Movie Marketing Madness: Wanted
In the fifth season of “Angel” there’s a scene that was Wesley delivering some mystical weapons to seemingly bad people. Helping him with this is Fred, and when she brings one of the guns out the bad guy remarks on how hot he is. In retort she says something along the lines of “Wow, a man turned on by a woman holding a big gun. How unusual.”
I bring this up because it’s exactly this..let’s say tendency…that Universal is more or less counting on with Wanted.
The movie tells the story a slightly loser-ish cubicle monkey played by James McAvoy who has his life turned upside down when an assassin played by Angelina Jolie tells him that his father used to also be an assassin and that he’s meant to be one as well. This leads to an adventure that has him discovering his destiny as Jolie shows off just how well she can handle a big gun and just how flexible she is as she contorts her body to avoid oncoming traffic and other problems.
The movie is actually based on a graphic novel but, to my understanding, it excises a big chunk of the source material’s story. In the movie these assassins are simply keeping the balance of power in check or something, but in the comic the group wiped out super-powered individuals, creating a world without heroes but, in their mind, a world without the threat those super-powered people would turn bad one day.
The Posters
The first teaser poster Universal released definitely played into the “chicks with guns are hot” idea by showing Angelina Jolie, in very artistic black-and-white with her tattoos on full display, brandishing her very large sidearm. Her pose seems to be contemplative and dark and all the weird symbols, from the tatoo patterns on her arms to the engraving on the grip of the gun, all allude to their being some sort of secret society at work here. Since Jolie is one of – if not the – main selling point in the movie the use of her on the poster makes the most sense, though I’ll admit I was a little disappointed a whole series of character posters – each with more mysterious symbols – weren’t created. That could have created a whole set that created a larger sense of atmosphere.
The theatrical poster again puts Jolie and her arm-art and big-honkin gun at the forefront. This time, though, her pose is more ready-for-action than deep in thought and we see a little bit more of her. McAvoy joins her this time, with dual guns ready for action. Both of them appear before a high view of a city, giving the impression that their reach is far and wide.
One thing about the poster is the fact that McAvoy gets listed first, but on the poster he’s the smaller of the two people. Jolie is last in the above-the-title credits but she’s the focal point of both posters. And Morgan Freeman, who’s listed second here, isn’t even given a big floating head.
An alternate version of this poster was actually given away at one of the Comic-Con gatherings, at which time I said it likely would not be the same design that wound up being used on the theatrical poster. This should prove that I am often very, very wrong since that’s exactly what wound up happening.
Source : http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com
