You searched for: Richard%2520Grove

Pale Rider / one sheet / international

21.05.11

Poster Poster

Something Wicked This Way Comes / quad / UK

01.02.17

Poster Poster
Title
Something Wicked This Way Comes
AKA
--
Year of Film
1983
Director
Jack Clayton
Starring
Jason Robards, Jonathan Pryce, Diane Ladd, Royal Dano, Vidal Peterson, Shawn Carson, Mary Grace Canfield, Richard Davalos, Jake Dengel, Jack Dodson
Origin of Film
USA
Genre(s) of Film
Jason Robards, Jonathan Pryce, Diane Ladd, Royal Dano, Vidal Peterson, Shawn Carson, Mary Grace Canfield, Richard Davalos, Jake Dengel, Jack Dodson,
Type of Poster
Quad
Style of Poster
--
Origin of Poster
UK
Year of Poster
1983
Designer
Unknown
Artist
David Grove
Size (inches)
30" x 39 13/16"
SS or DS
SS
Tagline
Don't whisper your dreams, someone may be listening.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a 1983 live-action Disney film that’s based on the Ray Bradbury horror novel of the same name. It was helmed by the late British director Jack Clayton (best known for the 1961 horror The Innocents) The film is notorious for its production woes and extensive reshoots that were done without the input of Clayton or Bradbury, who also wrote the screenplay. After production had wrapped, Disney were concerned about its length and commercial appeal and spent a year (and millions of dollars) replacing entire scenes and extensive special effects sequences with material shot by another director. The film’s Wikipedia page details the problems and also notes that the film was a commercial flop.

The plot is described thusly on IMDb:

In a small anywhere town in any state in America, two young boys- quiet Will Halloway and somewhat rebellious Jim Nightshade-enjoy the ever-shortening days of autumn. When the boys hear about a strange traveling carnival from a lightning rod salesman, they decide to see what it is all about-but Will is fearful, as most carnivals end their tours after Labor Day. When the ominous Mr. Dark, the Illustrated Man, rides into town on a dark midnight, setting up his massive carnival in a matter of seconds, the boys are both thrilled and terrified. It seems to be just another carnival at first, but it is not before long that the forces of darkness themselves are manifesting from the haunting melodies of the carousel-which can change your age depending on which way you ride it-and the glaring Mirror Maze. With his collection of freaks and oddities, such as the Fat Man, Mr. Electro, and the blind Dust Witch, Dark intends to take control of the town and seize more innocent souls to damn.

The artwork on this quad, which also featured on the American and French posters, is by the American illustrator David Grove who worked on several film posters, including the brilliant international one sheet for Pale Rider and the striking poster for Steven Seagal’s Nico. Grove had an incredible skill at using gouache and acrylic paints to create striking, stylised images of his subjects, which are full of energy and feature brilliant use of colour washes, shading and clever brush strokes.

Grove sadly passed away in October 2012 and the website of Artist Partners London (where he apparently worked for a while in the 1960s) features a gallery and information on him, including an obituary that was originally printed in the San Francisco Chronicle. Greg Newbold’s Life Needs Art blog features a great piece on Grove, which includes several images of his other film posters.

Army Of Darkness / quad / UK

18.05.11

Poster Poster
Title
Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead
AKA
Army of Darkness (USA) | Kyaputien supamaketto: Shiryo no harawata III - Captain Supermarket (Japan)
Year of Film
1993
Director
Sam Raimi
Starring
Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie, Richard Grove, Timothy Patrick Quill, Michael Earl Reid, Bridget Fonda
Origin of Film
USA
Genre(s) of Film
Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie, Richard Grove, Timothy Patrick Quill, Michael Earl Reid, Bridget Fonda,
Type of Poster
Quad
Style of Poster
--
Origin of Poster
UK
Year of Poster
1993
Designer
Unknown
Artist
Renato Casaro
Size (inches)
30" x 39 15/16"
SS or DS
DS
Tagline
Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas.

Army Of Darkness / one sheet / USA

17.05.11

Poster Poster
Title
Army of Darkness
AKA
Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead (alt. title) | Kyaputien supamaketto: Shiryo no harawata III [Captain Supermarket] (Japan)
Year of Film
1993
Director
Sam Raimi
Starring
Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie, Richard Grove, Timothy Patrick Quill, Michael Earl Reid, Bridget Fonda
Origin of Film
USA
Genre(s) of Film
Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie, Richard Grove, Timothy Patrick Quill, Michael Earl Reid, Bridget Fonda,
Type of Poster
One sheet
Style of Poster
--
Origin of Poster
USA
Year of Poster
1993
Designer
Unknown
Artist
Michael Hussar
Size (inches)
26 11/16" x 39 11/16"
SS or DS
DS
NSS #
930035
Tagline
Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas.

Army Of Darkness / B2 / Japan

17.05.11

Poster Poster
Title
Army of Darkness
AKA
Kyaputien supamaketto: Shiryo no harawata III - Captain Supermarket (Japan) | Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead (UK)
Year of Film
1993
Director
Sam Raimi
Starring
Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie, Richard Grove, Timothy Patrick Quill, Michael Earl Reid, Bridget Fonda
Origin of Film
USA
Genre(s) of Film
Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie, Richard Grove, Timothy Patrick Quill, Michael Earl Reid, Bridget Fonda,
Type of Poster
B2
Style of Poster
--
Origin of Poster
Japan
Year of Poster
1993
Designer
Unknown
Artist
Unknown
Size (inches)
20 5/16" x 28 14/16"
SS or DS
SS
Tagline
--

Army Of Darkness / one sheet / international

25.02.14

Poster Poster
Title
Army of Darkness
AKA
Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead (alternative title) | Kyaputien supamaketto: Shiryo no harawata III - Captain Supermarket (Japan)
Year of Film
1992
Director
Sam Raimi
Starring
Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie, Richard Grove, Timothy Patrick Quill, Michael Earl Reid, Bridget Fonda
Origin of Film
USA
Genre(s) of Film
Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie, Richard Grove, Timothy Patrick Quill, Michael Earl Reid, Bridget Fonda,
Type of Poster
One sheet
Style of Poster
--
Origin of Poster
International
Year of Poster
1993
Designer
FEREF
Artist
Renato Casaro
Size (inches)
27" x 39 10/16"
SS or DS
SS
NSS #
--
Tagline
How can you destroy an army that's already dead?

This is the scarce international one sheet for the release of Army of Darkness, the third installment in the Evil Dead trilogy. As with the previous entries in the cult horror series, the film was directed by Sam Raimi, produced by Robert Tapert and stars their friend Bruce Campbell as Ash, the unlucky goofball at the centre of the chaos. Re-interpreting the end of Evil Dead II somewhat, the film opens as Ash is sucked through a time portal and lands in 1300AD, whereupon he is captured by a medieval army led by Lord Arthur who believes him to be in league with his enemy.

After battling a deadite in a pit, Ash is set free and celebrated as a hero by Arthur and his men. He also meets and strikes up a friendship with Sheila, the sister of a fallen knight. Upon learning that he must find and use the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (Book of the Dead, as seen in the previous films) to return to his time, Ash sets off to locate it but things don’t go quite to plan. Whilst running through a haunted forest, he ends up crashing into a mirror inside a windmill and, in a superb sequence, is attacked by several mini clones of himself. Eventually one of them creates a full-size evil version of Ash and is soon uniting all of the deadites together to form the Army of Darkness.

Infamously, Universal Studios wrestled control from Raimi during post-production as they were unhappy with the downbeat ending that the director had shot, which depicted Ash drinking too much special potion and waking up in a post-apocalyptic future landscape. Another ‘happy’ ending, set in a supermarket with Ash recalling events of the film to a colleague, was filmed during reshoots and Army of Darkness was released in the US with that ending. Raimi was able to restore his preferred ending for international releases, including the UK, and subsequent home video releases have included both cuts.

This one sheet was illustrated by one of my favourite artists, Renato Casaro, an Italian with a prolific movie poster output that lasted over 35 years. He began his career in 1953, aged 19, at the famous Studio Favalli in Rome and would go on to design and paint posters for many of the biggest directors in the world. His skill at accurately portraying actors and his brilliant use of colour and composition saw him much in demand from studios and actors alike.

His artwork has featured on posters used in multiple countries, including Japan, Germany, USA as well as in his native Italy. Check out the incredible amount of work on his official website here, which also features a biography of the artist. The other posters I have collected by Casaro can be seen by clicking here.

This artwork also features on the UK quad and a few other European posters, including the Spanish release. The American one sheet features an excellent illustration by Michael Hussar.