Star-centric posters featuring large floating heads and a pithy tag line are the film industry’s garden variety marketing one sheets, but here is one cookie cutter image that really works. The poster (left, click to enlarge) is for Clint Eastwood’s new pic Invictus and depicts Matt Damon superimposed onto the back of Morgan Freeman; they play South African rugby captain Francois Pienaar and President Nelson Mandela respectively. The image is simple but effective, clean-cut and uncluttered, and features striking use of a white background.
Invictus’s U.S. release date (December 11) has been timed to coincide with the annual end of year awards ceremony frenzy, when a smattering of prestigious Oscar hopefuls inevitably cram into cinemas before the year ticks over. Considering it’s directed by Eastwood, ever an Academy favourite, the film will more or less arrive with the expectation of at least getting nominated for something. If it’s particularly impressive, as most Eastwood films have been in recent years (i.e. Gran Torino, Flags of Our Fathers, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River) this could mean good news for the stars, particularly Freeman, because it’s well known that the Academy likes recognising actors who play political leaders. And everything about Freeman seems to scream good taste; here is a man whose dignity remained intact even when hamming it up as God in the Bruce/Evan Almighty movies. That’s an achievement deserving of an award itself. Maybe not an Oscar, though.
Invictus will arrive on Australian screens January 21. Check out the trailer below.
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6 Comments
Geez, imagine the ruckus if an American actor was portraying the captain of the Wallabies (let alone our most inspirational leader…)
Now that’s a good point…
Reckon Wallace Shawn could play John Howard?
Matt Damon could play Andrew Gaze in next year’s most inspirational sports movie
Inconceivable!
As an avid rubgy player and fan, and having just watched “Goodbye Bafana”, this film makes me cringe when “dirty tricks” were played on the All Blacks team the day before the grand final , see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5iQBLgndTU
Shame as this particular detail would certainly have made the victory rather hollow. Well its the Apartheid way isn’t it??!! Nah, just South Africans being South Africans