The Wolverine gets two hilariously terrible posters...

Well if you're not going to make a great poster, you might as well go the other route and make a piece of marketing art so terrible that everyone will *still* be talking about it all day.  There isn't much more to say other than to point and laugh.  The trailer drops on Wednesday.  Anyway, enjoy...

Scott Mendelson

The Hangover III gets a promising, if potentially misleading trailer.

It's tempting to be somewhat intrigued by the darker tone of this initial teaser for The Hangover part III.  But let us recall that the first act or so of The Hangover part II teased a proverbial Heart of Darkness journey only to cop out during its second half into a tiresome retread of the first film.  Still, if this is really the series finale, then Todd Phillips arguably has complete creative freedom to make whatever movie he wants, including the kind of movie that I'd argue he wanted to make last time around.  Still, this does look a little better than the last film and John Gooddman's inclusion is promising (I'd argue Paul Giamatti was the best thing about the last time around).  Three final thoughts.  First of all, the final gag is a genuine winner.  Seocnd of all, what exactly is the logic of Warner Bros. not waiting a week and attaching this to their The Incredible Burt Wonderstone?  Did they rush it out so they could attach it to prints of Oz: The Great and Poweful? Finally, I can only hope (foolishly I know) that Warner Bros. chooses not to cut any more trailers for this picture, as I can't imagine anyone not knowing whether or not they want to see the movie at this point regardless.  Let's hope they keep whatever surprises the film has in store out of the marketing for as long as they can.  The Hangover part III opens Memorial Day weekend.  As always, we'll see.

Scott Mendelson

PS - I love the poster they dropped yesterday.  I hope whomever drew that Enemy Mine poster back in 1985 gets royalties.

Fast & Furious 6 gets poster and most boring title possible.

They just couldn't wait one more day could they?  Universal is of course debuting the first teaser for the sixth Fast and the Furious film tomorrow during the Super Bowl, and the prime reason for curiosity was discovering what the title was going to be.  Well, wonder no longer, cause Universal had to release the above teaser poster and spoil all the fun.  And really, Universal, Fast & Furious 6?  That was the best you could come up with?  They could have gone with any number of more creative titles for this sixth installment.  And while my personal pick, Faster & Furiousier, is probably never going to happen (followed of course by Fastest and Furiousest), the producers certainly had license to have a bit more fun than they've obviously chosen to do.  Also, boring title aside, we have a synopsis, which takes the story in the most logical next direction (the gang teams up with Dwayne Johnson in exchange for pardons), but it's also a little odd when you consider the last film.  

If you recall, the whole point behind the big $100 million drug money heist was to earn the financial security needed to not live on the lam anymore.  Yet now we learn that they are basically suffering from the same 'this is no way to raise a family' issues they had last time.  Minor issues to be sure, likely more to do with the generic plot synopsis than any real script problems, but I do hope that part 6 is indeed a continuation rather than a rehash.  What made Fast Five more than just hollow action stunts is the attention to continuity from the previous installments that gave the film an emotional kick that it otherwise would not have had.  Anyway, Fast & Furious 6 opens May 24th, against The Hangover part III.  One of those should damn well move since they are both targeting the same demographic, but that's not my problem.  I'll post the Super Bowl teaser sometime tomorrow evening.  So what would be your pick for a better, more creative title for this sixth entry?  Oh, and the official synopsis is below (spoiler warning if you didn't stay for the end credits of Fast Five).

Scott Mendelson

Since Dom (Diesel) and Brian’s (Walker) Rio heist toppled a kingpin’s empire and left their crew with $100 million, our heroes have scattered across the globe. But their inability to return home and living forever on the lam have left their lives incomplete.

Meanwhile, Hobbs (Johnson) has been tracking an organization of lethally skilled mercenary drivers across 12 countries, whose mastermind (Evans) is aided by a ruthless second-in-command revealed to be the love Dom thought was dead, Letty (Rodriguez). The only way to stop the criminal outfit is to outmatch them at street level, so Hobbs asks Dom to assemble his elite team in London. Payment? Full pardons for all of them so they can return home and make their families whole again.

When the words don't match the face: Beautiful Creatures banner poster brings to light a poster art pet peeve.

This is a perfectly satisfactory billboard poster for the upcoming Beautiful Creatures.  It has its title, its release date, a tagline, and a roll-call of the elder vets and younger newbies (plus young vet Emmy Rossum) that will play in the southern gothic supernatural sandbox.  Everybody looks snazzy and it's a solid sell.  There's just one annoying problem.  They are exactly 1 for 7 when it comes for accuracy of labeling.  I've known Jeremy Irons as an actor for thirty years and I know he doesn't look like some kid aiming to be the next Robert Pattinson.  And I've had a thing for Emmy Rossum since her Mystic River/Day After Tomorrow/Phantom of the Opera break-out led to a near-decade of relative obscurity before bouncing back on Showtime's Shameless.  She does not look like a younger variation on Michael Angarano.  And while I don't know offhand who Thomas Mann is, I know he probably doesn't look like a dead-ringer for Viola Davis, who in turn is not the young Caucasian girl at the center of the poster.  By random chance, Emma Thompson is actually correctly labeled.  But the rest are all very wrong.  Yes I get the poster design, which puts the young girl at the center and then slowly branches out with the various forces of good or evil that will try to influence her destiny (IE - evil Emmy Rossum versus good Emma Thompson or something like that).  But any number of posters that screw this up in any given year don't even have that excuse.

Oz: The Great and Powerful gets four new character posters. Why I might owe Disney a slight apology.

This banner dropped awhile ago, but I never got around to posting it so I'm using it at the top for convenience.  After the jump you'll get the four character posters that dropped on Friday but officially dropped from Disney on Monday.  In my essay last week about The Little Mermaid 3D, I included this film as a Disney property that was technically targeting boys but had female appeal.  I still stand by that statement, as the film is clearly James Franco's journey.  But it must be stated that the film also has three major female characters, all played by actresses of note and at least one of them playing something other than the love interest (I'm presuming some misdirection with Mila Kunis being revealed as the main 'wicked witch').  It doesn't mean I don't think the film looks a little iffy or that Franco seems to be attempting to give a bad performance, but it does mean that we'll get a major would-be tent pole where the major female characters outnumber the major male ones.  That frankly doesn't happen all that often so it deserves notice when it does.  Also of note is Michelle Williams's role in this, as it represents the acclaimed actresses's first tentpole appearance and her first major role in an overtly commercial picture since oh, Halloween: H20 in 1998 (you could say the superb Dick in 1999, but that flopped anyway).  Yes I know she cameoed in Shutter Island and did a voice in Where the Wild Things Are, but you know what I mean! Anyway, the character posters are after the jump.  And no, I will not be posting the 12-second teaser for this Sunday's Super Bowl commercial.

Scott Mendelson

The Lone Ranger gets a new poster...

No, I'm not posting a 21-second preview of a 90-second Super Bowl trailer.  But I will post this rather nice new poster, which seems to the be the official theatrical one-sheet.  So yeah, along with Iron Man 3 and Oz: The Great and Powerful, Disney seems to be going full-steam ahead with this Sunday's game.  I know G.I. Joe: Retribution has a preview debuting during the game as well, along with Oblivion, World War Z, and allegedly Star Trek Into Darkness.  But the big teaser debut will be for Universal's sixth Fast and the Furious film.  This clip will be notable both because it's the first footage anyone has seen of the film and because we might finally find out what the title of the fifth sequel is going to be.

Scott Mendelson

Beautiful Creatures gets a new poster, a new release date, and a new plot-heavy second trailer.

What's interesting about this second look at what is arguably the first of the new wave of 'next Twilight/Hunger Games' franchise-starters is that it sells itself as a story specifically centered on a young girl in the South who is fought over as a result of her supernatural powers and her would-be destiny.  When I wrote about the wave of female-centric young-lit adaptations a couple months ago, I was informed that this movie, or at least the book that it's based on, is actually told from the boy's point-of-view.  You wouldn't know it from this trailer.  And I would argue that it is almost noteworthy that Warner Bros. is trying to trick audiences into thinking that it's a female-pov story.  Anyway, marketing gimmicks aside, this still looks like a solid piece of supernatural hokum.  Come what may, the cast (Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson, Viola Davis, Emmy Rossum) should be more than enough to do the heavy lifting if the young kids (Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert) can't pick up the slack (not presuming they can't of course, Ehrenreich was fine in Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro).  The "big" news is that it's been moved one day up to February 14th, and it's clear that Warner Bros. wants this to be the date-movie of choice for those otherwise uninterested in yet-another Die Hard film.  Will it work?  Depending on how cheap this one was, it may not matter.  Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend is a holiday weekend where a number of big films can flourish alongside each other (witness 2010, where Valentine's Day, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and The Wolfman all opened to over $30 million).  Anyway, Beautiful Creatures opens on February 14, 2013.  As always, we'll see. If you have any thoughts on the matter, do share them below...

Scott Mendelson 

The Host (1 of 3 'next Twilight's) gets 3 theme posters.

Yahoo Movies just debuted three new theme-specific posters for one of three major young-adult literature adaptations dropping this year.  The clear advantage that it has over Beautiful Creatures and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is that it's based of course on book written by Stephanie Meyer, she of Twilight fame.  Saoirse Ronan is the real deal, William Hurt always has my attention, and Andrew Niccol seems an uncommonly good match for the material.  This could be Open Road's shot at the big time, the same way Twilight elevated Summit Entertainment just a couple years into its existence.  Anyway, The Host debuts on March 29, 2013.  As always, we'll see. For those who care, a synopsis is after the jump.

Scott Mendelson

Star Trek Into Darkness gets a very 'Chris Nolan' poster.

When I wrote 3.5 years ago that Paramount hoped that the inevitable Star Trek 2 would "pull a Dark Knight", I didn't realize how literal I was apparently being.  Coupled with the teaser trailer attached to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Beginning and a 9-minute IMAX sneak peak attached to IMAX prints of same, this first teaser poster shows Paramount is copying the Chris Nolan Dark Knight playbook to a tee.  Snickering about obvious similarities aside, this is a very stylish and impressive poster.  It's the first official glimpse at Benedict Cumberbatch as 'He who has not yet been named', with implications that he does score a big win at some point in the picture.  So yes, it's a poster in the vein of the last three Chris Nolan films.  But  that doesn't mean it's not a very effective piece of marketing and/or art.

Scott Mendelson

The Wolverine gets a stylized teaser poster.

Thanks to Slashfilm for the 'get'.  This is a nice piece of stylized comic book art for what is looking to be a potentially interesting comic book film.  We all know that the film will take place *after* the X-Men series and we know that James Mangold seems to be trying to craft a character study first/action film second picture that just happens to be a comic book spin-off.  Of course, there is a chance that the melodrama-in-Japan narrative will turn out being a bit silly.  I can't speak to the source material, but the episode of the otherwise superb Wolverine and the X-Men that centered around Logan's adventures in Japan is hands-down the worst episode of the 26-episode run (the creators openly make fun of it on the commentary).  Still, whether or not the world needs yet another 'Let's give Logan his own film!' entry, it does seem that the cylinders are firing a bit hotter this time around.  At the very least, it'll give us another fantastic video game spin-off.  As for when we'll see a trailer, assuming Fox actually attaches it to a Fox release, the most likely option is to hold off until the February 14th debut of A Good Day to Die Hard unless Fox can cut a green-band trailer that would be appropriate in front of Life of Pi in three weeks.  The Wolverine, as the poster states, comes out July 26th, 2013.  As always, we'll see.

Scott Mendelson

Iron Man 3 gets a teaser poster and a synopsis.

The trailer drops tonight at midnight, so I'll try to have it posted tomorrow morning.  Anyway, here is the first teaser poster, with the synopsis after the jump.

Scott Mendelson

Watch/Discuss: Tom Cruise's Jack Reacher gets a second somewhat generic trailer.

Putting aside the whole damsel-in-distress subplot (Rosamund Pike arguably deserves better), this all feels so... small-scale for someone like Cruise.  It looks pretty amusing, with a strong cast (Robert Duvall, David Oyelowo, Richard Jenkins, and Warner Herzog as the villain) and pulpy dialogue to spare.  But the million-dollar question is whether or not the never-terribly imposing Tom Cruise can pull off such a relentless bad-ass.  It's still an open question after this trailer frankly.  It's no secret that I'm as big a Cruise fan/defender as anyone, but he seems to be trying *so* hard, and not in a good way.  And if I may nitpick, the tagline arguably should be "The law has limits.  He doesn't."  "He does not." isn't nearly as blunt and to-the-point.  Still, assuming this Christopher McQuarrie film didn't cost more than $40 million, I'm all for a bit of old-school R-rated pulp.  Oh wait, it's PG-13, cost $50 million, and runs 130 minutes!!!  Okay then, make of that what you will.  Long story short, if I'm going to see a Jason Statham film, it probably ought to star Jason Statham.  Anyway, Jack Reacher opens December 21st.  As always, we'll see.

Scott Mendelson

Les Miserables gets character posters and a very familiar theatrical one-sheet. Can't friggin wait...!

The four character posters, highlighting the four lead actors/characters (Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfriend, and likely Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway) are after the jump.  I have little to add only to repeating my foaming-at-the-mouth excitement from earlier discussions of this project.  December 25th, or whenever Universal lets me see this thing, can't come soon enough.  The above comparison, which basically speaks for itself, came from Average Film Reviews.

Scott Mendelson

The Gangster Squad gets a second silly trailer along with some very Caucasian character posters.

This still looks like a bunch of kids playing dress-up and acting out juvenile cops-and-robbers fantasies.  Think Bugsy Malone remaking LA Confidential.  Maybe it's the weirdly 'let's appeal to the kids!' rap song on the soundtrack.  Maybe's it's Sean Penn acting as badly as he can.  Maybe it's the marketing department trying to sell the idea that we're supposed to *care* about the forbidden romance between Emma Stone (as "the girl", I hope merely as a favor to Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer) and Ryan Gosling.  But this frankly looks rather silly and, R-rating and apparent ultra-violence notwithstanding, like a stereo-typically CW-friendly remake of LA Confidential or Mulholland Falls (yes, I know the latter also starred Nick Nolte).  Anyway, also dropping over the last couple days are a bunch of posters.  The theatrical one-sheet is notible in that it resembles the cover of a low-budget straight-to-VHS gangster movie from the early 1990s.  Not *bad* so much as having a distinct 'B-movie' vibe.  The character posters are more disconcerting.  As you'll see after the jump, we've got nine actors getting billing and just five character posters.  Amusingly, the cast's lone African American castmember, Anthony Mackie, doesn't get his own poster, having to stand at the back of the proverbial bus behind box office dynamo Giovanni Ribisi.  What about Michael Pena?  Hispanics apparently don't get face time at all, as he, along with the very Caucasian Robert Patrick are completely MIA.  Stay classy Warner Bros, stay classy.

Scott Mendelson

Don't think, just run! Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part II gets a goofy but charmingly dumb poster.

Umm, I guess they are all going for a quick jog.  And I'd make the joke that "Edward, Jacob, and Bella are jogging right at *you*!", but this is the rare tent-pole franchise of the last three years to never go the 3D route (and kudos to Summit for that).  Yes, this is a silly poster, which is fitting for the end of a rather silly series that I have a certain fondness for.  I have an essay hidden away until closer before the film's release about why the Twilight Saga was actually a worthwhile and important franchise, but that can wait.  For now, let us feast our eyes on the almost courageously goofy one-sheet artwork, as well as the 'epic finale that will live forever' tagline that is both too wordy and too late.  This isn't Return of the King or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II.  This is a series finale that apparently climaxes with a battle about the same scale as the 'lets all kill each other in the snow' smack-down that closed The Golden Compass.  Still, in an era with any number of would-be Potter pretenders that never made it past their initial installments, The Twilight Saga should be proud that they made it to the end and got to summarily close the book on their own franchise in their own terms.  Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part II opens November 16th, 2012.  As always, we'll see, but I've come this far.

Scott Mendelson 

Steven Spielberg's Lincoln gets a poster and a synopsis...

I still wish Spielberg was willing to actually release this film prior to the election, and the fact that he won't points to a certain apolitcal tone to the film which would be unfortunate, if not outright gutless.  Still, Spielberg is on a roll of late and this is clearly one of the must-see films of the season.  I presume a trailer will follow pretty soon. The synopsis is after the jump.

Scott Mendelson

Zack Snyder's Man of Steel gets a teaser poster.

Zack Snyder's Superman reboot, Man of Steel, just premiered its teaser trailer at Comic Con and the reviews are mostly positive, with the somber, large-scale drama being compared to Terrence Malick.  Since the teaser premiering with The Dark Knight Rises is said to be pretty similar to what the SDCC attendees saw about an hour ago, I'll refrain from commentary until I can post the actual teaser (I'm hoping-against-hope that Warner screens said teaser before my Tuesday night Dark Knight Rises IMAX press screening). So yeah, here's the dark and moody poster.  Looks fine to me, but it's just a poster and we'll know more once we all get to see whatever it was that set Comic Con aflame.

Scott Mendelson

Lionsgate's The Possession gets a poster aping a key image in the Haunting In Connecticut poster...

Prior to The Expendables ($34.8 million) and The Hunger Games ($152 million), The Haunting In Connecticut had the second-biggest opening in Lionsgate history outside of the Saw sequels and Tyler Perry films.  With $23 million, it lagged only behind Fahrenheit 9/11 ($23.9 million) up until just two years ago.  As of today, it's still Lionsgate's 14th biggest debut and their fourth-biggest debut outside of those two franchises.  And with a final domestic gross of $55.3 million, it ranks as Lionsgate's 12th biggest grosser, and the fifth-biggest earned for Lionsgate outside of the above-noted Saw sequels/Tyler Perry projects.  Only The Lincoln Lawyer ($58 million), The Expendables ($103 million), Fahrenheit 9/11 ($119 million) and The Hunger Games have topped it among Lionsgate 'originals' (the Perry films that earned more were Why Did I Get Married Too?, Madea's Family Reunion, and Madea Goes to Jail).  I bring this up because we now have a poster for The Possession, which brazenly mimics the core imagery of The Haunting In Connecticut (which, I should add, is a surprisingly good character-driven ghost story).  We may decry the obvious thievery and probable misdirection, but looking at the numbers, I can't really blame them..

Scott Mendelson

The Dark Knight Rises gets one last (?) IMAX poster...

We're two weeks until this thing opens, so it's the final leg of the marketing lap.  I've personally wondered why Warner Bros and/or IMAX is even bothering at this point.  Is there really anyone who isn't sure if they want to see the film at this time, someone who might be swayed by a billboard or a bus station poster (or yet another television spot)?  I'm not a huge fan of this poster (it's visually intriguing but feels very cut-and-paste-ish), although I'm glad it once again has Batman front-and-center, as opposed to the odd Dark Knight posters which were visually richer but with odd artistic choices (a giant wheel being the center of focus, Batman posed like he just blew up a building, etc.).  Anyway, if the screening schedule follows suit to four years ago, there is a chance I may get to see this in just under a week, although more likely I'll be waiting for the conventional All-Media.  No matter, but since I'm going to be out of town the weekend it opens, I'm going to be very sad if I don't get an invite to a press screening.  Come what may, The Dark Knight Rises opens on July 20th.  As always, we'll see.  We'll *all* see.

Scott Mendelson

Sam Raimi's Oz: The Great and Powerful gets a teaser poster. Is it the next Alice In Wonderland or the next John Carter?

It's going to be a slow week at Mendelson's Memos this week, both because I have holiday-related family stuff and because I have a slight case of writer's block (I don't want to incessantly whine about The Amazing Spider-Man and not much else is happening news-wise at least until I see Savages on Friday morning).  Anyway, Disney dropped this poster for Sam Raimi's $200 million (!!!) Oz: The Great and Powerful, which is apparently a prequel to the original Wizard of Oz.  Disney is opening this on March 8th, 2013, or the same weekend that Disney's Alice In Wonderland debuted in 2010.  Let's hope they have better luck with this James Franco/Mila Kunis/Zach Braff/Michelle Williams/Rachel Weisz tent-pole than they did with their last first-weekend-of-March entry, John Carter.


Scott Mendelson