Fox Searchlight has released the teaser poster for the Clark Gregg’s big screen adaption of Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke. The poster features a silhouette of Sam Rockwell choking on either Kelly Macdonal or Anjelica Huston. Either way I’m not sure I get the symbology, but it’s certainly a cool looking image.
You can read my fanboy review from Sundance or Mel Valentin’s review from SXSW. Fox Searchlight told us that Mel might actually be quoted in some of the pre-release advertising (”vulgar, crude, profane, blasphemous, obscene, and, best of all, hilarious” – Mel Valentin, SLASHFILM.COM).
Official Plot Synopsis: Victor Mancini (Rockwell), a sex-addicted med-school dropout, who keeps his increasingly deranged mother, Ida (Huston), in an expensive private medical hospital by working days as a historical reenactor at a Colonial Williamsburg theme park. At night Victor runs a scam by deliberately choking in upscale restaurants to form parasitic relationships with the wealthy patrons who “save” him. When, in a rare lucid movement, Ida reveals that she has withheld the shocking truth of his father’s identity, Victor enlists the aid of his best friend, Denny (Henke) and his mother’s beautiful attending physician, Dr. Paige Marshall (Macdonald), to solve the mystery before the truth of his possibly divine parentage is lost forever. The film is adapted from the best-selling, critically acclaimed novel by Chuck Palahniuk.
Choke will open in theaters on September 26th 2008.
source: Fox Searchlight via IMPAwards
May 20th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Looks pretty amateur to me. The type treatment is particularly awful. ‘Fight Club’ and ‘Choke’ are the same size, the whole thing looks haphazard and come on…Myriad? It’s a great typeface for corporate stationary but not a movie poster.
Oh and it doesn’t really say “Choke” to me - more like… “Swallow”…
May 20th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Great novel! I’ve been waiting for another novel by Chuck to make it to the big-screen! Should be fun.
May 20th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
awww…M&Co is a bitter graphic designer :( Did you seriously just criticize the font size? I guess that matters…………………I guess……. Does it?……..
May 20th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
nope. Just checked… it doesn’t
good point though!
Great observation though. ‘A’ for effort!
May 20th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Nice poster.
May 20th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
rockwell? as in sam rockwell? shoots…im in!
May 20th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Hard style/design to pull off and far too often a pretentious disaster with movie posters, but I really dig it. Pseudo-compliments the cover to (and themes in) Palahniuk’s new novel Snuff as well.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
I really, honestly hate this book, BUT, I am looking forward to the movie. Hopefully they can makes something worth a damn out of this story. Also looking forward to San Rockwell, always am.
Oh, and I think this poster is awesome. It exemplifies perfectly the subject matter and style of comedy within the book.
Palahniuk is, in my opinion, ridiculously overrated. Fight Club, the movie is far superior to the book. Let’s hope cinema is two for two on this one.
I’m out.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:02 am
Dear don’tknow252 (that name speaks volumes)
If you don’t understand the value of a typeface, then you really shouldn’t be commenting.
All the best
M&Co.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:16 am
@ M&Co
“Oh and it doesn’t really say ‘Choke’ to me - more like… ‘Swallow’”
I dunno, maybe that is in the eye of the beholder. Zing.
However, I do follow your argument about the film’s title being the same size as Fight Club’s, but while this is borderline taboo from a design school standpoint, from a marketing/visual stand point it’s smart deception and will draw in dumb people.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:41 am
I agree with Hunter, but disagree with M&Co. I’m pretty sure the size of ‘Fight Club’ is the perfect way to go. The point of marketing is to attract people to the product in question, and if making ‘fight club’ as large as ‘Choke’ catches the eye of ‘Fight-Club’ fans wouldn’t that be the smart way to go? Catching the attention of an already existing fan base seems like a damn good idea to me. I also dig the Indie vibe of the poster, the simplicity of the design, goes great with the raw themes in the novel.
ps, Not sure why dontknow252 had to be a dusche about it.
liked the book. movie should be fun.
time will tell.
May 21st, 2008 at 1:17 am
@Hunter - touche.
I totally appreciate the fact that it’s designed that way from a marketing angle and I find that just as undesirable as the layout. It’s symptomatic of this relentless dumming down and com-modification of culture. It’s as if you’re not being encouraged to see ‘Choke’, you’re being encouraged to be part of this subset, to buy into this franchise. Why can’t the film be promoted on it’s merits alone? I know the answer to this but it still pisses me off.
In regards to the design, I do appreciate what they attempted, the simplicity, the boldness, all great - I just think it’s poorly executed.
Clearly I’m alone in my thoughts here and that’s fine. Funnily enough I’m actually looking forward to the movie as much as everyone else here.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:52 am
@M&Co
“It’s symptomatic of this relentless dumming down and com-modification of culture.”
Lets not over think this ok? Its just a teaser poster. One of many… and face it. All the best posters will be the foreign ones as always. Even the fight club poster sucked if you remember… It should have just been the bar of soap, that would have been perfect, but it wasn’t. It had 2 seperate head shots ED and Brad mugging for the camera pasted together with the soap hanging over their heads like an afterthought…
May 21st, 2008 at 8:01 am
Am I the only one who can’t stand Sam Rockwell?
May 21st, 2008 at 9:45 am
Yes you are.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:10 am
@ ihartsf
yes… yes you are. The ONLY one. Congrats.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:54 am
Who’s Sam Rockwell?
SUCKED.
May 21st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
The book was a pretty good, easy, digestible read. And pretty stylized. I can already hear Rockwell reading off parts of the book and I think it’s going to be pretty awesome. And the poster? Awesome, awesome, awesome.
May 21st, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I’m excited for this. When I first discovered Palahnuik’s work, I read Fight Club first (obviously). I read Choke second, and it’s incredibly superior to Fight Club.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:36 am
I think this movie has a very good plot and it will be set for a long time!
-armine