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Hollywood now views action movies stars as disposable (New York Times)

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I really like Manu Bennet. After seeing him in Arrow
with that eyepatch
he would be perfect to play Solid Snake/Big Boss if they ever make a MGS movie and if he could nail down an American accent. Plus he was the best thing in Spartacus.

Fuck, I can't believe he is already 44.
 

PantherLotus

Professional Schmuck
It's telling that their big example is the guy from Conan/GoT. That's your disposable star? We've already mentioned Chris Pine at length (his Jack Ryan was better than the film), but what about Karl Urban? His Dredd did enough post-theater sales to earn a sequel.

I dunno. We can come up with a bunch of counterexamples but it doesn't really seem genuine to complain about mediocre muscle guys that flame out after a bad film or two.
 

SRG01

Member
Personally, I think it cuts two ways: that actor are paid an enormous sum of money already, and that studios are raking in massive amounts of money on the back of the entire production.

I have several questions for the studios: Why on earth do movie tickets cost so much when the studios already make a decent amount of profit? Why is the profit model so broken, such that many films fail to break even? Why are tax breaks necessary to start a production?
 

enigmatic_alex44

Whenever a game uses "middleware," I expect mediocrity. Just see how poor TLOU looks.
My Chris ranking goes Evans > Hemsworth > Pratt. I'd see a movie for the first two, but I think Evan's career is slowing down a bit. Are there any other relevant action Chris's?

that's my exact ranking too, Evans being the best with Hemsworth close behind (then Pine, then way below, Pratt)

Evans just did an interview saying he's going to be taking a break from acting once his Marvel contract is up (likely after Cap 3 or Avengers 3). He just directed his first movie and will likely continue down that road for a bit (which is great for him but saddens me as I WANT to see him on screen)
 
evans could have been charismatic. i saw some of that in his shitty fantastic four and that bit part in scott pilgrim.

but then he's like a plank of wood in captain america. just awful.

the hemsworths. wtf. bland as hell too. i'm sad that michael mann cast chris hemsworth in his new film, seems like lapse in judgment.

the star trek dude is boring too.

there are no harrison fords or mel gibsons etc. right now, the only one who has the potential is chris pratt. he looks really plain but he reminds me of indiana jones/han solo in that guardians of the galaxy promo.
 

ЯAW

Banned
I wonder why Gosling didn't jump in the action movie train? I would imagine the dude had more then few offers from Marvel/DC folks.
 

overcast

Member
ЯAW;103094612 said:
I wonder why Gosling didn't jump in the action movie train? I would imagine the dude had more then few offers from Marvel/DC folks.
He's trying to stick with indie movies and show off with being a good actor. Too bad he hasn't been great in a movie since Blue Valentine.
 

gabbo

Member
ЯAW;103094612 said:
I wonder why Gosling didn't jump in the action movie train? I would imagine the dude had more then few offers from Marvel/DC folks.

Got it out of his system with Young Hercules
 

- J - D -

Member
evans could have been charismatic. i saw some of that in his shitty fantastic four and that bit part in scott pilgrim.

but then he's like a plank of wood in captain america. just awful.

the hemsworths. wtf. bland as hell too. i'm sad that michael mann cast chris hemsworth in his new film, seems like lapse in judgment.

the star trek dude is boring too.

there are no harrison fords or mel gibsons etc. right now, the only one who has the potential is chris pratt. he looks really plain but he reminds me of indiana jones/han solo in that guardians of the galaxy promo.

Evans is a plank of wood as Cap because that's what the script seems to necessitate. Anyway, his interest in doing non-action work outside of superhero stuff shows he doesn't want to be an action star. Frankly, I'd rather see him in more stuff like Sunshine, Puncture, and Snowpiercer.
 

Dali

Member
Article makes a good point. If the special effects and explosions are sufficiently satisfactory who cares who the hero is. I think Hollywood is overlooking the benefits of a big name action hero though. Where they spend to secure the name the overall effects budget can be reduced. I'll go watch transporter or crank until my eyes bleed just for Statham.
 
I don't really go to see movies based on actors anymore. Seems naive. You'll see a lot of shitty movies if you do it. These action stars aren't needed to sell a movie anymore because people look for more than just the name on the poster.
 

Wiktor

Member
that's because there are no real action stars anymore. At least among the young generation. The youngest ones are in their 40s at best.
 

Forsythia

Member
Most of these 'action stars' simply aren't that good an actor to begin with (Jason Momoa, ugh), and more important, they lack the charisma of the greats like Arnold and Sly. We're never going to get stars like that again, so of course any action star these days is disposable. I guess Vin Diesel and The Rock come close, but other than those two I really can't think up of someone else.
 

Wiktor

Member
Most of these 'action stars' simply aren't that good an actor to begin with (Jason Momoa, ugh), and more important, they lack the charisma of the greats like Arnold and Sly. We're never going to get stars like that again, so of course any action star these days is disposable. I guess Vin Diesel and The Rock come close, but other than those two I really can't think up of someone else.

Threre's also Statham.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
Most action movies today are plain horrible. Rambo and Terminator were huge movies back in the days.

And as someone else said, Hollywood is really bad with the original material nowadays. No wonder no ones career really takes off when all they do is comic super heroes and such. Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Willis.... you name them.... all of their careers took off after one significant and original role and mostly became an instant classic.
 

FourMyle

Member
Considering the amount of money the Thor films and Avengers pull in, paying Hemsworth $500,000 is a "pittance" when you're talking about that scale of blockbuster money. RDJ is allegedly the only member of the Avengers cast who was paid over a million (and estimates place his total pay for it at around $70 million, because he negotiated an amazing deal after the success of the first Iron Man), and it's said that Evans and Hemsworth were only paid around $250,000 for Avengers, and it took RDJ throwing some weight around to even get Marvel to up their pay beyond that after the movie made a billion dollars.

Yeah, on one hand there's an aspect of "suck it up, you make ten times what we make" with this, but on the other, being Thor is very much a 24/7 job for Hemsworth, because he has to look like Thor. If a series is doing phenomenally well, that should be reflected in the stars' salaries in a proper ratio. The actors are where the proverbial rubber meets the road, after all.

The greed of execs knows no bounds.
 

TUROK

Member
hopefully the raid 2 changes hollywood's minds
so hyped for that shit
It won't. It'll be fucking badass, yes, but watch the paltry amount of money it'll make. I would be surprised if it breaks 10 million domestic.
 

charsace

Member
mamoa had bigger problems considering the kid who played young conan made a much bigger impression than he did.

To me Mamoa captured the Conan from the books more than Arnold did.

And there is an action star. The Rock.

Another problem is that Hollywood doesn't want charisma in its roles. Jai Courtney showed a lot of charisma on Spartacus, but in his movie roles they have him playing a big, brooding, guy of few words type.
 
Hollywood needs to get their scripts and content up to par, otherwise nobody has a chance to become a real action star. But I guess everything is done in order to draw you in once and never again these days.
 

charsace

Member
Hollywood did try in the 90's to get new action stars. People went after Rogan and Michael Jai White in the 90's, but Rogan wanted to do comedy and eventually signed a development deal with NBC and MJW wants to be a dramatic actor.
 
While I think the discussion in this thread is on point, I think the other thing people are missing is the stories in a lot of these movies just aren't good. It's a re-hash of a remake of a reboot type shit. One of the reasons I haven't been going to the movies as much is because I'm not seeing much on the action front that is new.

It reminds me of a list of failures I read about for 2013 and two of the reasons people were listing as reasons for box office duds was story and sameness. The writer went on to specifically point out that people aren't going to the movies anymore to see "Pretty things" and listed a SHIT TON of movies that all looked the same. That reminds me of all these new "Stars". They all look the same. Hell, they could be the same.

I think a huge part of this though is that besides comic book movies (and that's debatable) Hollywood isn't producing much in the action genre that's interesting.
 

Wiktor

Member
And how about Scott Adkins?

This man's career is such a tragedy. If he was born 10 years earlier he would be a superstar. :(
I hope he manages to break through before he's too old to move the way he can, which I think gives him 10-15 years tops.
 

Barrage

Member
The biggest difference between now and the Action Movie heyday is that the IPs are bigger than the stars.

And the fanbase is a major part of this-look at how many Avengers fans want RDJ to be replaced when he gets too old, ala James Bond. In fact, 007 is pretty much the blueprint right now-replace the lead, reboot, and comment on the change as little as neccessary.
 

IceCold

Member
Hm... That's not working out, is it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AgZebTmtiY





And how about Scott Adkins?

Daft Punk?

pfQqfZe.png
 

Calabi

Member
While I think the discussion in this thread is on point, I think the other thing people are missing is the stories in a lot of these movies just aren't good. It's a re-hash of a remake of a reboot type shit. One of the reasons I haven't been going to the movies as much is because I'm not seeing much on the action front that is new.

It reminds me of a list of failures I read about for 2013 and two of the reasons people were listing as reasons for box office duds was story and sameness. The writer went on to specifically point out that people aren't going to the movies anymore to see "Pretty things" and listed a SHIT TON of movies that all looked the same. That reminds me of all these new "Stars". They all look the same. Hell, they could be the same.

I think a huge part of this though is that besides comic book movies (and that's debatable) Hollywood isn't producing much in the action genre that's interesting.

The thing is a decent actor can make any film good, well maybe not good but not totally shit and worth watching for some people. Arnold made anything watchable. Its a shame you dont get that anymore. Its Hollywoods loss though there banking on the films selling but there asking for a collapse of some kind.
 
Michael Jai White is the co-star in one of Tyler Perry's sitcoms, and has been one Tyler Perry's main hos for half a decade. But work is work, and actions films can be fun to do.

Oh, ok. Not seen that. Just disappointed he's not in more high profile/bigger budget action movies. That would have been fun cause I think he's a great action movie actor. :\
 
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