Who Is That?

These days Movies and TV shows use star power to entice the audience to watch, and these days you are more likely to see a bunch of big star faces on a poster than a piece of concept art that gives you an idea of what the film might be about. Instead of selling a movie or TV show on the story, they seem to be selling the stars - it's George Clooney in some movie! Often you get that "three face advert" with the star and two co-star's faces... but no clue to what the movie or TV show might be about. I prefer those old movie posters that were all about the story - and lately on Thursday's links I've posted some great retro posters and posters from other parts of the world where the story is summed up in a great image.

But here's my question: If you are going to sell a movie or TV series on the face of the star, shouldn't we be able to instantly recognize that face?

Who is this:

Okay, by now you may know - because there have been other promos for the show. But when I first saw this advert on the side of a bus in Los Angeles, I wondered who that was. Took me a while to figure it out, because they have airbrushed and photoshopped the hell out of her. They have taken a very attractive 63 year old woman and removed all of the lines from her face... including the ones that identify her. So she may look younger in the photo, but she also doesn't look anything like the movie star we know and love. I had to see that poster a few times before I figured out who it was... and I may have only figured it out because I finally read her name on the poster. Oh, wow, that's who that is!

But what good does it do to use a star's face to sell your TV show or movie if you make that star's face difficult to recognize? That doesn't make any sense at all! And it's not like this is some show they need to sell to the 15-25 year old audience...

I think this ties in to larger issues of aging in Hollywood, but what's crazy to me is that it's reached a point where it's *hurting* the business. If they make the stars look younger and we can't recognize them - what's the point of putting them on the poster?

- Bill