The graphic design is strong, and from a marketing perspective, it's an interesting approach. There was a lot of pop culture nostalgia in the air in the mid-Seventies, so I can see why someone at Fox might propose that angle as a way to sell George Lucas' space opera to the masses. Of course, what's so ironic about this is that it was the spectacular success of Luke Skywalker that paved the way for both Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon to return to the big screen over the next few years.
Posting here at Space: 1970 will probably be pretty light this week, as I will be concentrating on finishing up some comics writing work and some overdue DVD/Blu-ray reviews for my DVD Late Show website. Of course, if anything newsworthy should come up in the next few days, I'll be sure to let you all know.
Looks pretty cool. Nice find.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking how much this reminded me of "American Graffiti." Very classy.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know this, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI love this! And it's technically true, too... Luke Skywalker has assumed his place in the pantheon of space-opera heroes. All you need is a reference to Captain Kirk and maybe John Carter of Mars.
ReplyDeleteUnless I'm mistaken, this artwork (or a variant of it, at least) was used for those Burger King premium posters and also, I believe, the poster kits that were sold with markers, so you could color them yourself.
I'd love to have a print of this marketing version, though.
I agree with Jason, I would certainly love a print of this poster version. In general I'm not a big fan of movies advertising using past movie titles or in this case names from other movies or both as is the case here. However, the tag line under the Star Wars title is classic. All in all this is truly a great find.
ReplyDelete"First Buck Rogers. Then Flash Gordon. Now, Luke Skywalker."
ReplyDeleteMakes perfect sense to me. A couple of years before Star Wars was released I would watch Flash Gordon serials on Channel 39 out of Houston, which would air on Friday nights before the evening's monster flick. Me and all of my friends were terribly impressed, so when Star Wars came out it all seemed very familiar.
|---COOL-----PRETTY COOL----AWESOME----WOW----DAMN!----THEY SHOULD HAVE SENT A POET---|>>>>>>>>>>>THIS
ReplyDelete...that's off the charts, man. Aces.
Interesting that this is a proposal for a Star Wars ad aimed at adults, presumably because the title alone would have had the kids' market sewn up. Not sure whether it would have worked so well, but I love it -- and it's so wildly different from any other Star Wars advertising I've seen.
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