I love this guy. His real name is
Don LaFontaine, and he looks a bit like
Tony Curtis. He's been doing the trailer voices since as long as I know, and has two styles. For a serious movie, he uses the normal, deep, gravelly growl that we know and love. If it's a
comedy movie, he goes for the deep, rich, louder purpley-sounding voice that goes up and down, usually when saying things like "a-Whoopie Gollllldberrrrrrrg".
These are the lines that I've noticed appear quite a lot in trailers. There must be a stock supply of lines that sound good in trailers, or appeal to the lowest common denominator, or whatever:
- "In a world..." (on one occasion, this was in every single trailer I saw at one cinema visit)
- "It was a time for heroes..."
- "Only one man... (can stop the evil/kill the bad guys/save the damsel etc etc)"
- "Time is running out..."
- "When there's no-one you can trust..."
- "...playing a deadly game..."
- "...an explosive combination..."
I've also realised that certain
movie stars have good trailer names, ie names that sound cool when Movie Trailer Voiceover Man says them. Here are a few (just imagine them spoken with that voice, all gravelly, and soun-ding out ev-e-ry sy-ll-a-ble):
For a fascinating day in the life/interview/article type thing with King La Fontaine, go here:
http://www.fadeinmag.com/kaye/feature.htm
Check out the trailer for the Jerry Seinfeld movie Comedian: http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/comedian.html - it features a hilarious piss-take of the voiceover thing. You'll need Quicktime 5 to see it, and special pants.