For many film buffs, the “La La Land” poster is a Hollywood dreamscape. But for its star Ryan Gosling, it is the stuff of nightmares.
In the decade since the movie was released, Gosling has cited his dance pose in the image as one of the greatest regrets of his career. While his co-star Emma Stone points one hand toward the stars, Gosling’s left hand is nearly flat, almost parallel with the Los Angeles horizon behind them.
“Hamburger hands Gosling,” he called himself in an interview with WSJ Magazine in 2024, using a term from the dance world.
Gosling called it “a moment that haunts” him, explaining in the interview that he went for spontaneous flair, “even though everyone told me it wasn’t cool.” He had no clue that the scene would become the marquee image of the film.
The actor can finally shed his great shame.
On Monday, Lionsgate Studios released a new “La La Land” poster — with the angle of Gosling’s hand adjusted to match Stone’s — as part of the film’s 10th anniversary. (The movie, a love letter to Hollywood that was directed by Damien Chazelle and won six Oscars, returns to theaters on Aug. 16.)
The updated poster was unveiled at a screening at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. Justin Manfredi, Lionsgate’s executive vice president of worldwide television marketing, marveled with a hint of jest at how “vastly different” the new version was from its predecessor.
“It’s like night and day,” he said to laughs from the crowd.
As for Gosling’s feelings about the poster? “We know he’s happy,” Manfredi said, “because we let him know, and he approved it.”
Representatives for Gosling and Lionsgate did not respond to requests for comment.
“La La Land” is not the first movie to alter its promotional materials retroactively.
An advance poster for Sam Raimi’s original “Spider-Man” featured the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and was recalled after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Unaltered posters have become collector’s items.
And in 2016, Paramount Pictures scrapped a poster for Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival” because it mistakenly included the Oriental Pearl Tower, in Shanghai, in a skyline of Hong Kong.
The new “La La Land” poster has some people waxing nostalgic for the quirky original.
“No, that’s the lore, the charm,” one TikTok user commented on a clip of the poster’s unveiling. “Not everything has to be perfect.”
Others said they felt that Gosling’s original pose better suited his character’s contrarian attitude and even gestured at the central romantic conflict.
Luckily for them, as of Tuesday afternoon, the posters on Letterboxd, IMDb and Lionsgate’s website had not been switched.
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