Check this out:
I that poster for Star Wars on Twitter earlier today, and I wanted some more information: was this an actual poster used to advertise the movie in Japan, or was this one artist’s flight-of-fancy? Many artists create “unofficial” movie posters for favorite films, so I wondered if that’s what this was.
Artist Noriyoshi Ohrai made these three posters for Japanese dubbed versions of all three Original Trilogy movies, and they are glorious:
I wonder what made the artist opt for a more “minimalistic” approach for Return of the Jedi, only choosing to show C-3PO and R2-D2 in front of a wonderful cosmic background, with what are clearly the main lightsaber blades of the movie at the sides. Still, it’s a fascinating artistic choice, and I’m glad these posters came to my attention today.
More of Noriyushi’s artwork here. These posters weren’t the only time he had Star Wars as his subject! And much of his other work is breathtaking. I might need to see if there’s a book collecting his work available….