Just kidding, but seriously, what the hell is going on with this poster?
Based on the bleak, Pulitzer prize winning novel by Cormac McCarthy, the story concerns a father and son trying to survive in a not-too-distant future version of America that has been ravaged by an unknown apocalypse that has left it sun-blocked, ashen, and has turned humanity into violent, depraved cannibals.
The film has already been subjected to release date bumps, bad buzz about it’s grim subject matter, misleading trailers and now misleading artwork. Judging by this, final version of the poster it appears that the Weinsteins are going to try and misrepresent the film right up until it hits theaters. The poster gives us a lovely, orange background that could be a fire but looks more like a sunset, while Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-Mcphee, decked out in rugged outdoor wear, look determinedly out of the frame, probably to kill to a bear. The poster avoids anything remotely grim or related to the actual film, in favor of trying to make it look like an ad for LL Bean. We’re not even going to get into the horribly vague tagline (“In A Moment, The World Changed Forever” – gag), the weird placement of the actor’s names or even the pseudo-festival garlands that are used to frame the information about the source material.
John Hillcoat’s film, which scored high with the Playlisters who’ve seen it (read our TIFF review and LFF review) deserves a better fate than this. So, please, ignore any advertising for this, and just go see it when it opens on November 25th.