When is the last time you saw a movie poster with the name upside down?
It may seem minor to you, but I think it’s an interesting concession to the new media world and the idea that audiences want to be challenged… or to at least feel challenged.
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” ā some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it ā I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury ā he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” ā and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging ā I was with her at that moment ā she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy namedā” “Yeah, sure ā you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that Iām on the phone with you now, after all thatās been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didnāt seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. Thereās not a case of that. He wasnāt using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had ā if that were what the accusation involved ā the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. Iām not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, āYou know, itās not this, itās thatā? Because ā let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. TimesĀ piece, thatās what it lacked. Thatās what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
They started out with this but then went to really boring right-side-up, subsumed by a tidal wave billboards (at least in LA). I liked the upside-down version better, it made you take more notice.
It looks even cooler when you’re walking by the poster on the subway… I was in a hurry to get somewhere but I literally stopped and marvelled at it for 30 seconds or so cause I was so impressed.
the name’s upside down? š
I think they should change the title to NODI3SOd
I like when they let the poster people try new things. I’m tired to see the Europeans get the best posters when all we usually get is a picture of each of the big names on the film.
I’ve been looking at that poster for a couple of months now. I didn’t think it was that radical.
And I don’t think it has anything to do with new/old media, i think it just has to do with the fact that it makes visual sense to see the name upside down considering, ya know, the ship is too.
…?
You can clearly see in the boat’s shadow the figure of Darth Vader.
Kellie Pickler says: What’s a NODI3SOd?
Well, who was going to be the star they were selling this on, Kurt Russell? I think that’s what gave the poster guys the lisence to do something interesting.
But don’t worry, the dvd cover will have the same old “star’s heads” art – like they did by scrapping the cool Confessions of a Dangerous Mind art for the stupid one highlighting Drew Barrymore and George Clooney.
Worst poster this year, I think, was LUcky Number Slevin… the Weinstein Co. needs to find someone new to do their posters.
yes, thats a trend i want to support. Challenge them with a poster, then deliver a movie that’s about as challenging as beating a third grader at Jeapordy.
While I commend Warner Bros for doing something a LITTLE different, my kudos are along the lines of a underplayed thumbs up versus Poland’s backslap. And I don’t find anything “new media” about it.
I think the billboards are actually a little more clever, showing nothing more than a giant cresting wave with the words “MAY DAY” inside the wave and much, much smaller “Poseidon” centered at the bottom. That is actually an example of an ad that makes think for a second or two (sorry I can’t send a pic, but if you live in LA you can see it going Westbound on Wilshire, just above the AVCO theater in Westwood).
This isn’t even the best “upside POSEIDON” poster out there. The British quad poster is much better – darker and makes you feel the weight of ship over you, like you are going down with it too. To see it, go to:
http://www.movieposter.com/poster/MPW-17663/Poseidon.html
Or better yet, the “6/6/06” billboards are head & shoulders above simple upside down wording when it comes to making everyone suss out what it means. Especially when it comes to those who haven’t grown up with THE OMEN in theaters or playing on tv all the time (granted the whole thing seems like a release date in search of a reason to exist).
Speaking of THE OMEN: now that he has starred in a remake of one of the top thrillers of the 60’s & one from the 70’s, what 1980’s paranoia-drenched thriller remake will be next for Liev Schreiber? I would say FATAL ATTRACTION, but it doesn’t really fit the pattern, not large-scale enough.
If I remember correctly, the poster for BATS had the title upside down, and I remember one particular bright girl that I worked with at the theater saying, “When is Stab coming out?”
This film will have to pull out all and every stop if it wants to break thru and succeed. This is only the beginning. Because it just smells like a huge bomb and it has to overcome that perception.
the only aspect of this poster that challenges me is that I can see Wolfgang Petersen’s name on it.
Shelly Winters swimming underwater was the highlight of seeing the old flick. I wonder if there will be any touching idiosynchrasy to like in this movie.
This smells like a bomb as much as The Day After Tommorrow bombed.
Which means this’ll make boatloads of moola. The trailer has a nice pace.
I see Poseiden actually, ironically enough, doing very similar business to “Troy”. It just feels like it.
I saw the original Poseidon Adventure when I was, what, 10? It was on tv and it happened to be on and jesus christ that movie freaked me out. I thought I was the only one until my best friend recently saw the trailer with me at some movie and said the original freaked her out too when she was 10.
That whole Omen 666 thing reminds me of all the computer programs or company names that sound like they’ve made up a bunch of words to fit a simpler word. Like BASIC or whatever.
First I’ve seen this poster — none of the megaplexes I go to have it up yet. I have seen the trailer and it tells me
Remake + Name-Checking = Razzie Hopeful!
Awwwggg, would you stop with the name-checking? How else are people going to know “from the director of The Perfect Storm” which is a perfectly valid thing to say, not to mention a very good marketing idea? What is it that bothers you so much about it?
Actually, the namechecking thing is horrible with this movie because it doesn’t just say “from the director of The Perfect Storm and Troy” is says
From the ACCLAIMED director of The Perfect Storm and Troy.
Maybe he is acclaimed, but not for those movies.
Should the German title of this film be “Das Flut”?