Saturday, May 07, 2005

The Hitchhiker's Guide is a good example of why you can't star a cast of unknowns in your big-screen movie. If they're utter unknowns, it's probably for a reason. For example, lack of charisma. The cast simply did not have the charisma to carry the movie. You can't rely on the smasho special effects to do it for you. Bad, amateurish acting and weak charisma sunk this movie for me. I needed to care more about the hero, and I needed to care more about whether he'd get the girl, and the girl was fine but not very fine, and he was nothing much.

Surely there have to be bigger stars even in the British firmament? When you have $80,000,000 to throw around, can't you throw some of it above the line?

UPDATE: Okay, fair enough. One reader claims that the stars of HGG are known in England. Another points out that many successful movies star unknowns, and I'd probably have to add Star Wars to that list. But my point was that it was a huge budget picture with very small stars. The movies listed in the comments were small budget pictures.

My bad for being cranky late last night and talking like a studio executive. But I still think the stars of HGG felt singularly 16mm in what was produced to be a big blockbuster special effects feature.

9:38 PM

9 Comments:

Cast of unknowns? Er, Sam Rockwell? Bill Nighy? Zoe Daschanell? Martin Freeman is well-known in Britain and elsewhere -- and it is a British story originally. There are things wrong with HHGG (many!). But cast of unknowns isn't really one of them ...

By  Anonymous, at 5:27 AM  

The Hitchhiker's Guide is a good example of why you can't star a cast of unknowns in your big screen movie.

Uh...
American Graffiti
Flashdance
Gremlins
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
The Full Monty
American Pie
Stand By Me
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Porky's

And that's just off the top of my head.

By  Anonymous, at 8:36 AM  

American Graffiti - original
Flashdance - original
Gremlins - original
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - original
The Full Monty - original
American Pie - low budget original
Stand By Me - low budget based on a short story in an SK anthology.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - based on the b/w comic.
Porky's - original but copying the success of American Grafitti, Animal house, etc...

In every instance you name above - the story wasn't already a number one smash hit worldwide. They - like the cast - were releative unknowns! The level of expectation is smaller for an original movie, but it is huge for a series of books that have been called "classics!" Everyone - and I mean everyone - has their own idea as to how these characters look and act.

Why do you think they took soooo long to cast the Harry Potter books, and then surround those kids with classic, well known actors? Casting is a huge part of the greenlighting process.

I'm with Alex on this one. The average movie-goer doesn't go to see a "Sam Rockwell movie" nor a "Bill Nighy picture." They point to the screen and say - "Hey that's that guy from...isn't it?"

By  Cunningham, at 12:37 PM  

I think the cast of unknowns would have been fine for a good science-fiction movie. If the space opera held together, then we wouldn't really care about the skill of acting--we'd just enjoy the spectacle of sci-fi. The problem is that the romantic comedy plot is at odds with the science-fiction plot, and vice versa. I have no opinion on whether a cast of unknowns could carry a romantic comedy--but they didn't carry this one.

My more verbose comments on Hitchhiker's.

By  Anonymous, at 12:59 PM  

In every instance you name above - the story wasn't already a number one smash hit worldwide. They - like the cast - were releative unknowns! The level of expectation is smaller for an original movie, but it is huge for a series of books that have been called "classics!" Everyone - and I mean everyone - has their own idea as to how these characters look and act.

Well, that's just ridiculous. There's an entire generation (the biggest movie-going demo, by the way) that for the most part have never heard of these books. They're classics for people who read them back when they came out, or found them via the sci-fi world where they're revered. The first Potter film was made right smack in the middle of the series being the biggest selling books in the world.

"Everyone" as you say, has their own ideas of how the characters look and act... but your "everyone" is limited not only to those who read the books, but an even smaller percentage - those that read the books and were so touched by them that their image of the characters stays with them over the past 20+ years.

Yes, if you put Tom Cruise in a movie, there's a demo that will go see it simply because he's in it. But having *names* is zero guarantee of any type of box office success, original story or not.

There's way too many films to list to make that point.

By  Anonymous, at 9:59 AM  

Yes, if you put Tom Cruise in a movie, there's a demo that will go see it simply because he's in it. But having *names* is zero guarantee of any type of box office success, original story or not.

There's way too many films to list to make that point.
--------

Just name three and make your point...

By  Cunningham, at 6:37 PM  

Three? But there's so many to choose from...

Gigli - Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Chris Walken.

The Big Bounce - Owen Wilson, Charlie Sheen, Morgan Freeman.

Elektra - Jen Garner

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore

Town & Country - Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn

Sphere - Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Sam Jackson, Barry Levinson directing

The Two Jakes - Jack Nicholson, Harey Keitel, Madeline Stowe

Catwoman - Halle Berry, Sharon Stone

Hollywood Homicide - Harrison Ford, Josh Harnett, Martin Landau, Lena Olin

6th Day - Schwarzenegger, Robert Duvall

The Siege - Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Annette Bening

The Postman - Kevin Costner

Cutthroat Island - Geena Davis, Matthew Modine

Windtalkers - Nick Cage, Christian Slater, John Woo directing

Mars Attacks! - Everyone

And then there's the famous ones:
Ishtar
Hudson Hawk
Cleopatra
Bonefire of the Vanities

By  Anonymous, at 9:31 PM  

I don't care if Martin Freeman is the heart and soul of The Office, he doesn't have big screen charisma. At least, not the way he was shot in this movie. I know you didn't like the movie either.

My point is if the movie is supposed to be seen on a screen 40 feet tall, you need a different kind of star than you can have if it's meant to be seen in a 99 seat theatre. Bill Nighy was great in Love, Actually but you wouldn't go see that at Grauman's Chinese, would you? Nor am I equating big screen charisma with acting ability. John Travolta has big charisma, but hasn't acted, if he ever did, since Saturday Night Fever. He does, however, play himself awfully well.

By  Alex Epstein, at 2:46 PM  

Erm... Martin Freeman, yes but Zooey Deschanel, Mos Def and Sam Rockwell aren't British.

Alan Rickman doing a voice, okay. Bill Nighy in half the film, yes. But this wasn't a British cast, really and it certainly wasn't a 'star' british cast. I'm not sure it was charisma so much as horrible mis-casting - none of the main four actors was right for the role. And only one of them was British.

By  ThisBloke, at 5:43 AM  

Post a Comment

Back to Complications Ensue main blog page.