Legendary poster artist John Alvin passed away last week at the age of 60.

His work is celebrated as being some of the finest and most iconic imagery cinema has ever seen, and he has left behind a body of work which will be admired for decades to come. Below are some examples of the amazing pieces he produced. I’ve chosen my favourites to showcase to you. Quite frankly these aren’t just my favourite works of Alvin but some of my favourite posters of all time.

Thank you Alvin. Many a movie went by that I couldn’t have otherwise cared less about but I went to see because of your artwork and several times I got fascinated by a movie just because of your poster…

And as AICN reminded me something I had totally forgotten about. He did the poster for the film within a film… SANDS PIRATES OF THE SAHARA which used Bruce Campbell as the lead, in the Frank Darabont movie THE MAJESTIC…

And some great original work from both LORD OF THE RINGS and STAR WARS…

And a poster for the Disneyland ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Probably my favourite of all his work…

You can visit Alvin’s official website here to see much much more of his fabulous work.

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Wow, Variety actually have a big casting news on a weekend…I wonder if the writer was making double time?

Sam Raimi will direct his first Non-Spidey movie for the first time in 8 years when filming begins March 17th on his mysterious horror pic DRAGGED TO HELL which he wrote with his brother Ivan and is setup at Universal.

Leading the movie will be Oscar nominated 20 year old actress Ellen Page and it’s her second big deal since the attention she has received after JUNO. Said other movie being the skater chick flick WHIP IT, which will mark the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore and will be filmed after this movie.

The film’s described as a morality tale about the unwitting recipient of a supernatural curse. Pic marks a genre return for Raimi after directing a trio of “Spider-Man” films.

“Sam Raimi’s return to horror is a cause for celebration,” said Shmuger and Linde. “Having Ellen Page on-board to star is an abundance of riches.”

Raimi needs this.

Sure on the outset it would seem he is returning to his early low budget EVIL DEAD days, when his career path would suggest he should be directing big epics like THE HOBBIT or THE WOLF MAN and you know, it’s kinda like Peter Jackson forgetting Middle Earth and going back to directing something like BAD TASTE but I will say it again, Raimi needs this.

Something that’s fun and as far away from SPIDER-MAN as possible. Something that sparks that sense of creativity and originality that the studio system might have drained from him in the last couple of years. And with the electric personality of Page, Raimi should be inspired again.