Opening today, Soul Menfeatures the final performance from Bernie Mac, who died unexpectedly on August 9. The movie also includes a cameo from Isaac Hayes, who died one day later. Both men join a long list of people whose last films were released after their deaths, a list that includes Brad Renfro, whose final performance, in The Informers, can be seen in theaters come next May.
Unlike some names on that list, Bernie Mac, whose voice can also be heard in the new animated sequel Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, isn’t likely to receive a posthumous Oscar nomination as a tribute to his final work. But as one of the most underrated comic actors of the past few years, Mac likely gives a great performance as soul singer “Floyd Henderson,” enough to fall in with the crop of posthumously released roles we’ve showcased below:
That’s not actually Marilyn Monroe in the McDonalds commercial above. It’s Susan Griffiths, a Marilyn impersonator who you may have seen on the cover of this month’s GQ magazine. I’m not sure how old the ad is, but I wanted to use it as the Clip of the Day in order to share some other McDonalds print ads that I discovered while on vacation in Buenos Aires last week (no, I wasn’t dumb enough to bother eating at McDonalds with all the great Argentine beef elsewhere; I was using the restroom). I don’t know how old these ads are either, but they seem pretty despicable regardless. Check out some pics of Bogie, James Dean, Marlon Brando and Nat King Cole hawking cheeseburgers after the jump.
Though I first buzzed about an Academy Award nomination for Heath Ledger in The Dark Knightmore than a month before his death, I now want to take it all back. I feel all the talk of Ledger’s posthumous Oscar chances will cloud my mind when I finally do see it, and it will probably also cloud the Academy’s judgment, too. Six months from now, when the nominations are announced on January 22 (coincidentally the one-year anniversary of Ledger’s death), if Ledger is not recognized for his role as The Joker, there will surely be an uproar — actually, Hollywood might just up and self-implode.
I’m not the only one annoyed by all the Oscar buzz. Terry Gilliam, who directed Ledger in The Brothers Grimmand the upcoming The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, is calling “bullshit” on the whole thing, particularly against Warner Bros., which Gilliam accuses of exploiting Ledger’s death and chance of a posthumous Oscar for publicity purposes. Considering most Oscar campaigns for live actors are really just part of movie marketing, he has a good point.
There is so much going on these days in the marketing of The Dark Knight(see Chris Thilk’s most recent update/summary here), but Warner Bros. may be wasting a lot of time and money on its campaigns. If we’re to believe an AP story from yesterday, there’s already enough interest in the Batman Beginssequel coming from two separate directions: comic book fandom (”the magnitude of a comic-book franchise with an illustrious 70-year history”) and, of course, the cult of celebrity death (”arguably the biggest movie featuring a posthumous role in Hollywood history.”).
The article highlights a number of posthumous film releases, including those of James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause and Giant), Spencer Tracy (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner), Will Rogers (Steamboat Round the Bend), Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon), his son, Brandon Lee (The Crow), John Candy (Canadian Baconand Wagon’s East!), Natalie Wood (Brainstorm), Carole Lombard (To Be or Not to Be), Oliver Reed (Gladiator), Clark Gable (The Misfits) and Aaliyah, whoseQueen of the Damnedis implied to have only been successful on account of the singer/actress’ accidental demise. However, none of these performers, the article argues, had the benefit of having such a blockbuster swan song as a Batman movie (coupled with the Terry Gilliam movie, of course, but Ledger’s actual final film is considerably less anticipated and so may be less notable). So certainly Ledger will be winning the contest for Biggest Posthumous Box Office.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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There is so much going on these days in the marketing of 
