berlin, I was told there was a private "market only" screening of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters. A few of us joked -- and wished we were there -- if only to see the look on all those European faces once the film finally got underway. I imagine a slew of those stuffy international buyers were left disturbed, upset and utterly confused by the film's, um, creativity. Needless to say, it would have been fun to watch the pale faces feverishly exiting the theater.

It's no secret that Aqua Teen Hunger Force (an animated show on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim) isn't for everyone; in fact, its core fanbase consists of folks who like to partake in a few "extra-curricular activities" prior to tuning in. Some would even go so far as to say that those "activities" are necessary in order to truly get the show and its three main characters (which consist of a box of fries, a wad of meat and a milkshake). Regardless, a feature-length ATHF film will crash into theaters on April 13, and what appears to be the (final?) poster has just been released, with Twitch providing us with what you see there to the right of your screen. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong, but I had to do a double-take -- at first, I thought I was looking at the cover of Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell album. Yes, it's that awesome.

As I'm a fairly new fan of the show, the only thing that worries me is whether the jokes will last for over an hour when each episode is only 15 minutes long. Then again, I have the same problem with most animated toons that take a chance on the big screen; trust me, I'm just as worried about The Simpsons Movie somehow finding a way to make me laugh as hard as I did during South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

New York Times film columnist Dave Kehr has decided to share the images from his "wildly out of control" collection of vintage lobby cards. He's created The Lydecker Gallery to hold the scanned poster images. Currently, the index page of the gallery contains lobby cards from movies you might have heard of, like Out of the Past and My Name is Julia Ross. However, he's also set up auxiliary pages for posters from obscure Poverty Row films.

Poverty Row was the nickname given to the small independent studios that cranked out shoestring-budget B-movies and serials in the 1930s. I not only hadn't heard of any of the movies advertised on the lobby cards, but I didn't recognize most of the studio names: Invincible Pictures, Equitable Pictures, Chesterfield Pictures. I suspect most of these movies haven't survived, or would be difficult to find. All we may have left are these lobby cards.

The above image is from the lobby card for the 1931 movie Hell Bound, advertised on the lobby card as "Tiffany presents ..." Who in the world was Tiffany, I wondered. Turned out to be Tiffany Productions, another one of the Poverty Row studios. A little research reveals that Hell Bound was directed by Walter Lang, who had a long career directing popular Forties and Fifties films such as Sitting Pretty, the original Cheaper by the Dozen, and Desk Set. I hadn't heard of any of the actors, though.

My favorite poster in the collection so far is this card for the Republic serial Secret Service in Darkest Africa. I am fascinated by the layout techniques used with these lobby cards. Kehr is adding new images to the collection regularly, so be sure to bookmark the site and visit again.