If you were intrigued by the first trailer for The Help, or maybe my subsequent interview with the film's executive producer Chris Columbus, you may be interested to check out the first poster for the movie, which DreamWorks sent us this afternoon. Mimicking the purple and yellow color scheme of the bestselling novel by Kathryn Stockett on which it's based, the poster finds a way to show off the four stars and establish their relationships to one another all within a fair simple design. It's a nice choice all around.

The Help stars Emma Stone as a young woman living in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963 who decides to pursue her dream of being a journalist by interviewing various black women in town-- including two lead characters played by Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer-- about their experience working as maids and nannies, a.k.a. "the help," for rich white women. Bryce Dallas Howard fills in as sort of the film's villain, the racist and undermining socialite Hilly Holbrook.

Check out the new poster below, and click on it for the full version in our Blend Film Database. The movie opens August 12.