Because we can’t be everywhere at once, every film festival leads to at least one film that, despite the buzz, never quite gets above our radar. For example, we missed Mike Mills‘ “Beginners” at Toronto last year, but when we finally caught up with it in SXSW, it turned out to be one of our favorites of the year so far. And, while we took a good stab at Sundance this year, somehow, the presence of “The Devil’s Double” didn’t quite register — or at least it did, but the prospect of a biopic of Saddam Hussein‘s psychotic son Uday, and of his body double, with “Mamma Mia” star Dominic Cooper playing both roles, and direction from “Die Another Day” and “xXx2: The State of The Union” helmer Lee Tamahori may not have particularly grabbed us.
But the film got generally good notices (even if Anne Thompson called it “overwrought and often silly”), with Cooper’s performance in particular coming in for high praise — it allegedly helped the actor land the role originally earmarked for Tom Hardy in “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” Lionsgate picked the film up at the festival, and have high hopes for the picture, planning a theatrical roll-out in the summer, so the marketing campaign is just kicking off, with Ain’t It Cool debuting a poster for the flick. And it’s pretty far-out.
As you can see below, the poster is rocking a definite “Scarface” vibe (a name that’s come up more than once around the picture), but with a blinged-out make-over, with both Cooper and his surroundings getting a Shirley Eaton-style makeover, appearing entirely in gold. We’re not sure it’s something we’d stick on our walls, but it’s a bold, eye-grabbing move, and certainly one of the more imaginative one-sheets we’ve seen this year — we’re a little more intrigued about the film as a result. “The Devil’s Double” also stars Ludivine Sagnier, Philip Quast and Raad Rawi, and Lionsgate will open it on July 29th.