Quentin Tarantino’s first novel is clearly not the stuff of a first time writer, and it has plenty to say. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the twice Academy Award-winning writer taking another look at his grandiose mix of Hollywood fairy tale, historical pop culture nostalgia trip, and the wish-fulfillment fantasy dream. Tarantino is well-read and it shows. He’s sat with many a filmmaker from the 1960s era and it also shows. The novel, not a true novelization but something far superior, is his attempt at writing in the Elmore Leonard style. The result is a novel ten times as good as his giant-sized movie. His two Oscars for screenwriting should have clued us in. The book is available in two editions: one a pulp-style paperback, and the other a color photograph-filled hardcover that feels a lot like a Blu-ray with extra special features, including many deleted scenes. If you like pulp crime, and loved or merely liked the movie, you’ll want to give this a read. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is available now here at Amazon.
Only a few Hollywood movie stars have reached icon status as Clint Eastwood has, from TV actor and film star in Westerns to street-smart leading man and pop culture idol, playing against type and then back again, and onward to award-winning director. Eastwood has made his mark, and it makes sense that enough movie posters have featured his image and films to justify a book focused exclusively on the subject of the artwork instead of spotlighting any specific artist. Not so much a survey of artwork as much as a comprehensive guide to movie posters featuring the star, Clint Eastwood: Icon–The Essential Film Art Collectionis available this month in a revised and expanded edition for the first time in a decade.
In many ways Clint Eastwood: Icon would make for the ultimate auction catalog were all the items pictured for sale. But it’s more than that. Writer and compiler David Frangioni’s approach to collecting and his details about key posters will educate and inform even the passing film fan and collector. Film expert and professor Thomas Schatz provides commentary on the context of Eastwood and his films within each decade. Every area of collecting should be so lucky to have such a presentation in this format for its fans to admire. Frangioni and Schatz include references to the artists when known, which is rare over the course of these hundreds of images. The collection of work from these artists provides another niche study area for the history movie posters, including an international array of artists like Michelangelo Papuzza, Renato Casaro, Sanford Kossin, Peter Max, Jack Davis, Hans Braun, Lutz Peltzer, Lorenzo and Giuliano Nistri, Ron Lesser, John Alvin, Frank Frazetta, Bob Peak, Birney Lettick, Roger Huyssen, and Gerard Huerta. Definitely a few names movie poster and pop art fans will recognize.
The posters represented aren’t only those styles seen by audiences entering American movie theaters. These include many variations that appeared in theaters across the globe, some by artists whose names are lost to time, with decade-appropriate type styles and language to match. As time marched on, more and more posters featured photographic images of Eastwood from the films, or other marketing photos of the actor inserted with or without additional artwork and text. Why use a painting of Eastwood to advertise a Dirty Harry film when a photograph is most likely to reel in filmgoers?
The season two premiere of Stranger Things is only six weeks away. Since August Netflix has released several posters to get viewers back in prime throwback 1980s-mode. Netflix’s marketing team was careful to suggest their source material without being exact duplicates of past posters, but some are closer than others. It’s all about getting viewers prepped for another trip to the Upside Down, and a darker sophomore season. We’ve already seen the kids sporting Ghostbusters costumes in previews. And earlier posters carried images inspired by the work of motion picture poster artists that defined late 20th century film advertising, like John Alvin, Drew Struzan, and Bob Peak. It all started with the season two general homage to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and twelve character posters (all shown below). If you’ve ever collected movie posters, you know how close the creators got these to the fading prints after all these years, plus posters in the 1980s were often shipped folded to theaters just like many of their creations for the series this summer.
The new round of posters focuses even more on the horror pop culture with a nod to the B-movie genre. If these posters are any indication, adding to the Stephen King, John Carpenter, and Steven Spielberg callbacks throughout season one, expect even more horror in season two a la Sam Raimi, Wes Craven, and even Paul Michael Glaser (that’s right Starsky from Starsky and Hutch directed Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Running Man). We’re not sure how The Running Man fits in other than a unique poster to emulate, but maybe the action will be kicked into higher gear this year.
So check out these posters (below and above) and their inspirations from Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, Ridley Scott’s Alien, Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead, Glaser’s The Running Man, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, Stephen King’s Firestarter, and the Stand By Me adaptation of King’s original story, The Body. The Elm Street match-up may be the best because of the common show’s Nancy reference. But the picture they all form is pretty clear. Michael Jackson’s Thriller backed the summer’s best preview from San Diego Comic-Con 2017 seen here. Darkness and nostalgia are coming.
Last year CBS Consumer Products reached out to fifty artists of varying backgrounds and media across ten countries and commissioned works for an art exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the original Star Trek series. The result was featured at Michael J. Wolf Fine Arts gallery in San Diego’s gaslight district during San Diego Comic-Con this year, followed by a stint in Las Vegas for the annual Star Trek convention. It then heads to the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto from mid-August to early September before heading to the England for the Destination Star Trek Europe convention in October and continuing its worldwide tour through August 2017.
Next week Titan Books is releasing an oversized coffee table edition to accompany the exhibition, featuring all fifty artists and their Star Trek contribution. Similar in design to the successful Star Trek: The Art of Juan Ortiz, reviewed here at borg.com, Star Trek: 50 Artists/50 Years, is a colorful, beautifully illustrated guide for the Star Trek fan that appreciates artists interpreting the franchise. The hardcover exhibition catalog showcases some artists known for their Star Trek work and others who have never dabbled in the Trek universe before. Media used in these interpretations include paper, sculpture, metal, ceramics, and textiles, some hand-created and others via computer. The book includes a foreword by Star Trek film director Nicholas Meyer, and interviews with the artists.
Paul Shipper’s “Star Trek Inception: The Cage”
Not surprisingly, the work of successful comic book cover artists Joe Corroney and J.K. Woodward is featured, Corroney with two vibrant retro style posters, and Woodward with a painting showing key Klingons throughout all the Star Trek series and films. A photograph incorporating the Vulcan salute by Leonard Nimoy was also included in the show. As with any non-juried exhibition, a few works don’t quite seem to stir the senses as the others, but those that do are of high-quality and well-conceived. Comic book artist and animator Dusty Abell’s poster thoughtfully includes an element of each of the 79 original episodes if the original series. It would be no surprise to find Viennese children’s illustrator Amir Abou-Roumié’s whimsical look at Star Trek characters in a future San Francisco, titled “Homestead,” at the Met. Disney, Hasbro, and DreamWorks freelance artist Sue Beatrice’s metal sculpture “On the Edge of Forever” is an exquisitely detailed timepiece featuring the starship Enterprise.
If you’ve watched any number of the documentaries or read about the artists that created classic movie posters in the 20th century, you can’t help but notice a subtext about the small circle of artists that became well known for their work. Ego and competition among artists is a recurring theme. In 2014 here at borg.com we looked at Drew Struzan via a documentary exclusively about him and his work. Three books discussed here are about Struzan’s contributions to movie poster art. A new book in 2014 chronicled works by John Alvin, reviewed here, and another book reviewed here documented the movie posters created for the Star Wars franchise alone. Originals of some lesser Bob Peak poster art are being offered at more than $6,000 here. In 2014 the greatest collection of movie posters ever assembled was offered at auction, discussed here. Movie posters are still popular and do not appear to be fading away anytime soon.
In most accounts and interviews, movie poster artists of the past 50 years lament the decline of the movie poster. But has that ever really been true? Isn’t every artist in every medium always faced with competition from new creators and new tools of the trade? Every year countless artists design movie posters that entice moviegoers. Should we really be discounting creators who aren’t using pencils or paints to create the final product? And is it enough for fans of movie posters that options like Mondo and new, up-and-coming poster artists are looking back and providing updated views of films via their poster releases?
Director Kevin Burke’s latest look at movie posters, called 24X36 to reflect the size of the standard marquee print, focuses on two classic poster artists, John Alvin and Roger Castel, Alvin known for countless posters for blockbusters and Castel for his often reproduced Jaws poster art. The documentary also steps forward with interviews and discussions with more recent artists in the craft, including William Stout, Jason Edmiston, Laurent Durieux, and Gary Pullin. We’ve looked at the works of Laurent Durieux here at borg.com previously.
