Here's some Blu-ray cover art I did a couple years ago that I was starting to think might never get released. This title faced an extended delay as the distributor tried, ultimately in vain, to get a new higher quality HD scan of the original film elements. After two years, they finally decided to go ahead and do a very limited release of this 1993 goofy Wong Jing action comedy, FUTURE COPS. On the bright side, at least now there's an acceptible (if maybe not spectacular) HD version out there for fans. Yes, there ARE fans of this film. It's a bit broad for me personally. (And I often like broad humor.) And the cast is top tier. But for me, it just doesn't quite gel as a whole.
My brief from the client was to NOT raise the attention of CAPCOM's lawyers. The film has characters obviously inspired by the popular Japanese video game franchise, yet not officially licensed by CAPCOM. So my art should also not resemble the video game fighters too closely. The only "video game" reference is the old CRT monitor showing nothing but, appropriately enough, static. (Anybody else have a strange nostalgia for "tv screen snow"?) And the 8-bit font of the director's name. I leaned more into an anime style. It was a gamble, but the movie is a goofy mess, so I figured the art could be too.
Actually this style of illustration more closely matches my normal, "comfort-zone" style (minus the manga-ish faces, which obviously is not my thing), than the painterly stuff I feel is expected of me for movie posters. As a young child I was heavily influenced by the artwork found in 60s-70s MAD Magazine. Early exposure to the work of Don Martin, Basil Wolverton, Jack Davis, Antonio Prohias and Sergio Aragonés boiled my brain, and certainly inspired my burgeoning imagination.
Side note: Recently, I was super lucky to catch the wonderful exhibition of original MAD MAGAZINE art and memorabilia at the Norman Rockwell Museum of Illustration located in his hometown of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The Rockwell stuff was great, of course, but man, feast your eyes on that Wally Wood original?! Glorious!
Anyway, I gave each character a background color matching their costume, bursting forth from manga panels with action lines, halftones and whatever else. Hopefully you get the idea, without it really looking like typical Street Fighter art at all. Mission... accomplished?
For the inside inlay I did another piece just for variety. I wasn't sure how much anyone would care for the cover art since it was a bit different. But I guess if you hate the cover, you'll hate the inside image too, since they intentionally share a common style.
Surprisingly the film distributor included a double-sided poster with this release featuring BOTH art pieces. Yikes!
