"Nobody knows anything" is the characteristic attributed to Hollywood by screenwriter William Goldman in his classic behind-the-scenes book Adventures in the Screen Trade (39). However, if that were the perceived state-of-the-art, there would be no studio executives. They have to explain their reason for existence somehow, don't they? Once upon a time, or so the legend goes, Hollywood valued "Talent" as much as it valued "Star Power" - hence the hiring of such "artistes" as William Faulkner, Jean Renoir and the occasional dash of Igor Stravinsky. Today that equation has pretty much been reduced to a factor of one - and that factor reduced to only one aspect of its previous quality: Star Power has become "Name". A picture's got to have a Name to sell.
And so the conventional wisdom among Hollywood executives reasons.
And they are even, sometimes, right.
As several of our guest lecturers have explained, perception makes for reality in the movie industry - and when the studios perceive a Name is necessary, then it is necessary.
There are even the box office stats to prove it. This year's flavor for the action crowd is Jean-Claude Van Damme: his director/star vehicle The Quest opened the weekend of April 26th to rake in $7 million and place Number One for the week (Cels 10).
Name. Nobody is saying that The Quest is a good film. Indeed, many have likened it to early Van Damme low-budgeters in terms of low-level storyline and characterization. Nevertheless, the Van Damme Name did what it was supposed to and, presumably, the executives at Universal Pictures, the distribution studio for The Quest, are very happy.
Unfortunately for MGM/United Artists recently, Name has its drawbacks, too. According to the conventional wisdom, everything was going 100%-plus for the picture entitled Mulholland Falls: a Name cast headed by Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, John Malkovich and Chazz Palminteri; a script based on a ...