Cool Art: Zardoz by Richy Beckett

ZARDOZ is a fantastic movie and I was thrilled to be invited to create this poster for it. I feel that over the years people’s fascination with the outlandish outfits and tripped out dialogue has distracted from what really is a brilliantly ambitious sci-fi saga jam-packed with iconic imagery and at the heart of it, a compelling and solid story.

After immersing myself in it I found such a wealth of aesthetically delicious visuals that it became impossible to fit everything I wanted into this poster. I could’ve created an entire series exploring the visual feast of Boorman’s alternate universe. So after seemingly endless pruning I was left with the core elements that made up the final illustration, and took the liberty of showing a metaphoric destruction of the iconic stone godhead as my own twist on the tale. My aim was to create a poster that celebrates the ambition, spectacle and dare I say beauty of ZARDOZ, hopefully doing justice to the movie’s true spirit and creating a hero of the man who dared to challenge his god (in knee-high hooker boots).