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Press - 2005
New films filch ideas for posters, ads and plotlines
If you think you've seen Vin Diesel's new movie, "The Pacifier,'' somewhere
before, that's because you probably have.
It was called "Kindergarten Cop,'' with a splash of "Mr. Nanny.'' The former was
a hit for Arnold Schwarzenegger; the latter, not so great for one Hulk Hogan.
But Diesel's movie does more than simply swipe the plots from those flicks -
even "The Pacifier'' poster is a copycat.
In the poster for "Kindergarten Cop,'' kids tug at Arnold as he gamely plays the
proverbial undercover fish out of water. In the "Pacifier'' poster, kids dangle
from Diesel as he gamely plays the, yes, proverbial undercover fish out of
water.
This seems like a blatant example, though it's not the only one.
Disney's "The Ice Princess,'' starring Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn on TV's
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer'') and premiering March 18, borrows slightly from the
not-so-family-friendly 1984 film "Angel'' - each poster sports the lead actress
in back-to-back poses showing her before and after character transformation.
At online forum icollectmovieposters.com, one chat participant noted that many
contemporary films have used the same two- or three-panel horizontal strip
design, with each strip showing one of the stars and/or a background scene, all
above the main title. Among them: "Gattaca,'' "Head in the Clouds,'' "The Hot
Spot,'' "Ladder 49'' and "A League of Their Own.''
Hollywood observers note that the same movie studios that churn out similar
plots also resort to the same types of ads and promotions over and over again.
"There's not much originality in movie posters,'' said Rudy Franchi of The
Nostalgia Factory.
His Charlestown-based company is a well-known hub for movie memorabilia and the
official supplier of movie poster images to the Internet Movie Database.
"Movie posters have been getting more and more boring because of legal
reasons,'' Franchi said.
A former employee of Twentieth Century Fox, Franchi said rules regarding the
billing of actors on movie titles, as well as the type sizes and location of
names and titles, have "sort of handicapped the poster designers.''
"This has created what we call `Big-Head Posters,' '' he said. "A lot of these
posters are two big heads with the title in the background.''
Not that all movie posters lack artistic merit.
Franchi called the designs for the upcoming "House of Wax'' horror flick "very
handsome,'' and he also finds appeal in the early poster for Steven Spielberg's
update of "War of the Worlds'' - "where it looks like the Grinch is holding
(Earth) up.''
But it takes powerful directors who have control over their artistic vision to
create quality posters.
Even that doesn't stop you from the occasional double take.
The look of Drew Struzan, whose artistic work includes posters for the "Indiana
Jones,'' "Star Wars'' and "Harry Potter'' franchises, is very striking and
distinctive. But as Franchi notes, "You'd recognize it right away. It all sort
of looks the same.''
And in a famous case, Spike Lee's idea to pay homage to the 1959 courtroom drama
"Anatomy of a Murder'' got spiked because his 1995 poster for "Clockers'' looked
too much like its inspiration. Lee added mug shots and other art to later
versions of his poster.
Saul Bass, who created the "Anatomy of a Murder'' poster as well as an entire
font named for Alfred Hitchcock, told Entertainment Weekly at the time: "It's
flattering that someone would look back and say it's terrific. But I'm also
puzzled. Do these people have such paucity of imagination - and the chutzpah -
that they would do this and think it would remain undetected?''
The answer, apparently, is yes.
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