Ryan Gosling’s La La Land hand finally gets a poster do-over
Lionsgate has released a 10th anniversary La La Land poster that changes the hand pose Ryan Gosling once called “La La Hand.”
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
2 min read
Ryan Gosling’s most famous movie-poster regret has been corrected, 10 years after La La Land first danced into theaters.
Lionsgate has unveiled a new 10th anniversary design for the Oscar-winning musical, and the update changes the detail Gosling has joked about for years: his hand. In the new version, the actor’s flat hand is shown sticking out during the dance pose with Emma Stone, replacing the placement seen on the original theatrical poster.
The tweak answers a very specific complaint Gosling raised in interviews after the film became one of the most recognizable movie musicals of the 2010s.
In a 2024 interview with The Wall Street Journal Magazine, Gosling said one image from the film still bothered him years later. He explained that he and Stone were dancing, and he did not realize the moment would become the movie’s poster. According to Gosling, the intended pose had their hands up, but he decided to flatten his hand even though others told him the choice did not work.
Gosling said at the time that he had believed the flatter gesture looked cooler. Looking back, he told the magazine that the intended pose would have worked better and said the altered hand “killed the energy.” He also gave the grievance a very Gosling name: “La La Hand.”
The anniversary return
The refreshed poster arrives as La La Land heads back to theaters for its 10th anniversary. Lionsgate said the film will return starting Sunday, Aug. 16, with screenings in Dolby Cinema at AMC Theatres.
The studio has also released a 10th anniversary trailer for the Dolby screening event through the Lionsgate Movies YouTube channel.
Damien Chazelle’s La La Land became a major awards and box-office success after its 2016 release. The film won six Academy Awards, including best director and best cinematography, and earned a record-breaking seven Golden Globes.
Variety reported that the movie grossed $447 million worldwide on a $30 million budget.
A musical with long legs
Gosling starred as Seb, an aspiring pianist, opposite Stone as Mia, an actress struggling to land her break. Gosling won a Golden Globe for the role, while Stone later won the Academy Award for best actress.
The film’s afterlife is still growing. A Broadway musical adaptation is in development, according to Variety, though no date has been announced.
For now, the anniversary campaign gives La La Land another spin in theaters and gives Gosling something more unusual: a studio-approved fix to a tiny poster choice that followed him for a decade.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.