The credit block on a poster is important, giving recognition to the people who have worked hard to make the movie. Or at least some of the people - that epic scroll at the end of the movie is for almost everybody, and the poster is for the most important, or arguably, the ones with the best agents. Some of the credits on the new poster for The Avengers: Age of Ultron are pretty special and worth a closer look. Moreso than the actual poster image, which is like a bad dream with weird perspective, focus and faux-lighting glitches creating all sorts of ugliness. Perhaps the most interesting details in the credit block are amongst the most obvious. Listed as being in the cast are Anthony Mackie, Hayley Atwell, Idris Elba and Stellan Skarsgard. Before all of those - coming right after the core Avengers, in fact - is Don Cheadle. Does this suggest Rhodey will have a big role? Biggish? Or just that he's got great representatives? Idris Elba had said that he would be appearing in the film, announcing that he'd filmed a scene with another established Marvel star. Somebody who isn't on this credit block, though, which presumably indicates that their appearance is supposed to be a secret. The credited composer is Marvel stalwart Brian Tyler, though Danny Elfman is listed as providing "additional music." This is a pretty rare credit, especially on a poster, and it's hard to decipher. Has Elfman written a new key theme, maybe? This is what happened on Army of Darkness, with Elfman writing the 'flagship' cue and Joseph DeLuca scoring everything else. Or maybe, and this is definitely a long shot, Marvel will bring Spider-Man into this film, and he'll be accompanied by Elfman's theme from the Sam Raimi films. That's not just a long shot, it's more or less a moonshot. There could be any sort of special track that Elfman gets to provide - something performed 'live' in the film, for example. It's all a mystery, but I'm definitely keen to find out the solution. Credited as Head of Visual Development and Co-Head of Visual Development respectively are Ryan Meinerding and Charlie Wen. Is this a record? Have those roles ever been credited on a poster before? Nice to see such a visual film give this recognition, I will say. Perhaps the flat out weirdest credit is the one that reads Special Thanks to Marvel Studios Funding Chairman David Maisel. Is this the thin end of a giant wedge in which we start seeing the money men's names on our movie posters? Really? Perhaps the Age of Ultron poster is a weird one, perhaps its a harbinger of things to come. The film itself is released in the UK on April 24th and the US on May 1st. I know I'm looking forward to it.
Brendon Connelly has been a film writer since the early 90s, with time on the staff of Orbit Magazine, Slashfilm, Bleeding Cool, Den of Geek and many more. He's a long time teacher of film studies and practical filmmaking classes, and has directed music videos, commercials, short films and more. His favourite film is Terry Gilliam's Brazil, his favourite food is pancakes or crepes, and he tries to live his life by the teachings of Kermit the Frog.
