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Obviously they definitely do need movie stars, especially because fewer and fewer people bother to read movie critics. I agree that a few movies will pull in people, especially young guys, for movies with SFX, but that only covers a small area. I'm sure I wouldn't be going to see WWZ if not for Brad Pitt.
Who was the guest on the program?
Yes, I'd agree with you on Brad Pitt. But, I like him mainly for his donations to progressive causes like his $100,000 donation to fight Prop 8 at the ballot box. I don't really care to see a washed-up wrinkled prune like Sly Stallone, Mel Gibson or Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'll try to find the interview. It came on my local NPR station (KPCC) on Thurs about 3:30 PM.
Why should he? These new guys can't touch any of that. Someone made a comment about Brad Pitt. LOL I haven't seen a single movie he made that wasn't a chick movie. Fight Club? LOL Really? Seagal would put the F in **** him up!
Why should he? These new guys can't touch any of that. Someone made a comment about Brad Pitt. LOL I haven't seen a single movie he made that wasn't a chick movie. Fight Club? LOL Really? Seagal would put the F in **** him up!
I just saw the movie White House Down mainly to get out of the heat. It would have been successful with ANY muscular attractive white boy du jour. It's interesting how we don't see any ALL STAR movies with "A" celebrities anymore, unless they are working for scale wages as a favor to the producer or director. The robert Redford directed "The Company you Keep" was such a production.
Yes, I'd agree with you on Brad Pitt. But, I like him mainly for his donations to progressive causes like his $100,000 donation to fight Prop 8 at the ballot box. I don't really care to see a washed-up wrinkled prune like Sly Stallone, Mel Gibson or Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'll try to find the interview. It came on my local NPR station (KPCC) on Thurs about 3:30 PM.
It was Wesley Morris. He succinctly states that it's the genre that attracts the audience, not the movie star. Look at a movie like "V for Vendetta". There wasn't any "A" movie star in that one that American audiences easily recognize. Natalie Portman wasn't a household name at that time. She had not won an Academy Award yet. Because the film already had a comic book following and was a Warshawski Bros production, it didn't need them. Here's the clip:
I heard a radio show the other day where the guest commented that Hollywood is banking on the idea that they no longer need movie stars that supposedly (or really) maximize audiences because of their star power. I started to wonder about this, because I have always thought this. How difficult would it be to create another Tom Cruise, for example? And the studios would certainly save money by not having to pay about $20 million or whatever he makes per film. I think that nowadays people will see ANYTHING. They don't even have to be great plots. They only have to have special effects, a few pretty faces and bodies, but not really a whole lot of acting skills as in the heyday of Hollywood. Do you think it's true that Hollywood no longer needs to have mega movie stars in its movies?
An interesting question.
Thinking about some of the really big movies of the last few years, it seems that all of them stacked the deck just enough by involving actual actors - Robert Downey Jr., Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jude Law...
I think that the idea that there are few people working in Hollywood today who do not have real acting skills is somewhat fallacious.
Yes, the vehicles they choose do tend to diminish their talent somewhat, but, look at any of the smaller movies that any of the big players have starred in, and, yes, I am including Bruce Willis,Tom Cruise and even Vin Diesel and Jason Statham here, and tell me that these people cannot act.
As for those who are less "artful," they still open big and get people into the theaters.
Who doesn't want Dwayne Johnson in their movie?
And now Marvel is reportedly courting Mr. Diesel. Love or hate them, these guys have big followings. And for the studios that's enough.
Would Marvel have fought so hard to get Robert Downey Jr. back for the next couple of "Avengers" movies if he wasn't the mega star of that universe?
Yes, I'd agree with you on Brad Pitt. But, I like him mainly for his donations to progressive causes like his $100,000 donation to fight Prop 8 at the ballot box. I don't really care to see a washed-up wrinkled prune like Sly Stallone, Mel Gibson or Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'll try to find the interview. It came on my local NPR station (KPCC) on Thurs about 3:30 PM.
I agree. I also like Pitt - and others - for reasons that may have nothing to do with acting. But that doesn't matter. It's part of the star mystique, I guess.
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