There is no question about it, what we have here is the laziest poster designer in the world, and probably the most obvious one. You do not have to be a detective or a genius to figure this out because this one is in the clear and visible from the plane – the poster for a “Shot Caller” reused the body of superstar Dwayne Johnson and photoshopped the head of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau on it.
The Shot Caller is a new movie in which the Game of Thrones star Coster-Waldau plays a fresh-out convict who gets drawn back into the world of crime which got him in the Big House in the first place (classic story, already seen). All of this conundrum happens when the members of his old gang force him to orchestrate a major crime with a brutal rival gang on the streets of Southern California. The co-stars of this movie are Lake Bell, Jon Bernthal, and Shut Eye star Jeffrey Donovan.
OK, enough about the movie let’s get to the hot topic. The poster. Birth.Movies.Death writer Scott Wampler actually was the one who saw this first, and he pointed out that the Shot Caller poster has a bit more than a slight resemblance with the 2013 Dwayne Johnson movie Snitch poster. What is interesting is that both of these movies were directed by Ric Roman Waugh which is probably the reason behind this awkward moment. And a piece of advice for the director – maybe you should actually consider working with a more-original poster artist.
Y’know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that’s the same photo with different heads. But surely no one would be that lazy. pic.twitter.com/4JP5EAjbLs
— Scott Wampler™ (@ScottWamplerBMD) August 11, 2017
After you put these two movie posters side by side, you can see that it is pretty much the same. If we neglect the background that needs to be different since these are two distinct movies and stories, you will see that the posture and clothes on both Dwayne and Nikolaj are pretty much the same down to the wrinkle on the shirt. Yes, Nikolaj has some less bulged bicep than Dwayne (it would be unrealistic for them to have the same size) and a lot more tattoos on it but that is pretty much the only noticeable difference on the image (besides the heads of course). A closer inspection of the Shot Caller poster brought something else to our attention. As you will see for yourself the lead actor’s name was misspelled, instead of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau it writes Nikolaj Costner-Waldau.
This could just be a case of a very overworked and tired poster designer who decided to cut some corners, but it is hardly an excuse to misspell stars name on the image that will represent the movie. Some out there might argue that this could be an unofficial poster for the Shot Caller, but the history of bad posters taught us that this actually could be an example of a truly lazy poster designer who went even further with the wrongly spelled name of the lead actor. Shame.