The 50 Greatest Trailers of All Time
“There are many ways to measure a trailer’s quality, from the persuasiveness of its salesmanship to the cleverness of its copywriting. Ultimately, we decided that the best trailers are those that most effectively combine art and commerce, and that sell and entertain with equal skill. Some of the previews on our list are for classic films, but many are for mediocrities. Some are for absolutely bombs. That speaks to the magic of the trailers. You could argue that these clips play to our basest instincts in order to convince us to see movies that aren’t always good. But considered from another perspective, trailers provide a version of cinema that’s essentially utopian, in which every film is perfect, if only for two and a half minutes.”
I hate the current trend of giving away the entire story in the trailer.
If only they all were more like the trailer for Alien.
![zucherman:
The Brothers Bloom.
Drawing by me. Everything else (read: turning a drawing into a bona-fide movie poster, from Font to Typeset to Layout to god-knows-what-else-this-entails-because-it’s-utterly-beyond-me) by Marke Johnson, The Made Shop.
My cousin Rian Johnson (the acclaimed Writer and Director of 2005’s BRICK) has recently finished his second feature film, The Brothers Bloom, which hits theaters this May. It is a con man movie, and it is simply beautiful, adventurous, tragic, and utterly hilarious. (If these inadequate adjectives feel worn and somewhat grab-bag, I assure you that I use them very intentionally, and not at all lightly.) This film is, in my opinion, everything a movie should be. And I unabashedly love it.
Anyway, Rian initially hired my amateur ass to draw Mark Ruffalo’s character’s journal for the film (which meant flying me out to Serbia for two weeks to work directly under the brilliant [and, it should be noted, always impeccably dressed] Production Designer behind Children of Men (Children of Men, for Chrissake!), which I assure you did nothing for my nerves, especially since the time-change confusion led to me calling and waking him up at 5 AM on my first day of work). And, so anyway, after flying me out to work on some of the art in the movie, Rian asked me to draw an unofficial poster for it — a sort of special treat for the fans and the people who made the film. And so we endeavored to create a good old-fashioned Hollywood poster, like how they made them before Photoshop came along.
The poster took me three months to complete, involved several ill-conceived iterations, and provided me with the I-shit-you-not Job Description of having to look at lots of pictures of the beautiful and talented Rachel Weisz day in and day out, since I kept on fucking up capturing her likeness. (Certain psychologists would no doubt suggest that I kept fucking this up on purpose, so that I could keep on being paid to essentially look at pictures of Rachel Weisz while studying her beautiful-and-talented face in detail. I’ll only note that, while I don’t feel qualified to comment on this, and while I think certain psychologists are full of shit (I wasn’t being paid by the hour, for god’s sake), I did draw at least seven versions of Weisz before I felt reasonably happy with the results.)
Anyway, I ought to tip my hat right now to the man I stole the most from in this process. I studied the hell out of Richard Amsel’s film posters for weeks, chainsmoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, drinking whiskey, and then in general becoming very well-acquainted with that peculiar and inevitable phenomenon known to every young artist, where the initial feeling of sheer inspiration one feels at seeing a great work of art turns quite rapidly into despondent discouragement.
Then I usually drank more whiskey and slurred something along the lines of [sic]: ”Ehhh … Fuck Art … fuckshing … fucksing Amshnel and his awesome mmovie posterss,” before promptly passing out.
(Richard Amsel, I should point out, is the incredible artist responsible for such instantly iconic posters as The Sting, Chinatown, and Raiders of the Lost Arc, to name only a few.)
Anyway, here is the poster, and everyone who loves anything, or holds anything dear in this life, should see the film when it comes out.
Or at least anyone who loves great movies should.
http://www.brothersbloom.com/meetthebrothers/
This poster is wonderful, and I can’t tell you how excited I am for this film.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/qU0vTIvWim73vdq4Eg1Hg13Fo1_250.jpg)
The Brothers Bloom.
Drawing by me. Everything else (read: turning a drawing into a bona-fide movie poster, from Font to Typeset to Layout to god-knows-what-else-this-entails-because-it’s-utterly-beyond-me) by Marke Johnson, The Made Shop.
My cousin Rian Johnson (the acclaimed Writer and Director of 2005’s BRICK) has recently finished his second feature film, The Brothers Bloom, which hits theaters this May. It is a con man movie, and it is simply beautiful, adventurous, tragic, and utterly hilarious. (If these inadequate adjectives feel worn and somewhat grab-bag, I assure you that I use them very intentionally, and not at all lightly.) This film is, in my opinion, everything a movie should be. And I unabashedly love it.
Anyway, Rian initially hired my amateur ass to draw Mark Ruffalo’s character’s journal for the film (which meant flying me out to Serbia for two weeks to work directly under the brilliant [and, it should be noted, always impeccably dressed] Production Designer behind Children of Men (Children of Men, for Chrissake!), which I assure you did nothing for my nerves, especially since the time-change confusion led to me calling and waking him up at 5 AM on my first day of work). And, so anyway, after flying me out to work on some of the art in the movie, Rian asked me to draw an unofficial poster for it — a sort of special treat for the fans and the people who made the film. And so we endeavored to create a good old-fashioned Hollywood poster, like how they made them before Photoshop came along.
The poster took me three months to complete, involved several ill-conceived iterations, and provided me with the I-shit-you-not Job Description of having to look at lots of pictures of the beautiful and talented Rachel Weisz day in and day out, since I kept on fucking up capturing her likeness. (Certain psychologists would no doubt suggest that I kept fucking this up on purpose, so that I could keep on being paid to essentially look at pictures of Rachel Weisz while studying her beautiful-and-talented face in detail. I’ll only note that, while I don’t feel qualified to comment on this, and while I think certain psychologists are full of shit (I wasn’t being paid by the hour, for god’s sake), I did draw at least seven versions of Weisz before I felt reasonably happy with the results.)
Anyway, I ought to tip my hat right now to the man I stole the most from in this process. I studied the hell out of Richard Amsel’s film posters for weeks, chainsmoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, drinking whiskey, and then in general becoming very well-acquainted with that peculiar and inevitable phenomenon known to every young artist, where the initial feeling of sheer inspiration one feels at seeing a great work of art turns quite rapidly into despondent discouragement.
Then I usually drank more whiskey and slurred something along the lines of [sic]: ”Ehhh … Fuck Art … fuckshing … fucksing Amshnel and his awesome mmovie posterss,” before promptly passing out.
(Richard Amsel, I should point out, is the incredible artist responsible for such instantly iconic posters as The Sting, Chinatown, and Raiders of the Lost Arc, to name only a few.)
Anyway, here is the poster, and everyone who loves anything, or holds anything dear in this life, should see the film when it comes out.
Or at least anyone who loves great movies should.
This poster is wonderful, and I can’t tell you how excited I am for this film.
I never realized how intense Madea had gotten.
On a side note, I’d like to submit this poster to the 2009 Unintentional* Comedy Awards.
*Acutally, I’m not so sure that this isn’t unintentional.
The first Jurassic Park should have a better rating, say…100%.
