Geekanerd Spotter: Potter Villains Take the NYC Subway

Spotted this station-wide Harry Potter ad campaign in the 42nd Street Times Square Subway station. This poster portrays all the baddies in a subway station (meta!), with a train wooshing by behind them. If I saw these guys on the subway, I would definitely follow them because you know a Slytherin party in New York is the place to freakin be. Gryffindor parties are probably just a lot of sitting in a circle on the floor and telling stories about friendship. Slytherin parties have drugs and anonymous sex! And murder!

See The Galaxy! New Posters Mix Star Wars Planets with Depression Era Advertisng

There are few things I enjoy more than mash-ups that combine old timey Americana with geekanerd iconography. First it was comic cover artists copping from Norman Rockwell, now it's WPA Posters meets Star Wars. Zazzle has produced a line of officially licensed Star Wars posters based on the WPA's "See America" poster campaign. What's that? You've never heard of the WPA, the jewel of FDR's New Deal? Here's the original poster that the Hoth version was based on...


Tatooine and Courescant after the jump....


I couldn't find the original version of Courescant...seems like it must be based on a New York poster, but no sign of it on google image search. Oh well. Why does Couruscant need a tourism campaign anyway? Ain't no recession in Courescant! If those guys want credits, they PRINT some! Or mine some. Program some? What's a credit?

UPDATE! Reader "Andrew" tipped us to yet more old timey travel posters...these set in the Firefly universe. They don't seem to be directly referencing any WPA posters, but the influence is unmistakable. Awesome stuff. You can see and purchase all five at the Quantum Mechanix store.

Geekanerd Spotter: The Spirit and Rev Run, Switched at Birth?

Saw this neat three-poster advertisement for The Spirit in East Midtown. Please note the two little posters to the right. Seem....familiar?
Denny Colt and Rev Run both know that all it takes to move product is a black silhouette and a fedora.

Ghanaian Film Posters Are Awesome

As movies on VHS made their way to Ghana in the 1980s, entrepreneurs started mobile movie houses with televisions, VCRs, and portable generators. This gave birth to the amazing art of Ghanaian film posters, each individually hand-painted using oil paint on strips of canvas. Check out some side-by-side comparisons of these unique posters with their original North American counterparts - these are some trashy, geeky movies, but there's nothing like an original oil painting to give them a bit of class.


Intriguing takes on Ewoks: The Battle For Endor, Anaconda, and many more after the jump...

As with the above Broken Arrow poster, these painted posters for Anaconda and Scanners 3 cut to the chase and show exactly what people want from these movies, unlike the tame and cryptic America versions.

Sometimes they're more specific reproductions of the North American poster or DVD cover, with a few embellishments.



The color work on this next one is amazing - check out the hands and background splash. The background is particularly Struzan-esque.


For this Nightmare On Elm Street 5 poster, it's interesting to note that the artist used all of the elements from the official poster, the "Shh" pose and the baby carriage, but drastically changed the composition. I don't think I would have known that black thing is supposed to be a baby carriage is without referencing the original poster, but Freddy's face is certainly more terrifying.

All these images were found at Dazed Digital and Ghana Movie Posters. Check em out, lots more fun. And if you're spending some time in Berlin, you can see this posters up close at an art exhibit (Link via CoolHunting).

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Gets a Poster

Not really a very exciting image in and of itself, but seeing a sweaty Harrison Ford painted by Drew Struzan does tug my fanboy heartstrings a bit.

The Dark Knight Gets a Poster

Oooh, spooky. Do we like?

Via Blog@Newsarama.

Rambo Swipes Sin City Style

Can't say I blame the Rambo marketing guys for ripping of the Sin City look. I'm a big fan of the high-contrast black/white/red color scheme and "Miller Rain" myself. Now if only the movie itself had a chance in hell of being half as cool as Sin City...

Geekanerd Spotter: Vampires Behind Bars

Remember those awesome 30 Days of Night poster designs that were released a few weeks ago? They're up and about in NYC. Thank god someone had the sense to put them behind bars, lest these vampires escape and turn Manhattan into an unlivable hell on earth. But I fear they'll only be satisfied with feeding on garbage for so long, and when they start to crave human blood I just hope that gate holds.

Past Editions of Geekanerd Spotter

BLAHHRG: New 30 Days of Night Posters

"Based on the graphic novel". That's what I like to see. Judging by this movie's early promotional campaign, it seems this film adaptation is wearing it's comic-book heritage on it's sleeve. Stardust could have used more of that attitude. For more on the movie, check out the article at Solace in Cinema.

I'll admit I haven't read the classic 30 Days of Night stories, but I did read the first issue of the new series, Red Snow. The story takes place in 1941 and centers around a family in hiding, a British soldier amongst the Russian Army, Nazi war atrocities, and of course, a herd of vampires approaching over a snowy hill. A scan after the jump.


Love dramatic timing of this art - you can practically hear the violin sting when the girl gets up. Next week promises a whole lot of vampire-on-nazi carnage, and who doesn't want to see that?

Slogan Deja Vu: Okay, We Get It, "Love Blows"!

Two upcoming comedies have virtually the same tag line.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Say it with me now: Who are the ad wizards that came up with this one?

Death Proof's UK Trailer Emerges, Includes Footage Never Seen By Yanks

Half of this year's Best Movie Nobody Saw, Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof is revving up (GAHAR HAR HAR) for its solo, extended edition international release. The image you see above is the UK poster (thumbs down from this G'nerd), and by clicking this magical hyperlink you'll be taken to a page where you can see a pretty good trailer that includes some stuff we never saw stateside, including some choice clips of the fabled Butterfly lapdance.

Via Ain't It Cool News.

Comic Con Goods: Sweeney Todd and Watchmen Posters

Sweeney Todd and Watchmen are the two upcoming screen adaptations that I'm most looking forward to. That said, I am much, much, much more excited about Sweeney Todd. What's my problem, you ask? Well, while Geeknerd deservedly focuses on comics, movies and games, the truly GREATEST popular art of our lifetime is the work of composer Stephen Sondheim, and Sweeney Todd is his masterpiece. And while this blog doesn't cover theater geekery, trust me, this movie is going to blow all the expectations of all non-belivers to ribbons. When Johnny Depp as Sweeney gets going, he'll show those torture-porn directors what blood-letting is really about.

Granted, Tim Burton hasn't made a great film in over a decade. But I have it on good authority that the Sweeney movie does justice to the genius of the source, and this poster sure strikes the right tone. Maybe Tim used up all his Brilliance Points on Ed Wood back in 1994, and it's taken till now to build them back up again. This poster from Comic Con strikes exactly the right tone.

Image via JustJared.

Check out the Watchmen teaser poster after the jump.

The Watchmen poster I'm less impressed by. While this poster also classes it up by using a new image from artist Dave Gibbons, at this point all I care about is seeing is what this cast of young'ins is going to look like in action. Nice of of them to align themselves with the source material for all to see, but it really is a teaser in the meanest sense of the word. Give us costumes!

Image via Newsarama via some cool dude's Flickr account.

New Movie Posters, Including IRON MAN!

Solace In Cinema has a story up via FilmIck via FilmFocus with a bunch of new posters for the major studio's upcoming releases...including IRON MAN!

neeeeerrrrrrooowwwwwwwwwrrrrr....

DAAAAAA DA
DA DA DA!

DADA DADA DADA-DA
DA DA DAAA!

Sorry. A couple more notable posters after the jump. Solace In Cinema (who very classily focuses on the cool Beowulf poster) is Geekanerd's newest best friend, because they linked to our extensive Rorschach's Journal coverage, noting, "this is why I love nerds." Thanks! (then, in Cartman voice...) 'EY!

Oish....I hate to say it even more than I hate to state the obvious, but this looks like a bomb. I love Neil Gaiman, so I hope this movie surprises everyone and is really good and successful. The Eragon-looking ad campaign is not going to help though.

Somehow, Dr. Seuss movies have become cinematic Herald of Doom that signals the downturn of a top-tier comedian's career...first we lost Jim Carrey to that Grinch nonsense, then poor Mike Myers was eaten alive by the Cat in the Hat, and now Steve Carell is descending even further into the depths of Hades, now that Evan Almighty has tanked.

To be fair: At least this is animated, so Steve and Jim (oh Jim, please come back) don't have to go through the humiliation of acting through eight inches of make-up and fur.

(maybe) EXCLUSIVE! Narnia 2 Poster! Wii Accessory! Umbrella Chronicles Poster!

With Optimus Prime looking over me I ventured into the Licensing Show in New York, where I got to take a bunch of really bad pictures with a cameraphone (they don't allow real cameras!) and pass the ones I can't find anywhere else onto you!

First up is this sweet-lookin' Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian poster art! This is way too cool to ever be the official poster. I'm sure the final will have less great art, more boring faces.

Hit the jump for an official Wii accessory and the Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles poster!

What's that?! A new, awesomer, HDTV-capable Wii?!?!!?! Naw, it's an official Nintendo Wii dock organizer thingie. I know you can't read the details on the top of the box there, but it says you can store your Wiimotes and nunchucks in that East Wing extension. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what that underbelly tray is for, and the booth troll (this is a very different show from E3 and their "booth babes") didn't know. It looks about the right size for a sensor bar, but that wouldn't make any sense at all. The goal here also might be to stretch out its dimensions so adults think it looks more at home with the rest of their home video components.

Last and probably least is this poster for the upcoming Wii game Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. No big surprises here but I sure ain't seen it before. Sorry again for the bad quality pics.