The final U.S. 1-sheet poster for
Skyfall has been unveiled on the official
James Bond Facebook page, using the same artwork as
the UK quad, but configured slightly differently. (I prefer the quad—though it is interesting how little of the gun barrel is required after so many years to convey the 007 logo.) The more prominent dust (free from a credits block) on this one does make the reclining Daniel Craig seem more in action than at rest, which is good. All in all, it still strikes me a an odd pose to go with for the film's main campaign, but I do like how it recalls one of the silhouettes used in the
1980s Berkley paperback line of Bond books (the one used on
Goldfinger).
Ha! I can't believe i didn't instantly think of the Berkley silhouette when I saw this poster. Thanks as always, Tanner. :)
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while, too, John. It was nagging at me when the UK image was released, but I didn't put it together until the US one came out. And then, of course, I had your excellent post about those covers to refer to to double-check!
ReplyDelete"Spare" has been the watchword for one-sheets in the Craig era, and I guess at this point in the life of the series all you need is Craig and a giant "007" to get the point across. But to be perfectly honest, I like the international one-sheet (which was just revealed today) better. And I prefer the teaser to both of them. Geez, even in the '70s Bond never wore a blue tuxedo.
ReplyDeleteThe comparison to the Berkley silhouettes is very apt indeed, and I enjoyed reading the Book Bond's write-up -- it was a nice coincidence since in recent weeks I've started trying to track down the Berkley paperbacks for my collection. The Berkley Diamonds Are Forever and Thunderball were the first Bond novels I ever owned, back in '89-'90, and along with the Bantam John le Carre paperbacks from the same period (when Bantam reissued le Carre's novels with covers based on the design for the hardcover edition of The Russia House) they embody the thrill of reading spy fiction better than any other cover art I’ve ever encountered.
By the way, Tanner, I know I’m several days late on this, but I posted a comment to your post about Doug Liman taking on Olen Steinhauer’s The Tourist. Short version: very interesting news indeed.
Maybe the 70s Bond didn't wear a blue tuxedo, but the 90s Bond did! A big deal was made at the time of GoldenEye that Brosnan's Brioni tux was actually a very dark navy. Then again, it looked black for all intents and purposes, so it certainly wasn't as blue as this Tom Ford one! I liked the British Bond character poster (also in that tux) best so far. Well, and the original teaser with Craig in the gun barrel. The combination of the gun barrel and the tux image just isn't quite working for me.
ReplyDeleteSpare has been a very good watchword for Craig posters overall, though, I think! While of COURSE I prefer the busy, colorful art posters of the past (which sadly I fear we're never going back to), each Craig movie has had at least one great, spare poster image. I loved the CR teaser with Bond sitting at the blackjack table. And the QOS image with Bond's long shadow holding the machine gun really served its purpose well, even if I couldn't see hanging that one on my wall. Both are infinitely preferable to some of the terrible Brosnan-era photo montages! (There were some good Brosnan-era photo montages as well, though. I was always a fan of the international version of TWINE. And Brosnan got some great advance posters, like the flaming girl or the gun on the ice.)