Your name here?
A random thought on the movie business occurred to me recently, prompted by Russell Crowe’s mini-tantrum during a Radio 4 interview, in which it was suggested that the Aussie bruiser might have lapsed into an Irish lilt during his starring role in “Robin Hood” – Hollywood’s latest blockbuster recycling initiative. While not as incendiary as Christian Bale’s outburst last year (the hilarious Family Guy spoof of which has already been pulled from the net, sadly), Crowe’s attitude doesn’t come as much of a surprise.
And that got me thinking: do we really still need mega-ego movie stars? Particularly when the films they’re in are often, let’s say, questionable in their integrity and artistic merit…
For sure, big names and pretty faces have always put the bums on seats that make producers and studio execs happy. However, as digital technology continues to give power to the people in the form of cheaper HD cameras, free editing software, video sharing sites, blogs, Twitter (etc, etc, ad infinitum), will the upcoming generation of movie-makers think they need the big names at all? There must be a wealth of talent out there, eager to forgo ego in favour of the right role?
Aspirational escapism may not be done with quite yet, of course; the sight of Jennifer Aniston plastered to the side of a passing number 43 bus on a rainy day affords movie-goers a glimpse into another life, another world. But it’s hard not to suppose that the day is now close when a video flick shot on Flip HD, upped to a decent website and championed on Twitter will be enough to launch a hot young actor’s career, whether studio dinosaurs like it or not.
Once this becomes the norm for a generation weaned on-demand, not even Nicholas Cage’s pseudo-Elvis lip curl projected onto the moon in 3D with lasers will be enough to keep conventional cinema, and its superstar divas, in the style to which they have become accustomed.
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