When marketing films in different countries studios often focus the marketing materials on any characters or actors that they think will have a pull in that particular country.

Back when Cannonball Run was released, for instance, the posters in Hong Kong featured  Jackie Chan much more prominently than the film’s actual star, Burt Reynolds. A good recent example is the marketing in Japan for Inception which features Ken Watanabe much more prominently than he appears in the US marketing.

So for the new Japanese TV spot for Predators it is not surprising that the main character featured is the Yakuza Hanzo, played by Louis Ozawa Changchien.

I’ve got to admit that I loved it when I saw that there would be a sword wielding Yakuza in Predators so this TV spot is pretty well pitched at me too. Hopefully you’ll get a kick out of it too. Check it out embedded below.

Predators is released on July the 9th.

Following a teaser earlier this year we now have a full trailer for Space Battleship Yamato, thanks to Twitch.

The film is an adaptation of the anime Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers as it was known in the USA) and will be released in Japan in December.

The filmmakers are clearly aiming for a grand scale space opera with this one and the trailer shows off some impressive footage.

With a budget of over $20 million and a lead actor plucked from the Japanese Pop phenomenon SMAP this will undoubtedly be a success in Japan but this could be a film that could find a large audience in the West too.

Check out the trailer below and let us know your thoughts.

Ever wondered what an 80′s style commercial would look like for Lots-o-Huggin Bear? Wonder no longer as the clever dudes and dudette’s at the Disney / Pixar marketing department have been on the case again and have created just that!

This ties in nicely with the video that Jon posted a few days ago with an English speaking commercial. Toy Story 3 is still ages away in the UK as it’s released 23rd July. The US get it more than a month earlier on 18th June which is all rather frustrating!

Lee Unkrich is in charge of this one with Darla K. Anderson producing. Check out the new video below.

This is easily the best thing you’ll see today – and its a real treat for those of us who are looking forward to Pixar’s Toy Story 3 as ‘someone’ has uploaded an old VHS copy of an advert for one of the new toys, Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear.

This is truly pitch perfect marketing. Everything about this advert is reminiscent of kid’s advert from the 80s (the only thing it’s missing is the Mattel logo at the end), and it helps convey a backstory and a context for this new character while at the same time being a great example of the advertising of that time.

Viral marketing has finally been pushed to the fore as was witnessed with the  alternate reality Watchmen news reports, and I remember fondly the obscure ‘leaked’ security tapes for Joss Whedon’s Serenity being an early, and effective example. As this advert has shown, viral marketing has been taken to a new level, with greater sophistication and with a result as good as this you’ll be almost convinced that Lots-O’-Huggin’-Bear was a real toy from your past.

While marketing companies are getting very good at what they do there’s something about this video that shows Pixar know exactly how to nail their parodies – this is so close to the myriad other, genuine 80s advert online that you’d swear this was real.

Dave has already seen the film and talked to the people at Pixar and there is a tangible air of fun and creativity in the place, this is evident from the films themselves but also the shorts, the marketing and now these viral videos.

I’d love to see Pixar do a whole host of these adverts for their other toys. Click below and enjoy.

Pixar’s Toy Story 3 is easily one of the most anticipated releases this year, and Lee Unkrich’s film is almost upon us, but there’s still time for another trailer – and this one from Japan has a few new moments of Buzz and Woody that are sure to provide your Toy Story fix for another few days.

Yes – Dave has already seen this film, and Yes – I am very jealous, but while he can’t say anything about the film there is a telling smile on his face when I see him talk about it and looking at this new trailer there’s certainly a few plot details alluded to that I wasn’t aware of.

So take a look, and lose yourself in the beauty of Pixar’s finest.

The great guys at Upcoming Pixar pointed us to this one, and we are forever in their debt.

Studio Ghibli are most famous for their feature films such as My Neighbour Totoro (pictured), Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and many more wonderful films but they also occasionally make television adverts.

They recently created an advert for a company called Nisshin Seifun Group to celebrate the company’s 110th anniversary.

The advert was storyboarded by Goro Miyazaki, son of Hayao Miyazaki, the character was drawn by producer Toshio Suzuki and the project overseen by Katsuya Kondo. It focuses on a little kitten and is a very sweet little ad. The longest ad (only 30 seconds though) is embedded below.

Source for the info on the advert: Anime News Network

Here’s the Japanese poster from upcoming musical, directed by Rob Marshall. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, the cast is simply astounding and includes Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman and Sophia Loren. Between them they’ve been nominated for 17 Academy Awards with 7 Awards being won. It’s nice to see a poster with an image that hasn’t been rehashed fro images that we’ve already seen. As far as I’m aware, it’s the first time it’s been released.

I’ve previously posted the trailer and images for the movie which hits UK cinemas 25th November. Marshall has previously brought us Chicago and is going to direct Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth in the “˜Pirates’ franchise.

Click the poster to enlarge and follow the links in this post and related articles below to view other images.

We were lucky enough to see Descent Part 2 at the World Premiere during Frightfest a month or so ago. It’s not out until 4th December so we’ve still got an age before we can post our review but keep your eyes peeled.

The Descent Part 2 stars Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Krysten Cummings, Anna Skellern, Gavan O’Herlihy (Seven Days of Grace), Joshua Dallas (Ghost Machine, “Doctor Who”) and Douglas Hodge (Mansfield Park).

In the meantime, we have this new Japanese poster (click it to enlarge) which basically sums up the film in one image. It has a lady looking scared, a monster’s face and she’s in a pothole. What else could you want?!

If you want to read our report from the premiere you can check it out here and you can check out the trailer here.

Disney have released a new trailer for upcoming 3d movie, A Christmas Carol which is based on the Charles Dickens’ book and stars Jim Carrey as the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge. The only slight issue with the trailer is that it’s the Japanese version! Don’t let that put you off though as most of it is in English with Japanese subtitles. Check out the Japanese voice-over though – I wonder if that guy is the Japanese version of James Earl Jones!

You’ll notice that there’s a couple of new scenes which we haven’t seen in the previous trailers. The movie is directed by movie legend Robert Zemeckis and also stars Robin Wright Penn, Gary Oldman, Michael J. Fox, Bob Hoskins, Colin Firth, Cary Elwes and Molly C. Quinn.

A Christmas Carol is released in UK cinemas November 6th.