[Corvin]

Scream?

Actually it all goes back to The Towering Inferno. The first instance where actors demanded their image be a certain % of the poster, where the names were placed, what side of the poster they were on etc. So theoretically you have Steve McQueen and Paul Newman to blame, 32 years prior to Scream. Hell, practically the entire cast is on the poster.

[twozbar]

Originally Posted by Paper Pills

you think that started with scream? umm...studio art has sucked for years before that.

I agree that movie poster art has sucked long before Scream came along. I was only using that film as a particular example where most studios killed themselves to copy a concept that wasn't all that great to begin with.

Corvin~ while that Towering Inferno example is true (those bastards!), there were prior examples of movie posters featuring the faces of all the actors, particlarly the disaster flicks with all-star casts and almost anything produced by Irwin Allen. In the 70s, it was important to shoehorn as many "name" actors into a film as possible, even for bit cameos.

But the Steve McQueen-Paul Newman fiasco aside, that wasn't exactly the point I was making. At least The Towering Inferno marketing still had a decent amount of artwork involved. Scream gives you nothing that relates to it being a horror film whatsoever--the actors don't look the least bit scared--yet this half-assed concept was copied to hell and back. I don't think this trend started with any actors making demands (although none of them are probably complaining about it either).