Following the success of the viral trailer campaign, which say faux trailers for Green with Envy, The Fuzzy Pack and the Green Lantern parody Being Greenjust a few days ago, we finally have the first full look at the forthcoming film version of The Muppets.
When Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, and friends Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze the Muppet Theater, they help Kermit reunite the Muppets to stage The Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater.
The Muppets will be released on 5 January 2012 in Australia from Disney
Another month has passed, so it’s time for a poster round-up! If you are looking for the previous entries of this exciting new column, you won’t find them. That’s because it’s an exciting new column! Each month we take a look at the most recent quirky posters from around the world, and offer up our witty opinions on them. It’s the validation that studios everywhere have been craving, and the Google bait that we know we need.
Green With Envy Vs. The Fuzzy Pack
Almost quietly slipping in under the radar was the viral campaign for The Muppets, cleverly marketed as a new romantic comedy starring Jason Segal and Amy Adams. Complete with a faux trailer that also debuted this month, this was for all intents and purposes a perfect campaign for a rom-com – except that it wasn’t. Our favourite fuzzy friends appear when least expected, just as they do in a similar trailer parodying The Hangover: Part II. Disney have released two posters to go along with their viral masterpiece.
Who doesn’t like Muppets? It’s a no-brainer that this is going to have a massive cult audience, and with the huge list of cameos set to make appearances, how could it possibly go wrong? Despite being the first theatrical outing for the Fuzzy Pack since 1999’s Muppets From Space, Muppets have long had a great tradition of parodying the entertainment industry, and the Green with Envy poster and trailer is a pitch-perfect campaign to take unsuspecting Saturday-night punters into the crazy world of the Muppets. The Fuzzy Pack trailer (and poster) is not quite as good, but it certain lampoons the zeitgeist.
Mother’s Day Vs. Father’s Day
Just when you thought that every possible occasion had been plundered by the horror boffins, we have our mums and dads to watch out for now. Mother’s Day is a remake of the 1980s Troma film, largely banned around the world for themes of sadism, rape and violence. Not sure how this is going to work in these more sanitised times, but the presence of Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II through Saw IV) behind the camera is sure to attract genre fans. Father’s Day is Troma’s own response to the remake of their 1980s film.
Richard says:
There’s really no competition here. Where the Mother’s Day poster is a carbon copy of pretty much every Photoshopped horror movie poster since the mid-1990s, Father’s Day is a piece of art. This isn’t the only poster for Father’s Day either, with at least two other alternates being just as groovy as this one. However, hands-down this evokes the best of b-movie classics and exploitation gems all the way up to Machete. As a bonus I’ve included the original 1980 poster to the right, complete with the tagline “I’m so proud of my boys – they never forget their mama”. Oh how times have changed!
Friends with Benefits: Subtle Vs. Not-So-Subtle
After star-making turns in The Social Network and Black Swan respectively, Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis are following in the footsteps of Kunis’ co-star Natalie Portman (No Strings Attached) and heading straight for a romantic comedy about a pair of friends who run into trouble when they add sex to the relationship. Despite the sexy subject matter, the US poster (right) errs on the coy side, while the Australian/international poster (left) is as subtle as a sledgehammer.
Richard says:
Still not sure whether the idea of J.T. and Meg Griffin sharing the screen excites or fills me with childlike dread, but only one of these posters appears to be aimed at bringing sexy back. This begs a further question: if J.T. brought sexy back, where was it and what were we doing before he rescued it from a faraway land? Regardless of whether you are looking at the poster that has a confused-looking Timberlake, or the one that implies he will be inserting his finger repeatedly into Mila’s affirming hand, we know one thing for sure: they will get together at the end of the movie.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: 2009 Vs. 2011
The most completely unnecessary sequel is tempered by the fact that David Fincher (The Social Network) is behind the lens on this one, and a very slick trailer was also released this week. The original poster for for the Swedish version of the film reflected the original title of Stieg Larsson’s book “Men Who Hate Women”. There is, of course, a third type of poster, the highly stylised version of the original film as released international. However, these two posters below seemed to be most analogous: both posters feature Blomkvist and Salander staring into camera, although the new Fincher poster features a slightly less clothed Lisbeth.
Richard says:
Really? Daniel Craig has his arms around a naked Rooney Mara and he still can’t crack a smile? Clearly it’s warmer wherever they are too, because the original cast are fully clad AND have a roaring fireplace. This has been one of the best-selling novels around the world for the past few years, and the highly successful Swedish trilogy of films has found its way to film fans around the world. Fincher’s reputation is key here, and the poster for the new film is clearly aimed at making it look sexy for US audiences: as sexy as a story that contains anal rape and torture can be. On a side note, neither actually has a dragon tattoo. Either way, we trust Fincher implicitly and this is one to watch out for early next year in Australia.
What happened? When three friends wake up wild-eyed, fuzzy-faced and lookin’ kinda green, then something terribly terribly wrong must’ve happened last night. But what was it? Where are they!? And is there any going back?
Sound familiar? If you guessed The Hangover: Part II, you’d be part right. Following hot on the heels of the faux trailer for Green With Envy, a rom com that revealed itself to be a teaser trailer for the forthcoming The Muppets, we have a second teaser for the big screen adventure.
As with the first teaser, this trailer has its own YouTube channel and Facebook group. This viral campaign for The Muppets is very cool, as if we needed a reason to get more excited about the return of the greatest Muppets to ever grace the big and small screens.
The Muppets will be released on 5 January 2012 in Australia from Disney.
Here’s an odd little surprise. If we’re really honest, one of our most anticipated films of 2011 is The Muppets, starring all of our favourite Jim Henson creations along with Jason Segal and Amy Adams. We’ve now finally got a sneak peek of the film. Sort of.
Disney has released a trailer for a new film called Green With Envy, complete with its own poster. Ostensibly a romantic comedy, it is described on Apple Trailers with the following synopsis: Love struck meets star struck when a small town couple (Amy Adams, Jason Segel) head to Hollywood and discover their dreams of hitting the big time may cost them the one thing that matters most – each other.
There’s even a Green With EnvyFacebook group. This is actually the film-within-a-film from The Muppets, which will actually see the world’s biggest Muppets fan, Gary (Jason Segal, Gulliver’s Travels) teams up with Mary (Amy Adams, The Fighter) to help Kermit and the gang save their old studio from the machinations of greedy oil tycoon Tex Richman (Chris Cooper, The Tempest).
The film is also said to have appearances from, well, everybody! People listed so far are Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Zach Galifianakis, Selena Gomez, Neil Patrick Harris, Jack Black, Danny Trejo, Katy Perry, Mickey Rooney, Whoopi Goldberg, Dave Grohl, Alan Arkin, Liza Minnelli…it may be easier to check IMDB.
The Muppets will be released on 5 January 2012 in Australia from Disney.
Following the success of the viral trailer campaign, which say faux trailers for Green with Envy, The Fuzzy Pack and the Green Lantern parody Being Green just a few days ago, we finally have the first full look at the forthcoming film version of The Muppets.
