Of the demand for his talents by movieland advertising art departments, 61 year-old Colorado-born Peak can well boast, "I turn down ten times as much as I do." Since 1961, the artist - reportedly at fees upwards of $30,000 - has enlivened the marketing of over 100 films, including ROLLERBALL (1975), SUPERMAN (1978), and STAR TREK (1979).

       Illustrator Daniel Gouzee handled the artwork for the Bond posters for MOONRAKER (1979), OCTOPUSSY (1983) and A VIEW TO A KILL (1985). Posters for FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981) and THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (1987) featured photos. The movie work of the New York-based Gouzee also includes such posters as ENEMY MINE (1985) and THE MISSION (1986), both collaborations with Donald Smolen and Associates.

1981 -- Sex got the hard sell in UA's brief controversial return to photo compositions.	1983 -- New York poster artist Daniel Gouzee's visual play on words for OCTOPUSSY had Moore in the grip of Maude Adams as the film's title character.

1985 -- For the last Roger Moore vehicle in the series, Daniel Gouzee came up with a blend of action and glamour worthy of the best of McGinnis and McCarthy.	1987 -- UA returned to photos for Timothy Dalton's debut, designed by Don Smolen.

       The shutdown of UA and its takeover by MGM - the fate of which itself now hangs in the balance - had thrown into turmoil the poster campaign for the 16th Bond. Late last summer, producer "Cubby" Broccoli hired Smolen to create "teaser" campaigns for Christmas and Easter for the movie then called LICENCE REVOKED. "After 16 pictures," observed Smolen, "there was fear that Bond might be passe, that the average teenager might say, 'James Bond? Oh, yeah, my dad used to tell me about that.'"

       Although Smolen subscribes to the axiom "Don't tamper with success," he nevertheless attempted to jazz-up Bond for audiences hip to the high-impact visual style of the '80s. Smolen also sought to rough up the image of the new 007, Timothy Dalton, as "more tough than glamorous." Collaborating with photographer Douglas Kirkland and illustrator Robert Peak, Smolen contributed to the development of nearly half a dozen poster prototypes. The results ranged from Elle magazine chic (Bond photographed lounging with spectacular female consorts in a tropical setting) to bracingly moody and sinister (Dalton as Dirty Harry by Robert Peak.)

       Suddenly, MGM annexed UA. The studio's advertising and publicity director, Gregory Morrison, jettisoned the efforts of Smolen, Kirkland, and Peak. Last winter, MGM shipped to theatres "teaser" posters for the film, retitled LICENSE TO KILL, that were a virtual replay of the by-the-numbers ads for THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (1987). Now, Morrison is out of MGM and the future of the studio - not to mention the posters of Smolen, Peak, and Kirkland - is anybody's guess. With so much in flux, in-house art director for the Bond company, Saul Cooper, termed the efforts of Smolen and company as "work in progress." It would seem that in Hollywood these days, to paraphrase the theme song, only 007 - and the posters for Bond movies - are forever.
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Stephen Rebello is author of "Reel Art - Great Posters From the Golden Age of the Silver Screen" and of "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho - American Gothic," to be published Spring, 1990.

1989 -- Robert Peak's unused teaser poster for LICENCE TO KILL -- Bond as Dirty Harry.	McGinnis, from Bond to western art.

An unused poster concept for THUNDERBALL painted by artist Robert McGinnis.