Tuesday, September 12, 2017

E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. Steven Spielberg's iconic story of an unlikely friendship between a young boy and a stranded, lovably strange alien is filmmaking magic at its purest. On Tuesday Mondo will have a stunning new poster by Jonathan Burton celebrating the classic sci-fi film as it's released on a new 35th anniversary edition Blu-ray. Mondo feels Jonathan is one of the best artists working today and his approach to this poster and the final rendering is nothing short of spectacular.

Here's what Jonathan had to say about the poster:

"Settling on an idea from this visually spectacular film was a difficult task. I sketched out many possibilities from different scenes but this one mainly stood out because of the wonderful ‘phone home’ contraption which I wanted to delve into. It’s a kind of W.Heath Robinson style construction where a small action of the wind in the trees tugs at a rope which pulls a fork to turn a wheel which sets off this surprising machine to send a message through space. It’s a magical moment in the film made all the more endearing by the use of Elliot’s 1980s equipment.

I didn’t want to shy away from showing E.T. as a major element of the poster as he’s so iconic but also because I welcomed the challenge of drawing a creature so fascinatingly odd. The character is a great design of unthreatening strangeness and this balance is tricky to capture. His pointing finger is an obvious tribute to the original poster though I like how we have it leading to his home, and with the special spot varnish we only get a glimpse of his solar system within the right light.