Smokin’ Aces posters die nooit het daglicht zouden zien

Laat ik de posters even overlopen en voorzien van wat commentaar van de regisseur. Over de Western Retro zwart/wit poster zei Carnahan het volgende: “I don’t know what to make of this one. It’s got a bizarre kind of western feel and yet it resembles a kind of noir poster. It’s neither fish nor fowl and that seems to be the problem. What does it want to be? I don’t know. But it was one of the early poster versions we saw.”

The Classic wat ik zelf nog beter vind de die officiële posters, had Joe ook wel een goed gevoel bij: “I just love this poster. I don’t know what kind of animation they did, but it’s great. I have an actual version of this at my house on just foam backing and I need to get one that I can frame. I was a big fan of this one but too many people thought it looked like a Crosby, Stills and Nash album cover. I never got that. I love that the entire poster is a playing card. This was good shit that got forsaken.”

Een uiterst knap concept was deze van The Playing Card. Joe vond deze net ietsje te druk: “I never get tired of these and I hope you don’t. This concept, while obvious, is still fantastically rendered. It’s probably a little too jam-packed with stuff. A little too cluttered and it doesn’t give you a clear enough sense of the film. But I really dig the graphic treatment and the kind of mild distressing they did.”

Over de Hitman poster zei hij: “This one just didn’t do it. It came close. It certainly has some attitude, but it couldn’t crack the code. It’s a great poster, but not one that, with it’s baby blue backing, you would want to stake a big bet on.”

De leuke Oh SH*# poster is best wel geslaagd. Maar de affiche vertelt weliswaar weinig over de film. Joe vond het volgende: ” Another fantastic, over-the-top attempt to convey the level of lunacy in this film. I dig this. Deeply. I love the simplicity of it, but at the same time, it short sells the film and gives you the sense that it’s purely balls-out action. When things do go off in the movie, they DETONATE…but this poster would feel like false advertising. There are moments of great calm and stillness in ‘Smokin’ Aces’ and this image, while visually compelling and certainly catchy as hell, just doesn’t cover enough ground dramatically. So here’s another sample, tossed on the trash heap, for you collectors of the creatively forsaken.”

De Eric Saltzman poster is genoemd naar de ontwerper die een wel heel trendy en alternatieve look geeft aan de film. Lijkt wel een affiche van een Vlaamse film. ” This one is pretty great guys. I love that Eric took a photo that almost nobody has seen and kept his concept powerfully concise. There’s something very hip and European about this poster. It’s not giving you the broader story of the film beyond this one desperate image and it’s that simplicity that I dig. I think if this was a wild posting, or just a character posting, it would’ve been considered, certainly by me. I don’t know about Universal, they might have found it too bleak.”

Mijn tweede favoriete poster is de Franz Ferdinant versie met een knipoog naar één van zijn album-covers: “Here’s another one guys. This one almost became the one-sheet. The problem for me was, I couldn’t get the similarity to the Franz Ferdinand Album cover out of my head! Is it just me? I like the images, even though they seem a bit crowded/jammed together.”

The Missing Ramon poster is dan weer een knipoog naar acteur Ray Liotta : “Ray, one of my favorite actors on the planet and my undeniable staff Ace. (Bad puns are my running obsession) This was an image that was ultimately not used as part of the overall poster. Everybody thought Ray looked like he was mid-dance move, like he was ‘up-rocking’ or some shit. I understand that, but it also vibes tension and gives you the notion that some nasty stuff is about to jump off. Again, it was an image we didn’t elect to go with, but something I thought was interesting enough to throw up here.”

Over Hit Me was er niet veel discussie want deze was nooit voorbij de censuur gekomen, aldus de regisseur: “Another poster that didn’t make the cut. The MPAA doesn’t let stuff like this out because of the restrictions on implied violence and such. It’s pretty cool though.”

De Bunny Head poster doet me een beetje denken aan het Hostel 2 promotie-affiches waar ze gewoon het arsenaal tonen en de rest aan de verbeelding overlaten. Joe zei erover het volgende: ” Maybe it’s just me, but I love this stuff. There’s always a ton of marketing ideas for a film that ultimately don’t get used. I’ve asked Universal to send over all the examples of stuff that we reviewed but ultimately didn’t elect to go with. This is an early one that I found very funny, but a little limited in scope.”

Een van de posters waar ik niet wild van ben is de Doomsday poster. Joe: “I liked this one enough to get a framed version and give it to Jeremy Piven for his birthday. This is similar in tone to the ‘OH SH*#’ poster, but it includes Buddy. You know exactly what this film is about with little more than a passing glance.”

En last but not least, de Let There Be Blood versie met een kleine knipoogje naar Christus : “More inspiration kids. This one is both baffling and extremely cool. It’s got a bit of a Diego Rivera vibe that I dig. Again, it shows you how hard people will work and how creative they can get if they love and believe in something.”