SALON

Tuesday, Jul 12, 2011 9:05 PM UTC

“The Dark Knight Rises” and the art of the teaser poster

Today's new "Batman" image had us wondering: What are some of the most intriguing hype-creating cinema pics?

By

Topics: Advertising, Christopher Nolan, Harry Potter, Inception, Star Wars, X-Men: First Class, Movies,

"The Dark Knight Rises" teaser poster.

Today the Web is buzzing about just one image. It’s a pretty cool picture — looking up at a crumbing city skyline that is falling away into the shape of a bat — but without knowing the context of the photo, most people would be left wondering why the Internet is in an uproar over the pic.

Of course, the teaser poster for Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” (the second of its kind, after the Bane photo) is obvious to anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the last year. Teaser posters, which often come out way ahead of the film itself, can be self-explanatory, or totally baffling. They’re like puzzle pieces leading up to the movie itself, and with the hyper-aware Web culture that grabs on to every leak and spoiler, they can be used to raise a film’s buzz to a near-deafening screech.

Nolan is in a league of his own when it comes to enigmatic images, which usually give nothing away (not even the name of the film) except the release date and a creepy, brain-burning photo. Remember the early posters for “The Dark Knight,” which leaked online almost six months before the movie was released?

 

Or Nolan’s early “Inception” posters – also featuring a cityscape, although this time covered with water – back when no one knew anything about the movie?

 

Other teasers contain just enough information to make you wonder what the hell movie is about (“Cloverfield,” “Shutter Island”):

 

Then there are those teaser posters that aren’t so puzzling: The images they show are at once iconic and stark (this type works particularly well for reboots and franchise films) and provide a tantalizing glimpse at what you can look forward to.

 

Finally, there are the character posters that put a face to famous characters, like Gary Oldman as Sirius Black in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” young Anakin Skywalker in “The Phantom Menace,” or the first glimpse of Michael Fassbender as Magneto in “X-Men: First Class.”

 

 

Have I missed any truly great movie marketing? What has been your favorite teaser poster over the years?

Drew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 13 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Oklahoma senator: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid
3073 points3074 points | 2408 comments
vote
Anyone Regret Slashing National Weather Service Budget Now?: With GOP-backed cuts to forecasting agency, experts warn future storms will go undetected and more lives lost
1039 points1040 points | 553 comments
vote
Oklahoma senator wants to offset tornado aid with other cuts
152 points153 points | 60 comments
vote
Horrifying new trend: Posting rapes to Facebook " In Chicago this weekend, prosecutors announced three teenaged boys will tried as adults for aggravated criminal sexual assault after allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl — and posting a video of the attack on Facebook."
31 points32 points | 15 comments
vote
New campaign compares gun control to anti-LGBT discrimination
30 points31 points | 11 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations