LAST RIDE'S JOURNEY CONTINUES
Glendyn Ivin
It's been a long time since I posted anything about my feature Last Ride. The film was actually the genesis for this blog back in August 2008 in the lead up to it's June 2009 release here in Australia. Even though Last Ride has travelled around festivals and sold steadily in territories all over the world, a U.S theatrical release seemed a distant if near impossible reality. Well it took some time but this weekend Last Ride opened in cinemas in the U.S (Chicago now and New York from Jul 6th).
Big thanks to Content and to Music Box Films and also to the legendary reviewer Roger Ebert for giving the film such a glowing review!
The U.S artwork takes a very different approach to marketing the film. There is a great contrast between the two pieces of key art and not just in the colour pallete. Infact I don't think you could get two more different approaches. The Australian poster which featured Hugo Weaving and Tom Russell sharing equal billing with the stunningly poetic landscape, whereas the U.S version sees the stars in close-up and and treated in a far more 'rugged' way. Interestingly they also added a rifle to Hugo's hand in the image below the title as well. (There was an interesting post discussing the pros and cons of the different posters here on Madman's Facebook page.)
I like them both for different reasons. The U.S poster definitely feels like it sells the film harder and for a 'small film' like Last Ride, perhaps thats exactly what it needs.
Last Ride also available on Video On Demand.
