Gavin Polone strikes again. Gotta love this guy’s brain:
Polone: Why There Are No Sure-Thing Movie Stars Anymore, But Hollywood Pretends There Are
by Gavin Polone
The problem with the idea of the “movie star” is that film studios buy into it. This results in good movies not getting made because they haven’t attracted a star and bad movies going into production because they did get a big name to sign on the line that is dotted. On almost every film I have produced, the final hurdle to being green-lit was getting a studio-approved actor to say “yes.”
On several occasions, studio executives have suggested that we should reimagine and rewrite the lead character of a movie, to the detriment of the film, just so we would have a better chance of securing a star; usually this involves making that character older or younger and on occasion changing its gender or race, which inevitably undermines the story. Studios see having a “star” in a film as an insurance policy against loss, but that’s like a policy written by a company with no capital behind it.
by Herbie J Pilato
NBC’s reboot of Ironside, with Blair Underwood taking over the role of the wheelchair-bound detective originally played by Raymond Burr (Perry Masson), has been igniting controversy from the get-go.