Anyone remember the 1994 Canadian low-budget thriller “The Paperboy” starring Alexandra Paul from “Baywatch” as a suburban woman being stalked and terrorized by a deranged…um, paperboy? Yeah, it was pretty bad.
But no worries – save for the title, the upcoming dramatic thriller of the same name starring Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey and John Cusack has no connection to the former film. As proof, a new ’70s-inspired one-sheet for the movie has been released that shows Efron and Kidman sitting in a vintage pink pony car – Kidman eyeing the younger man with a subtly seductive, Suzanne Stone-Maretto in “To Die For” look – as McConaughey stands forlornly in a white shirt and tie outside the vehicle.
In the bottom eighth of the image, a grizzled John Cusack sports a “Jared Leto on PCP” look as he glares creepily from eyes boldly accentuated with black eyeliner.
The film, adapted from the 1995 novel of the same name by Pete Dexter (who also wrote the screenplay), star Efron and McConaughey as two investigative reporters who are hired by a beautiful woman (Nicole Kidman) to help secure the release of a death row inmate (John Cusack) she has fallen in love with. “Precious” director Lee Daniels helmed the film, which was originally set to star Sofia Vergara in the Kidman role and Tobey Maguire in the Cusack role before the two dropped out of the project.
The film is expected to be released sometime next year.
I really like the dreamy look of the poster, with its gauzy ambience and retro feel, though I can’t help but feel there was a more artful way to incorporate Cusack into the image instead of crudely inserting his jarring image at the bottom. With that reservation, I’ll go ahead and rate this a “B” – though I am intrigued.
After checking out the full poster below, be sure and rate it for yourself at top left!