By Ryan Parsons | Image property of Universal Pictures.
When I first got the press release for the SmokinJoeCarnahan website that featured Carnahan's Smokin'
Aces as the number one topic, what I didn't expect to see was three cool, rejected posters plus a couple additional movie stills. Joe even gives us a warm introduction.
Rejected Smokin' Aces Posters
Below are the three rejected posters for Smokin' Aces that owe credit to the MPAA for being rejected. Two are sweet, one is OK.
Rejected Smokin' Aces Poster: "Hit Me"
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.
Rejected Smokin' Aces Poster: "Oh Sh*#"
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.
Rejected Smokin' Aces Poster: "The Bunny-Head"
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. I'm going to post one of these once at
week, at the end of the week, just to give everybody an idea of how wildly divergent
this artwork can get and how incredibly twisted and talented the folks working on this
film are.
Add to Heffee!
