A few new posters have landed online.  Briefly:

  • The Wolverine – A Japanese poster that makes us wonder once again why a guy with knives in his hands would need a sword.  The film stars Hugh Jackman and open in 3D on July 26th.
  • Runner Runner – Three character posters with gambling-related taglines for the thriller starring Justin Timberlake, Gemma Arterton, and Ben Affleck.  The film opens September 27th.
  • Frozen – A French teaser poster that's much better than the U.S. version, which is basically just a title treatment.  The film opens in 3D on November 27th, and features the voices of Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, and Idina Menzel.
  • The 70th Annual Venice Film Festival – A neat poster that celebrates the work of Theo Angelopoulos and Federico Fellini.  The film festival runs from August 28 – September 7th.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.

Via JPosters [via IMP Awards]

the-wolverine-japanese-poster

Here's the official synopsis for The Wolverine:

Based on the celebrated comic book arc, this epic action-adventure takes Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), the most iconic character of the X-Men universe, to modern-day Japan. Out of his depth in an unknown world, he will face a host of unexpected and deadly opponents in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed. Vulnerable for the first time and pushed to his physical and emotional limits, he confronts not only lethal samurai steel but also his inner struggle against his own immortality.

runner-runner-justin-timberlake-poster

runner-runner-gemma-arterton-poster

runner-runner-ben-affleck-poster

Here's the official synopsis for Runner Runner:

Princeton grad student Richie, believing he’s been swindled, travels to Costa Rica to confront online gambling tycoon Ivan Block. Richie is seduced by Block’s promise of immense wealth, until he learns the disturbing truth about his benefactor. When the FBI tries to coerce Richie to help bring down Block, Richie faces his biggest gamble ever: attempting to outmaneuver the two forces closing in on him.

Via Heart Attack.

frozen-french-teaser-poster

Here's the official synopsis for Frozen:

When a prophecy traps a kingdom in eternal winter, Anna (voice of Kristen Bell), a fearless optimist, teams up with extreme mountain man Kristoff (voice of Jonathan Groff) and his sidekick reindeer Sven on an epic journey to find Anna’s sister Elsa (voice of Idina Menzel), the Snow Queen, and put an end to her icy spell. Encountering mystical trolls, an amazing and comedic snowman named Olaf, Everest-like conditions and magic at every turn, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom from destruction.

70th-venice-film-festival-poster

Here's the press release for the poster:

la Biennale di Venezia/

70th Venice International Film Festival

The new official poster of the 70th Venice Film Festival

pays tribute to Angelopoulos and Fellini

The cinema of Theo Angelopoulos and of Federico Fellini is celebrated in the image chosen for the new official poster of the 70th Venice International Film Festival, directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, which will be held at the Lido from August 28 to September 7, 2013.

Created by Simone Massi – the animator, director and illustrator of the Festival’s opening sequence – the image recalls a frame from the film by Theo Angelopoulos, Eternity and a Day (1998), starring Bruno Ganz. A man seen from behind waves his arms at a boat which, in the distance, is carrying a child and a rhinoceros. A tongue-in-cheek reference to last year’s poster (which was inspired by Federico Fellini’s 1983 film, And the Ship Sails On), the poster marks both continuity and a break with the past. It also invites viewers to look beyond, to roam using their imagination.

Once again, the coordinated visual identity and image of the Venice Film Festival have been entrusted to Milan's Studio Graph.X, based on the drawings by Simone Massi.

Simone Massi, who received a David di Donatello in 2012 for Best Short Film, created the opening sequence which preceded the official screenings at the Venice Film Festival last year. The 30-second sequence, created from 300 hand-made drawings, cites Fellini, Angelopoulos, Wenders, Olmi, Tarkovsky and Dovzhenko. Massi designed the opening sequence with the contribution of Fabrizio Tassi. The soundtrack was written and performed by Francesca Badalini, while the sound design was by Stefano Sasso. Julia Gromskaya was behind the camera, with Lola Capote-Ortiz in charge of post-production.

Massi, who was born in Pergola in 1970, is one of the last masters of stop motion  animation and has won over 200 awards at the major film festivals, in Italy and abroad. He is also widely considered one of the most important authors of animated short films. An independent animator, he studied film animation at the Urbino School of Art. Over the course of 15 years, he has created and made (by himself and completely by hand) fifteen animated films which have been shown in 54 countries and which were screened at the 69th Venice Film Festival in 2012, along with an unreleased film, Animo resistente. Massi does not use a computer in his work; he draws everything by hand on paper, using pencils, charcoal, coloured chalk, pastels, graphite, and India ink. The “scratch” technique he has adopted in his most recent works – which permits a maximum of 6-7 drawings to be completed in a day, working nonstop from morning to night – means that an 8-minute film can take up to two and a half years of work.