The Box Movie Poster

What's in the Box?

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (33)

It took Richard Kelly five years to follow-up Donnie Darko,and the result was “Southland Tales,” which was, well, disappointing. And nonsensical. And kind of weird. And kind of entertaining in a bizarre way, like listening to a guy speak word gibberish for an hour and a half. It’s only taken three years, now, to follow up Southland Tales, but it’s hard to say whether The Box is going to redeem Kelly. It’s about a married couple with a child that discovers a box. They learn that, if they push the button to open the box, they’ll receive a million dollars. However, it will also result in the death of someone they don’t know. So, it’s like a little morality tale. Intriguing premise, though it’s hard to imagine it’ll fill an entire movie. Right now, I’m just hoping for a little linear logic.

Anyway, the married couple is played by James Marsden (good!) and Cameron Diaz (eesh). Here’s the movie poster:

Very revealing, huh? There’s Cameron Diaz, and she’s got a splash of red across her face. And a little man with a box. It’s not exactly winning me over. Clearly, the poster designer needs to take a cue from the movie-poster designer for Where the Wild Things Are. I mean: Look at their new movie poster. Now that’s a poster that makes me want to see the movie:

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Comments

Cameron Diaz?

Hohohohohoh, nooooooo, I don't think so.

Posted by: BarbadoSlim at April 7, 2009 9:23 AM

I think a movie about Paltrows head in a box would be much better.
Maybe include Justin's member and you would have oscar GOLD.

Posted by: badalamenti at April 7, 2009 9:23 AM

maybe it will call the cenobites to come and carry her back to hell...

Posted by: gp at April 7, 2009 9:28 AM

Did Diaz know the premise before she signed up? How is she going to shoehorn her boilerplate "dancing and singing poorly to a pop song" scene into this one?

Posted by: branded at April 7, 2009 9:28 AM

"..shoehorn her boilerplate "dancing and singing poorly to a pop song" scene into this one?.."

And her dancing in her panties routine!

Posted by: BarbadoSlim at April 7, 2009 9:30 AM

I'm confused: Diaz's box has a button and kills strangers? This is surprising?

As for Wild Things (without the threesome, one hopes, or the bubbly), why would anyone want to watch a colonialist fable about the temporary, cruel, and arbitrary rule of the civilized over the world of the savage?

Posted by: Lance at April 7, 2009 9:37 AM

How about a box that, when opened, would turn Chris Brown into an inmate? Maybe to O.J.? Who's turned to sodomy as a new hobby in prison?

Miss me BSlim?

Posted by: Xtreme at April 7, 2009 9:38 AM

Personally, I'm desperately hoping for a scene where Frank Langella pimp slaps Cameron Diaz. Should that occur, he will fulfill a total ascension to Godhood.

Posted by: Doctor Controversy at April 7, 2009 9:39 AM

I think a movie about Paltrows head in a box would be much better.
Maybe include Justin's member and you would have oscar GOLD.

Posted by: badalamenti at April 7, 2009 9:23 AM

THIS is a movie I would watch!!! I don't WANT to know what is or has been in Cameron's box, but I'm sure whatever it was/is, has laid in a large supply of Valtrex and Proactive.

And, seriously, in this day and age, with the economy in the shitter, who would give a shit about some random stranger.

son brings in mysterious box, including letter explaining terms...

CD: Oh, it says here that if we push this button, we'll *giggle giggle* get, like, a million dollars!! But, if we do, some poor, little stranger will die. Oh, my oh my, what shall we do?

JM: Push the fucking button, bitch!! Hopefully the one who dies will be a Palin or Bernie Madoff.....or Michael Bay....or YOU!!

Posted by: dammitjanet at April 7, 2009 9:40 AM

The Box is actually based on an old Twilight Zone episode which was itself based on a short story called "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson. I teach this story each year with my freshmen and am MORTIFIED by how many unashamedly say they would push the button.

Posted by: superEdna at April 7, 2009 9:41 AM

My 4.5 year old saw the poster for WTWTA and squealed, "I see the creature! The wild creature! Can we watch it can we watch it CAN WE WATCH IT??!" So, yeah, the poster works.

Posted by: Pinky McLadybits at April 7, 2009 9:47 AM

If I remember the Twilight Zone episode correctly, it seems to me that the story focused on the husband's point of view. His wife was an insufferable bitch and a shrew and all around evil person which was all just a set up for the twist. After she explains that she doesn't care if someone dies, as long as it's someone she doesn't know she goes ahead and pushed the button. After which a mysterious stranger shows up to deliver the cash, collect the box and explain the twist, which was;

*Spoiler alert*

That if you pushed the button and collected the money, the box would be given to someone else, someone you didn't know. Implying that as soon as they pushed the button, whomever pushed it last, (in this case the bitch wife,) would die. So in the Twilight Zone version at least, the husband remains guiltless, but gets to collect his money, and in theory his bitch wife will die soon.

Posted by: Roaddog at April 7, 2009 9:54 AM

Actually that poster for 'The Box' looks just like the one from 'From Hell' except not as good.

Posted by: twig at April 7, 2009 9:54 AM

Aww.. almost anything WTWTA right now (poster, trailer that I watch almost daily) makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I would push the button if I got a million dollars and knew that Paris Hilton would die. It would be both beneficial for me and the WORLD.

Posted by: legib at April 7, 2009 9:57 AM

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

Feel free to delete this if I'm ruining someting but....

The original short story had a pretty fantastic twist ending. We used to tell this story at summer camp-I didn't know until later that it was a twilight zone episode. Stretching the story to movie length though-that may well involve a lot of padding.

Posted by: Mrcreosote at April 7, 2009 9:57 AM

The Twilight Zone episode was on yesterday and i watched it because I'm curious about the movie. I don't know how they're going to stretch that story out to a feature length film.

Posted by: Andrew at April 7, 2009 9:58 AM

Miss me BSlim?

Posted by: Xtreme at April 7, 2009 9:38 AM

-------------------------------------------
:)

Posted by: BarbadoSlim at April 7, 2009 9:58 AM

Maybe we could get two for one, with Diaz's and Paltrow's heads in separate boxes. Like Diaz looks in the box and there's Paltrow's head. And then she looks back, and it's her own head this time.

And then she looks back and she's never in another movie ever, ever, ever.

I'd pay to see that.

Posted by: socalledonlycousins at April 7, 2009 10:19 AM

Ah, socalled our minds are sympatico.....

Posted by: dammitjanet at April 7, 2009 10:58 AM

superEdna, You know, millions of strangers around the world die every day. By pushing the button, would you just be taking credit for someone who was going to die anyway (well, we're ALL going to die anyway), or would you be responsible for No. 1,000,001? And how would you ever know anyway? You could always tell yourself, well, I just offed some 98-year-old on life support in a nursing home. Where's my money?

The Mathieson/Twilight Zone twist, however ... Ooops.

Posted by: , (the commenter formerly known as bucdaddy) at April 7, 2009 11:13 AM

I love that poster (Wild Things).

Posted by: Cindy at April 7, 2009 11:16 AM

why would anyone want to watch a colonialist fable about the temporary, cruel, and arbitrary rule of the civilized over the world of the savage?

Check out "The Man Who Would Be King" and you will know.

Posted by: frumpiefox at April 7, 2009 11:18 AM

How's about the twist in this movie being that, when Diaz inevitably presses the button, she sees how good the film would've been if she and Richard Kelly weren't involved? Tight close-up on her widened eyes, gaping mouth, and a whispered, "Oh...wow..." before cut to black and the credits roll.

Posted by: David at April 7, 2009 11:39 AM

In the story, bucdaddy, they argue about that issue. What if it's some diseased native in the Congo? Some ancient Chinese man who will die any day? But then again, what if it's someone's little girl? A single mother of four? I don't want that on me, even if there's only a remote chance. No money in the world is worth that. I've lost people I love; I don't wish that on anyone.

Posted by: superEdna at April 7, 2009 12:04 PM

SPOILER SPOILER
SPOILIER SPOILER

In the story, the husband is totally against the button, but the wife is desperate to buy all the things she desires. They aruge throughout the story, revealing that they are two very different people. The husband is mortified that she would even consider the offer. She ends up pushing the button. Later, the hosptial calls to tell her that the husband was accidentally pushed in front of a train or subway. She starts thinking about his life insurance, which, after double indemnity, is the exact amount she was offered for pushing the button. The mysterious many with the box calls. She screams, "But you said it was someone I didn't know!" His reply?

"My dear lady, do you really think you knew your husband?"

Posted by: superEdna at April 7, 2009 12:07 PM

For a million? Nah. The rate the economy's going, that won't buy you a candy bar in a year.

Posted by: Lucas at April 7, 2009 12:12 PM

How about this variation on the ending: Diaz pushes the button only to realize that she doesn't know HERSELF (in an "I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me" kind of way) and promptly drops dead. Now that's a movie I'd pay to see.

Posted by: jimbob at April 7, 2009 12:20 PM

Is that Cameron Diaz or Madonna? Can't say I'm totally surprised that one looks like the other.

Posted by: Victoria at April 7, 2009 1:18 PM

I remember this story from Sophmore Lit. SuperEdna is right. I loved the last line: "How well did you really know your husband?" I wish they would reverse the characters though and it's the wife who dies. I like James Marsden.

Posted by: Miss Nev at April 7, 2009 2:21 PM

legib - I was thinking something similar. Love that poster. Makes me want to watch the trailer again.

Posted by: tamatha at April 7, 2009 3:28 PM

I am so going to drag my friend to see Where The Wild Things are! If it comes down here. And if I could get over the hordes of shrieking children that I KNOW are going to be there. (Hence why I avoid children's shows as a rule)

Hell she OWES me! I was dragged to see Bride Wars and 27 Dresses! I deserve at least a children's flick dammit!

Posted by: Four Eyes at April 7, 2009 4:08 PM

Does the box have a gremlin in it? Cause then it could just kill Cameron Diaz without all the horseshit and save everybody some time.

Posted by: , (the commenter formerly known as bucdaddy) at April 8, 2009 12:23 AM

Oh it would be wonderful to see Diaz die in the end, but it all looks so cheesy, from plot to poster, and reminds me a little of monkey paw, you get what you want but something awful has to happen first.

Posted by: alley cat at April 8, 2009 11:18 AM

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