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The Toxic Avenger / one sheet / red title style / USA

16.09.11

Poster Poster
Title
The Toxic Avenger
AKA
--
Year of Film
1984
Director
Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman
Starring
Andree Maranda, Mitch Cohen, Jennifer Prichard, Cindy Manion, Robert Prichard, Gary Schneider, Pat Ryan, Mark Torgl, Dick Martinsen
Origin of Film
USA
Genre(s) of Film
Andree Maranda, Mitch Cohen, Jennifer Prichard, Cindy Manion, Robert Prichard, Gary Schneider, Pat Ryan, Mark Torgl, Dick Martinsen,
Type of Poster
One sheet
Style of Poster
Red title style
Origin of Poster
USA
Year of Poster
1984
Designer
Unknown
Artist
Sid Blaize
Size (inches)
27 2/16" x 41"
SS or DS
SS
NSS #
--
Tagline
He was 98 lbs. of solid nerd until he became... | The first Super-Hero... from New Jersey!

Released by the infamous American production and distribution company Troma, The Toxic Avenger went on to become their most successful film, spawning numerous sequels and spinoffs. He’s now featured as their official mascot.

This poster features artwork by Sid Blaize and is one of two one sheets printed for the film. The other one looks like this (image taken from emovieposter.com).

The superb original trailer can be viewed on YouTube.

The Video Dead / one sheet / USA

17.05.11

Poster Poster

Thunderbolt And Lightfoot / B2 / Japan

17.05.11

Poster Poster

Tokyo! / B1 / Japan

17.05.11

Poster Poster

Tootsie / one sheet / advance / USA

17.05.11

Poster Poster

Trading Places / one sheet / international

17.05.11

Poster Poster
Title
Trading Places
AKA
Una poltrona per due [An armchair for two] (Italy)
Year of Film
1983
Director
John Landis
Starring
Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Denholm Elliott, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kristin Holby, Paul Gleason
Origin of Film
USA
Genre(s) of Film
Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Denholm Elliott, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kristin Holby, Paul Gleason,
Type of Poster
One sheet
Style of Poster
--
Origin of Poster
International
Year of Poster
1983
Designer
Unknown
Artist
Adrian Purkis
Size (inches)
26 15/16" x 39 13/16"
SS or DS
SS
NSS #
--
Tagline
Take two complete strangers, make one of them rich the other poor... just watch the fun while they're...

Tremors / B2 / Japan

17.05.11

Poster Poster

Trick or Treat / one sheet / USA

17.05.11

Poster Poster

Trick Or Treat / quad / UK

18.05.11

Poster Poster
Title
Trick Or Treat
AKA
Morte a 33 giri [Death at 33rpm] (Italy)
Year of Film
1986
Director
Charles Martin Smith
Starring
Marc Price, Tony Fields, Lisa Orgolini, Doug Savant, Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne
Origin of Film
USA
Genre(s) of Film
Marc Price, Tony Fields, Lisa Orgolini, Doug Savant, Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne,
Type of Poster
Quad
Style of Poster
--
Origin of Poster
UK
Year of Poster
1986
Designer
Unknown
Artist
Unknown
Size (inches)
29 7/8" x 39 13/16"
SS or DS
SS
Tagline
Death. Resurrection. Destruction. The Ultimate comeback.

Twin Town / one sheet / USA

17.05.11

Poster Poster

The Two Jakes / one sheet / USA

17.05.11

Poster Poster
Title
The Two Jakes
AKA
Chinatown II (Finland)
Year of Film
1990
Director
Jack Nicholson
Starring
Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Eli Wallach, Rubén Blades, Frederic Forrest, David Keith, Richard Farnsworth, Tracey Walter, Joe Mantell, James Hong
Origin of Film
USA
Genre(s) of Film
Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Eli Wallach, Rubén Blades, Frederic Forrest, David Keith, Richard Farnsworth, Tracey Walter, Joe Mantell, James Hong,
Type of Poster
One sheet
Style of Poster
--
Origin of Poster
USA
Year of Poster
1990
Designer
Seiniger Advertising | Steven Chorney
Artist
Robert Rodriguez
Size (inches)
27" x 40 1/4"
SS or DS
SS
NSS #
--
Tagline
They say money makes the world go round. But sex was invented before money.

The artwork for Two Jakes, a quasi-sequel to the classic 1974 crime-thriller Chinatown, was painted by the American artist Robert Rodriguez (not to be confused with the Texan film director of the same name). He has his own website which can be seen here and on one of the blog posts he talks about his work on Two Jakes. I’m reproducing it here in case his site ever disappears:

Sherman, set the WABAC machine to March 1990…. That would take us to about the time that I was pulling all-nighters in order to finish the poster for “The Two Jakes”.  Originally Steve Chorney had done a series of small watercolor sketches for the movie. They were fast sketches, but the colors were beautiful. Seiniger Advertising was about the hottest movie poster design studio at that time, and they were doing the poster. I had never seen so many concepts for one movie before. I know they took Steve’s sketches and gave them out to five illustrators to develop into comps. Later they had each of us do a completely different image, but I can’t even remember what those looked like. These were all very finished comps, but done at about half size. Everyone was really happy with what I did for the original comp and from the beginning it was in the running. I went off on vacation for a few weeks and when I got back, they told me that my art was still the top choice, only they had revised it and I would need to repaint it at full size.

They had made Jack Nicholson larger, made his shoulders wider, made Meg Tilly’s hat cover her face almost completely, and changed Steve’s beautiful yellow/green color scheme to a grey/teal blue combination. Even with those revisions I still loved the art, so I was very happy to proceed with the finish. I feel like it was the best movie poster I ever did.

They told me at the time that with movie posters, the poster that was the top choice when they ran out of money or ran out of time, was the one that would become the poster. Until one of those things happened, they would just keep doing new art. I think all illustrators miss those days of Illustrated Movie Posters.

One other interesting story connected with that poster…I was told that the night before the art was to be delivered to the printer, Jack Nicholson called Frank Mancuso, Sr., the CEO of Paramount to say he had changed his mind about the poster. Nicholson wanted to use a different painting that had been done. Mancuso took both posters over to Nicholson’s house and they met until midnight to talk about which way to go. Basically Mancuso said, “We have been through more than a hundred movie posters and all along, this was the one everyone agreed on. In the meeting yesterday, we again looked at the top runners and everyone decided this was the strongest image. What do we have to do in order to make you happy with this version?” Nicholson said that he liked the colors of his face better in the other poster. So it was agreed that if I could repaint his face to one that he was happy with, they would proceed with my poster art. They gave me four days to repaint the head, and I remember the day I delivered it, the art director gave me a fistful of colored pencils and had me sit on her floor and paint out some additional wrinkles. But in the end, everyone was happy with the art.  My first major film poster!

His website also features another blog post about his work with Steven Chorney on the poster (see here):

Steven Chorney is the wonderful movie poster artist and illustrator who did the concept sketches for The Two Jakes [see here too] in the very beginning. I remember there were five of us who took these and developed them as comps, and even came up with other designs too. I was assigned the first one he laid out.

I asked him if he still had the comps, and this morning he sent them along so I could post them. I think Thomas Blackshear did a comp using a variation of the second design, which Steven said was his favorite concept because of the tension in Nicholson’s face.

Steven said he was thinking about the Scarface movie poster in his design. Based on his days doing illustrations for TV Guide, he felt there was something missing from his sketch. We needed the girl!  “…we need 2 guys, a girl, and a gun!” He must have mentioned that to the art director, because by the time I got the job, they were asking for me to add the girl in there.

This was done back before color xeroxes were very accurate. Steven had done the grey background version, but they had made a color copy for me, and it had turned a sort of acid yellow.  I loved it, so I  tried to match the color.  It reminded me of that Van Gogh painting of the pool hall interior with the yellow lights and the green felt. Van Gogh wrote “In my picture of the Night Café I have tried to express the idea that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad or commit a crime.” 

But even though they liked my Two Jakes art, they wanted to go with the grey of Steven’s original version (which I had never seen). They had me hide Meg Tilly’s face with her hat, make Nicholson larger, and make his coat and lapels oversized.

The only bad experience with the whole project was the reference they gave me for Jack Nicholson’s face. It was a blurry, two inch tall, b&w photo from The Witches of Eastwick. I kept asking, “Seriously?  Jack Nicholson, and this is the best reference you have?” I think I painted his head about 9″ tall on my poster. And as it turned out, his face was the only problem anyone had with my image.

The artist’s website also features a biography which I’ll also reproduce in its entirety:

Chances are you’ve been having breakfast with Robert Rodriguez for years and never knew it….If you’ve ever fixed yourself a bowl of Quaker Oatmeal, his painting of the old Quaker has probably been watching over you as you ate.

After graduating from Chouinard Art Institute (now CalArts), he embarked on a career as an illustrator, picking up awards and medals along the way.  From being a Grammy Award finalist for best album cover art, to gold and silver medals, to receiving a platinum award for his “Cowboys of the Silver Screen” postage stamps this last year.  From doing Broadway theater posters for plays like, “Anything Goes”, “Nice Work If You Can Get It”, “Sister Act” and “Lend Me A Tenor”, to a SuperBowl poster, a half dozen Ringling Bros. Circus posters, several movie posters, and creating the poster art over the last four years for the Tales of the Cocktail event held in New Orleans every summer, he is finally finding time to do some gallery work, exploring new directions and larger paintings.

UHF / one sheet / style A / USA

17.05.11

Poster Poster

Used Cars / one sheet / USA

17.05.11

Poster Poster
Title
Used Cars
AKA
La fantastica sfida [The fantastic challenge] (Italy)
Year of Film
1980
Director
Robert Zemeckis
Starring
Kurt Russell, Jack Warden, Gerrit Graham, Frank McRae, Deborah Harmon, Joe Flaherty, David L. Lander, Michael McKean, Michael Talbott, Alfonso Arau, Al Lewis, Woodrow Parfrey, Dub Taylor
Origin of Film
USA
Genre(s) of Film
Kurt Russell, Jack Warden, Gerrit Graham, Frank McRae, Deborah Harmon, Joe Flaherty, David L. Lander, Michael McKean, Michael Talbott, Alfonso Arau, Al Lewis, Woodrow Parfrey, Dub Taylor,
Type of Poster
One sheet
Style of Poster
--
Origin of Poster
USA
Year of Poster
1980
Designer
Unknown
Artist
Roger Huyssen (logo and type)
Size (inches)
27" x 41"
SS or DS
SS
NSS #
800089
Tagline
Estimated Laugh Count: 287 City, 410 Highway. Use these numbers only for comparison. Your actual laughs may vary depending on how you feel about used car salesmen, nude women, spectacular car stunts, and the President of the United States.

Valley Girl / one sheet / USA

02.02.12

Poster Poster
Title
Valley Girl
AKA
La ragazza di S. Diego [The girl from S. Diego] (Italy)
Year of Film
1983
Director
Martha Coolidge
Starring
Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman, Elizabeth Daily, Michael Bowen, Cameron Dye, Heidi Holicker, Michelle Meyrink, Tina Theberge, Lee Purcell
Origin of Film
USA
Genre(s) of Film
Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman, Elizabeth Daily, Michael Bowen, Cameron Dye, Heidi Holicker, Michelle Meyrink, Tina Theberge, Lee Purcell,
Type of Poster
One sheet
Style of Poster
--
Origin of Poster
USA
Year of Poster
1983
Designer
Unknown
Artist
Birney Lettick
Size (inches)
27 1/16" x 41"
SS or DS
SS
NSS #
--
Tagline
She's cool. He's hot. She's from the Valley. He's not.

The directorial debut of Martha Coolidge and the first time Nicolas Coppola was credited as Nicolas CageValley Girl is a cult favourite in the US and was both a critical and box office success at the time of release. Loosely based on the Romeo and Juliet story (minus the tragic death) the film focuses on Julie (Deborah Foreman) a girl from the suburban, mall-filled San Fernando Valley who meets Randy (Cage) a punk from Hollywood and falls in love, much to the dismay of her shallow friends.

Valley Girl is actually a stereotype leveled at a certain class of American women who are described as colloquial speaking and materialistic. The San Fernando Valley is credited as the birthplace of this phenomenon thanks to its large number of commuter towns and middle-class suburban families. Valspeak is their unique derivation of Californian English, which was first brought to public consciousness through Frank Zappa’s collaboration with his daughter Moon Unit on the single Valley Girl. A bizarre video of Moon Unit performing the song on the TV show Solid Gold can be seen on YouTube.

Kevin Smith is a huge fan of the film and first began discussing it in Smodcast #152, in which he hilariously explained how Valley Girl had a profound effect on the way his understanding of love and relationships was formed. In the special Smoviola #1 Smith interviewed Martha Coolidge, Deborah Foreman and cinematographer Frederick Elmes to discover the story of how the film came to be.

The artwork on this poster is by the American illustrator Birney Lettick who worked on magazine covers, adverts and portraits as well as a number of movie posters. Lettick was a master at capturing star likenesses and the portrait of cage is spot-on. The artist sadly passed away in 1986. The other posters I’ve collected by him can be seen here.

Notice that the Italian title for the film translates, rather bizarrely, as The Girl from San Diego.

The trailer for the film can be seen on YouTube.

Update – 25/03/2012
As Jeff points out in the comments the woman featured on the poster isn’t actually Deborah Foreman but is one of the background actresses. It’s not clear why this is the case.

Vivement Dimanche! / B2 / Japan

17.05.11

Poster Poster

Where the Buffalo Roam / quad / UK

18.05.11

Poster Poster

Who Framed Roger Rabbit / one sheet / USA

17.05.11

Poster Poster

Withnail and I / quad / UK

18.05.11

Poster Poster

Young Frankenstein / B2 / Japan

17.05.11

Poster Poster

Youth in Revolt / one sheet / advance / USA

17.05.11

Poster Poster

Zacariah / B2 / English text version / Japan

17.05.11

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Zacariah / B2 / Japanese text version / Japan

17.05.11

Poster Poster

Zatoichi / quad / UK

18.05.11

Poster Poster

The Big Lebowski / B2 / Japan

22.12.11

Poster Poster

Unique artwork on this poster for the Japanese release of the much-loved Coen Brothers classic, The Big Lebowski. To say the film has become something of a cultural phenomenon since its release 13 years ago would be an understatement. There’s the annual Lebowski-Fest, which started in 2002 in Louisville, Kentucky and has since been held in several other cities. Jeff Bridges iconic ‘The Dude’ character is even the focus behind a form of religion called Dudeism.

I have a hard time choosing between this and Fargo as my favourite Coen Brothers film, although Raising Arizona and Barton Fink are also strong contenders.

The image on this poster is a shot from the brilliant dream sequence, after The Dude has his drink spiked by Jackie Treehorn. It’s clear that the designer was experimenting with 3D text effects in Photoshop (v4.0, as it would have been at the time).

I recently spotted this rather excellent GIF.

She’s Gotta Have It / B2 / Japan

01.02.12

Poster Poster

A wild design on this Japanese poster for director Spike Lee’s first full-length feature film. The story is set in the New York City borough of Brooklyn and focuses on Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) a young, independent woman who is juggling three different lovers, each with different qualities, and struggling against societal expectations of how she should behave.

Lee himself starred as one of her suitors, a bike courier called Mars Blackmon, and he portrayed the character several times in the following years promoting the Nike Air Jordan line of trainers. Several of these adverts can be seen on Youtube, including this one.

The film is also credited with putting the borough of Brooklyn firmly on the map and helping to foster better social pride in the area’s residents. Several of Lee’s films have been set there, including the brilliant Do the Right Thing. His upcoming film Red Hook Summer is apparently set in Brooklyn.

I’m guessing that the design featured on this Japanese poster is supposed to represent the ‘moral maze’ that the characters in the film are trapped in, but that’s just pure speculation!