The movie posters that never were

Events website Daybees gained access to the archives of some of Hollywood’s leading poster designers, such as Warner Bros’ Bill Gold and James Verdesoto and Vivek Mathur, of consultancy Indika.

The rejected designs are presented alongside the final posters, showing the development, rejected ideas and creative paths that led to the eventual designs.

Some show a clear development, such as Indika’s designs for Pulp Fiction, which are all focused around Uma Thurman’s character:

Some show a variety of treatments, such as Bill Gold’s work for A Clockwork Orange:

And Mystic River:

In Gold’s work for the Exorcist, the rejected designs are somewhat more haunting than the final poster, focusing on the character of Regan rather than the titular exorcist:

And, perhaps most intriguingly, Brian D Fox’s alternate Batman poster shows a classy Art Deco treatment, which was rejected in favour of the logo-based official poster:

You can see all the rejected posters, with the final versions, at daybees.com.