Friday, June 11, 2010

Chaplin!

Hey, how about a sneak peek of the poster for the new Janus Films Charlie Chaplin series that will be touring soon:



It's drawn by the great cartoonist Kate Beaton, she of the great webcomic "Hark! A Vagrant"--also available in book form as Never Learn Anything From History. She did an amazing job capturing the classic icon of the Little Tramp but treating it in a new way. We wanted to remind people that these aren't just stuffy classics to be studied, they're honest-to-god funny films to be ENJOYED. (Something that even some of us at the office had forgotten until we started watching them again recently.) And I think Kate captured that spirit perfectly.

The type is inspired by (read: "stolen from") an old poster for Modern Times, one of the films in the series, redrawn in Adobe Illustrator. In the actual posters that grey is a shiny pantone silver, which gives it a little more life. Overall I'm thrilled with how this came together.

The series starts June 17th in L.A., then July 16th at Film Forum in NYC, and on from there.
As of this posting, we don't quite have the Chaplin site live yet, but given the frequency of posts around here these days I should probably link to it anyway, since it'll almost certainly be up before I get around to another post here...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love that you guys got Kate Beaton to do these illustrations. She was a perfect choice, and I hope she will be providing illustrations for the eventual DVD/BD covers.

rico said...

That's great! Are these for sale?

Eric Skillman said...

Anonymous--thanks! A bit too early to say what exactly's going to happen with the DVD/BD covers, but I'd be happy to see Kate's art again somewhere, too!

Rico--thanks, also! Don't quote me on it, since I'm not 100% sure about the contracts, etc, but following the pattern of previous posters we'll likely wait until the theatrical run is winding down before selling them.

Robert Goodin said...

I'll second the love for Kate Beaton's work. That's a great poster.

Eric Skillman said...

Thanks, Robert! Sorry to have missed you (and your Janus T-shirt) at Heroes. I'll make it out there one of these years, I'm sure...

Daniel Z said...

Always great to see a movie poster with original illustrations. Fun drawings too!