JOHN NOLTE: Hollywood Forced to Admit the Movie Star Is Dead.
“Hollywood Grapples With Loss of Young Star Power,” reads the headline. The story explains the problem this way…
“The hottest package at this year’s Cannes Film Festival stars a 76-year old action star and is a reboot of a movie that first dazzled moviegoers in 1993.” Variety is talking about Sylvester Stallone and his hit movie Cliffhanger. Yep, Cliffhanger 2 is the biggest deal at a prestigious worldwide film festival: a sequel to a 30-year-old movie starring a guy old enough to be a great-grandfather.
I love Stallone. I hope he lives forever, but imagine the year is 1974, and the hottest property at Cannes is Notorious 2, starring a 76-year-old Cary Grant*. What would the state of the industry have looked like then?
But in 1974, America was buried in young superstars: Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Michael Caine, Clint Eastwood, Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Sidney Poitier, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Pam Grier, Gene Wilder, Gene Hackman, Richard Pryor, Gena Rowlands, Dustin Hoffman, Richard Roundtree, Ellen Burnstyn, Jane Fonda, James Caan, Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, Jill Clayburgh, Steve McQueen, Burt Reynolds, Sean Connery, Peter Fonda…
Wrap your mind around this: In 1974, Charles Bronson, Paul Newman, Jack Lemmon, and Walter Matthau were still younger than Matthew McConaughey (53) is today.
In her 2013 book, Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business, veteran Hollywood producer Lynda Obst wrote that Hollywood didn’t need movie stars — they had franchises to mine:
Obst explains the formula for ‘The New Abnormal” thusly:
1. You must have heard of the Title before; it must have preawareness.
2. It must sell overseas.
3. It should generate a Franchise and/ or Sequel (also a factor of 1 and 2).
As Nolte concludes:
Here is what happened: the studios believed they could sell movies based on brands and high concepts forever, but now they are all out of brands and high concepts, and there is nothing left to put butts in seats.
What is more, actors believed they could continue to be cruel, bigoted, humorless, self-righteous scolds, and the world would always fall at their feet.
Well, haha.
Fortunately, there’s fresh talent to take all of the aging stars’ places: Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Oh wait, what am I saying?! Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a franchise murderer — and Indiana Jones is her next victim.
It sure looks that way judging by the film’s early reviews: