Griff Now Invisible in America

I was surprised to learn that Leon Ford's bittersweet superhero movie Griff the Invisible had been acquired for an American release. Surprised because it's no longer 1995 when this probably would have done gangbusters over there. Instead, it's 2011 where Animal Kingdom can barely gross $1million and where foreign films (in a "foreign language" or not) take a lot of time and effort to reach half of that.

Still, released it will be on 19 August. In to how many cinemas and in what cities I am not sure, but I really liked it so I'd suggest going to see it. And that's even if you are burnt out on superhero movies like X-Men: Born This Way, The Green Lantern, Thor and Captain America. Plus, it's got Ryan Kwanten being adorable so, ya know, there's that.

I always find it curious to note how differently movies are marketed in America compared to Australia, whether they're Australian films or American films. The American poster to the left there has gone for an obvious mass-quirk concept with the hand-drawn images that are such commonplace these days amongst independent dramadies like Griff. It does, however, get the superhero message across better than the local poster, although the very first, Cannes festival poster by Jeremy Saunders is still my favourite. I'm not sure why that one was never used in any official release capacity.

The trailers, on the other hand, are very different and yet essentially the same. Although the US trailer doesn't include the image to your right, which is probably my single favourite shot from a movie so far this year. And for a year that has had Meek's Cutoff, Jane Eyre and The Tree of Life amongst its visual splendours that's quite a big call.


Australian vs American
So, do tell American, will you be seeing Griff the Invisible when you get the chance?

Here It Is

I had heard great things out of the recent Bigpond Adelaide Film Festival about the poster for Beck Cole's Here I Am, but unfortunately the work hadn't been released anywhere online. Thankfully, Jeremy Saunders' Facebook page has released the work and it's fantastic, as one has come to expect.


Just so gorgeous. Look at all those colours shimmering on the face of first time actor Shai Pittman. She looks like mother of pearl. Contrast that to the fiery tribal red of the backdrop and that simple typeface (that works with the film's rather no fuss title) work together to make a great poster.

I recently had Julian Buckeridge write for my film section at Onya Magazine and he didn't like Here I Am at all, but word out of the festival was still very positive. We'll see how the film goes when it's released on 9 June. What do you think of the poster? Another winner or does everything Mr Saunders do just compare badly to Antichrist?

A Tweet for a Poster

Last week I posted a comment on Twitter regarding The King's Speech. With the film's American release imminent we still had not seen a poster and I was eagerly awaiting one. Take a look:


I wasn't making that quip for laughs, but because I honestly believed it would prove prophetic. And, whadaya know, we got the official poster (via Cinematical) today for The King's Speech and if this isn't "dull and boring" then I don't know what is!


Quite literally, the only compliment I can come up with is that at least the actors' names are in the correct position with their faces. So much dire Photoshopping! Everything looks so old! And cheap! Everyone's eyes looking in different directions! ETC!!!

Please, Jeremy Saunders or someone - come to the rescue!

Cleansing the Poster Palate

After the disaster that was the poster for Unstoppable I thought it best to cleanse and look at a few posters I've seen recently that I actually like.


I am really drawn to this poster, I must admit. It doesn't tell us anything about the movie, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for a small film such as arthouse audiences, and it appears to be rather simple, but I like that they've done something different and haven't simply fallen back on good ol' indie traps like big empty white space. My eyes have been glued to it for far longer than, say, this horrible poster, and that's a good thing. I'm not sure if it's a good poster, but I think I like it nonetheless.


Ya know, if I hadn't already seen the trailer for this Aussie horror flick then simply looking at the poster would have me instantly enthused. Unfortunately I have seen the trailer and so no amount of awesome Jeremy Saunders designs can make me excited for this movie. It looks terrible. The movie, not the poster. The poster is great. Yes, it's using the Grindhouse aesthetic (which is odd since the movie itself looks to be very clean, crisp and digital, not at all like a Grindhouse movie), but when a design is this fun to look at and imagine hanging up in a cinema I don't think it's worth complaining.


Not exactly a good poster, but I thought it was worth mentioning because it's not every day you see a movie poster with an erection on it. Great use of colour though.