*Different* Matrix int'l 1-sheet (3 heads)...

[Harry Caul]

Alright, in addition to the Matrix "lightning" poster mystery... I have a question about another international Matrix 1-sheet.  Does anyone know if this poster was actually printed or not? 





The above images came from an auction I won on eBay UK.  I won the poster thinking it was double sided, but that turned out to be an error in the listing.  I can back out if I want, but I'm curious as to whether this poster was ever printed.  The seller is based in Portugal and he worked at the theaters from 1998 to 2000.  His other items seem to back this up as he has a bunch of posters from that time period... even some DTS theater sound posters and the like.  The "RFM" sticker at the bottom is a radio station in Portugal that they had some sort of cross promotion with.  He said all of their posters came from either the US or the UK. 

Now, all of the above seems perfectly reasonable... the guys story sounds legit and I know this image was used by the studios in Swedish and Spanish markets.  What has me hesitating, is that the only other person I've seen sell this poster is the dreaded tloce:

http://cgi.ebay.com/MATRIX-ROLLED-B-27X40-MOVIE-POSTER-KEANU-REEVES-/370399236604?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563d83d1fc#ht_500wt_1156

So a few questions I'm hoping to get answers on....

1. Was this (English language) poster ever printed by the studio?

2. There is no rating... could it be a second and equally rare international 1-sheet?  Keep in mind that the "lightning" poster is also only single-sided...

3. Or could it possibly be a UK 1-sheet?  There is no rating, but the Matrix quad doesn't have a UK rating either.  And US and UK 1-sheets were the same size by that point...

Any help would be appreciated as I need to let the seller know if they should ship or not.   Thanks!

[skyjackers]

Not a UK 1-Sheet because it has a weird logo on the bottom right that has nothing to do with the UK.

[Harry Caul]

As mentioned, that RFM logo in the lower right is a sticker that was put on the poster. That shouldn't be used to determined authenticity or country of origin.

Anyone else have any ideas...?

[holiday]

I have a copy in my collection, sans that sticker.  My understanding is that its an international onesheet, and yes, my understanding is also that it's as rare as the lightning poster.  I wouldn't trust Loce's copy at all.  Tom's no dummy, and if he had an original copy, he'd have it priced a lot higher than $30.  Now, I'm damned tempted to buy a copy and see how it compare's to my copy.  But likely I will not.

Hope this helps.

[Harry Caul]

That definitely helps... thanks Holiday!  I'm comfortable with this seller's story so I'm going ahead with the purchase.  I highly doubt they bought a copy from Tom when the movie was being released in Portugal...

I'm intrigued about getting a comparison copy from Tom as well... Considering how little I got mine for I would be willing chip in half if you want to go ahead and buy one from him.  I would like to fully authenticate mine if possible...

[Harry Caul]

Hmmm... I just checked your site Holiday and the one you have posted is considerably different than mine.  Yours doesn't have any credit block at all!  Were there two versions of this poster?  A teaser and a regular? 

[agentprovocateur]

Harry, I emailed the seller before the auction closed and got the same photos, what in intrigued me was it being a double sided English language version as I've never known one to come up (there have been auctions for the Swedish one sheet that state it's double sided tho). She got back to me apologising saying it was only single sided and would amend the auction. Because of the extra Portuguese sticker I left it. I've always had a few of these in my 'watch list' on ebay but never jumped on one as I've not been totally sure which are legit.

From what I've seen it looks like there's several versions:
Japanese 'English language vers.' (20"x28") - the ebay auction doesn't state double or single sided
Swedish 'Otroligt men sant?' vers. (27"x40") - with round soundtrack graphic - the auction states it being double sided
Italian 'Credete all 'incredibile' vers. (2 sheet) - with white borders on all sides - the ebay auction doesn't state double or single sided
Polish 'Czym Jest' vers. (27"x39") - no faces at all - the auction states it being single sided

As for a Spanish version I'm confused, an ebay auction saying it was a Spanish version had the same strapline as the Swedish version, plus on www.themoviepostershop.com (reprint central) they say they have a Spanish version reprint but it also has the same Swedish text 'Otroligt men sant?'. I'm yet to see a Spanish language version, if you've got a photo I'd love to see it.

On the US or international (obviously English language) version front I've only seen a few auctions. The aforementioned one that has the additional Portuguese sticker and the one Holiday mentioned that he's not entirely convinced about (with very poor photo on the auction). As Holiday's got one they do exist. And thinking along those lines the Portuguese version you just won on ebay could well be an international one sheet that they sent to other countries rather than designing and printing a whole new batch of different language versions.

Even the UK quad throws up some questions as I don't understood the massive range in prices they go for. I know there's reprints but some cosher looking auctions from good sellers have them for £35-$100 odd and then there's some that are asking 100's of dollars (seem to remember a couple for around $450!). The same with dealers websites, although Quadbod have one for a reasonable £65.

I don't think that helps at all but thought I'd chip in I might go for Loce's auction at some time to see what turns up, will let you know if I find out anything.

[Edit: cool, just had a quick butchers at yours Holiday, nope, never seen that one available at all! Great poster... does throw up the conundrum about whether there's a legit full size English language one sheet with credits tho.]

[holiday]

It's just a stock photo on my site.  I haven't had it out to take a good photo.  Here's the best pic I have from when I was inventorying my collection:





Also, here's the only double sided version I know of:



H

[Zorba]

Swedish 'Otroligt men sant?' vers. (27"x40") - with round soundtrack graphic - the auction states it being double sided

I dont know if this helps but I have the Swedish version. Its double sided but its not at exactly 27x40. I dont remember the exact measurement but its more like 27.5 x 39 .25 (70 x100).
Swedish and Spanish posters are usually that same size.

I was going to post pic but it looks like Holidays.

[Harry Caul]

It's just a stock photo on my site.  I haven't had it out to take a good photo.  Here's the best pic I have from when I was inventorying my collection:

Thanks, that looks like the one I just bought.

[Harry Caul]

As for a Spanish version I'm confused, an ebay auction saying it was a Spanish version had the same strapline as the Swedish version, plus on www.themoviepostershop.com (reprint central) they say they have a Spanish version reprint but it also has the same Swedish text 'Otroligt men sant?'. I'm yet to see a Spanish language version, if you've got a photo I'd love to see it.

One Sheet Index has a Spanish printers proof.  The only real difference on any of these is the language of the tag line...

[agentprovocateur]

Interesting... it does look like it could be an international one sheet sent to Portugal with sticker added Harry.

Having seen Holiday's stock image of a teaser version without credits I dug up my old Matrix folder to see if I had any info./images of the same poster. No info. I'm afraid but I did find another stock image of it, wonder if it was printed!?



Here's a large image of the 'Faces' poster from the IMPAwards website (http://www.impawards.com/1999/matrix_ver2.html) for reference.



And after a bit of searching Eatbrie has a great Japanese B1 on his website that I've never seen before either!

[Harry Caul]

Aren't Japanese B1s 27"x40" nowadays anyway?  Given that they are both printed in English, isn't it likely that the "Japanese B1" and the "International 1-sheet" are from the exact same printing and we are simply calling them by different names?

I should call mine a Japanese B1... everyone seems to freak out about B1s so it probably just increased in value 10 fold over the $28 I paid for mine 

[agentprovocateur]

Ahhh no, Eatbrie's Japanese B1 is a full Japanese language 'Faces' version, slightly different to your B1 Harry

Just been searching some more, googling 'matrix movie poster' this image came up on page 23(!)... not sure if it's small for a one sheet (when compared to the dodgy poster on the left). But then again I've never seen a reprint of it either.



I think the image is somewhere on www.myspace.com and I pixelated her face!

[holiday]

One Sheet Index has a Spanish printers proof.  The only real difference on any of these is the language of the tag line...

This picture, I believe, came from Dan Rickard's old authentication site.

[holiday]

Japanese B1's are 28 1/4" x 40 1/2" if memory serves. It's a noticeable difference, and they will not fit in a onesheet frame without ruining the left and right edges.

[Dread_Pirate_Mel]

So apparently I've bought - with the help of a forum pal in UK - the extremely rare "Three Faces" Matrix one sheet poster that is in English.  It sold at Cameo auctions today for £45.  It's still a mystery.  Why were there two international Matrix posters - the faces version and the lightning version?  Cameo described it as a "teaser" but nothing on the poster indicates that it is an advance poster.

Does anybody have any additional info?

This is the image from Cameo:



This is a large stock image from MoviePosterDB:



Matrix Spanish version (printer's proof, image from OneSheetIndex.com):

[Harry Caul]

Well done Mel... seems like a good price.  So we can now confirm at least 3 of these exist! 

Me, you and Holiday should chip in together to buy one of TLoce's bootlegs to do an authentication post.  We can probably return it for a refund when we are done anyway!

[Dread_Pirate_Mel]

Me, you and Holiday should chip in together to buy one of TLoce's bootlegs to do an authentication post.  We can probably return it for a refund when we are done anyway!

I was thinking the same thing. It certainly looks suspect from the lame photo. Not all of his stuff is fake, of course.  I've bought three minor obscure posters from him and they were legit. But he did sell the fake Inception to Anthony, although to his credit he no longer is selling that poster.

[Dread_Pirate_Mel]

The international one sheet arrived today. It is exactly 27x40, single-sided, all fonts are super-sharp,and does not otherwise appear to be any kind of repro.  It's never been sold by Heritage or Emovie, although they have sold the similar Swedish DS OS.

Ed also has one of these, so at least four forum members have this:

[Harry Caul]

That was from Cameo correct?  How was the packaging?

[Dread_Pirate_Mel]

That was from Cameo correct?  How was the packaging?

I know a bloke in London who helps me out from time to time.  I help him out from time to time.  It all works out. Makes me forget about all that unpleasantness from 1775-1783

[Harry Caul]

So they didn't ship it?  Probably why it looks so nice