The remake of "The Thomas Crown Affair" stars Pierce Brosnan. It says so right there at the top of the poster. Cast your eyes down to the smaller print at the bottom, however, and you will notice it is being released under the banner of Irish Dreamtime, which happens to be Brosnan's production company.
Not that this is anything unusual. Indeed, anyone who is anyone in the acting game has his or her own production outfit these days. It's not only A-listers such as Robin Williams (Blue Wolf Productions), Michelle Pfeiffer (Via Rosa Productions, recently dissolved), and Sandra Bullock (Fortis Films). Second division players such as Jason Patric (Fleece Films), Alec Baldwin (El Dorado Productions) and Bill Pullman (Big Town Productions) have them, too. Brosnan himself is hardly a box-office draw when not licensed to kill, but maybe that's why he's getting into production -- to search out roles in readiness for life beyond Bond.Even mere starlets such as Drew Barrymore are producing. Having set up Flower Films with Fox 2000, her first effort, "Never Been Kissed," proved a decent-sized hit. Her second effort is next summer's much-touted big-screen version of "Charlie's Angels," in which she personally courted Cameron Diaz to star alongside her.
The suddenly ubiquitous Salma Hayek heads up Ventanarosa, which is about to start work on a biopic of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (in which Hayek will star) with Miramax, and has just signed a deal to create TV shows for Columbia TriStar.
The last year or so has seen a flurry of activity on the star production company front. The recent Sean Connery/Catherine Zeta Jones-starrer "Entrapment" was produced by Connery's Fountainbridge Films. Sharon Stone's Chaosfilms, attached to Miramax, helped develop "The Mighty," in which Stone had a small role. Ben Stiller, hot off Fox's "There's Something About Mary," set up Red Hour Films in a deal with Fox 2000.
Will Smith has reportedly signed on for feel-good science-fiction flick "K-Pax" as the first project under his production deal (Overbrook Films) with Universal. Oh, and Robert De Niro's Tribeca is going in with Miramax on a studio complex in Brooklyn.
Performers demanding a voice in the filmmaking process is hardly a new thing, of course. Back in 1919 Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks created United Artists, to exercise some control over their careers. However, UA later ended up in the hands of the executives, and the studio contract system continued to keep stars in their place until the advent of television and the attendant dwindling of audiences forced several swift shifts of power in Hollywood.
In the '70s, directors such as Scorsese, Coppola, Lucas and Spielberg wrested creative authority away from the declining studios. In the '80, it was talent agents (such as Michael Ovitz at the all-powerful CAA) and producers (such as Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson) who pulled the strings. Now it is actors, or in reality "stars," who have the influence. They now determine not only which movies get made, but also how they're marketed. They can call for alterations to the script and choose their co-stars. It is not unknown for them to have final cut.
The reason actors have gained this creative authority? Studio chiefs believe that the right actors make the difference between a hit and a flop. As movies have become more expensive, the studios are relying more heavily on star appeal to protect their ever-growing investments. And you can see their logic with stars such as Julia Roberts, who is credited with dragging several projects single-handedly past the magic $100 million box-office mark.
These days, the value of a star is measured in dollars made by his or her last few films, particularly over an opening weekend. And the value of a studio executive is measured in the relationships he or she maintains with such stars. It's not like it was 50 years ago, when a studio could bind a player to it by contract: Nowadays, a star can go anywhere and do anything. There isn't enough bankable talent to go round, and the stars know it.
One way to keep a star sweet is a production deal -- the Hollywood equivalent of supermarket reward points. Studios hammer out production deals as a means of rewarding their most valuable performers -- and making sure they don't go elsewhere.
Traditionally, these partnerships have worked better with directors than actors. Spielberg (with Amblin) and Ron Howard (with Imagine) have contributed many a hit to Universal; Fox has teamed up with the likes of John Hughes and James Cameron, offering creative and financial freedom in the hope of massive returns.
But on the whole, production partnerships don't sell theater tickets; movie stars do.
So studios attempt, via such production deals, to buy their own personal movie stars -- sometimes on flimsy foundations. In the wake of "Clueless," four summers ago, Sony gave Alicia Silverstone a $10 million three-picture deal, enabling her to set up First Kiss Pro-ductions. The only fruit it has borne so far is the already forgotten
"Excess Baggage" (1997), and even purely as an actress, Silverstone hasn't had a bona fide hit since.
It made a lot more sense when Paramount tried to lure Tom Cruise by helping him set up Cruise/Wagner Productions. So far it has only "Mission: Impossible" to show for it, though a sequel is on its way, but Cruise used his clout to get the writers of "Chinatown," "Schindler's List" and "Jurassic Park" to work on the screenplay, as well as Brian de Palma to direct. Cruise got a producer's credit, and the studio got one of the biggest hits of 1996. Everyone was happy.
Some star producers start out well, only to find it's all more trouble than it's worth. Bette Midler, rewarded by Disney for a run of hit comedies with All-Girls Productions, scored with "Beaches" and "Big Business," but took pet project "For The Boys" to Fox when Disney wouldn't stump up the cash. Disney was right to pass, and though All-Girls produced the minor 1995 hit "Man Of The House" (not starring Midler), its next project, "That Old Feeling," was another miss. The success of "The First Wives Club" -- which Midler didn't produce -- may have convinced her to stick to singing and acting.
Of course, the common assumption is that a star's involvement in production is vanity-led, going little beyond putting together talent wishlists, and developing projects designed to flatter them as much as possible. Most stars who go into production do so with the help of an experienced partner, and so it's quite possible that the partners get on with all the hard work while the star acts merely as a glamorous front. It has also been hinted that such companies are often set up to beat the taxman.
But some actor-producers take what they are doing very seriously and have put their star power behind decent projects.
Clint Eastwood has produced more than 30 films since setting up Malpaso Productions in the late '60. Initially, the intention was probably simply to give him control over his own career: As a producer, he turned out hit "Dirty Harry" films and expanded his range with thrillers such as "The Eiger Sanction." Later, he was able to try comedy, in the form of those annoying -- but highly successful -- orangutan movies.
Mel Gibson has also enjoyed success with his Icon Films. Having received a producer's credit for "Hamlet" in 1990, he brought a partner, Bruce Davey, on board and, besides producing his own star vehicles, such as "Braveheart" and "Maverick," has also made more adventurous (if not always financially successful) choices, such as Beethoven biopic "Immortal Beloved," and a version of "Anna Karenina."
Perhaps the biggest recent acting-producing success story is Danny DeVito, who, like Gibson, saw the value of choosing sound partners. Never what you would call a true A-list star, he nonetheless got Jersey Films off the ground in 1992 while acting in and directing "Hoffa."
Now run by DeVito, Stacey Sher (a former Sony development exec) and Michael Shamberg (who'd produced "The Big Chill" and "A Fish Called Wanda"), Jersey has on its show reel "Reality Bites" (1994), "Pulp Fiction" (1994), "Get Shorty" (1995) and "Out of Sight" (1998). It is working on "Erin Brokovich," a distaff version of "A Civil Action" with Julia Roberts, and the new Jim Carrey vehicle, "The Man in the Moon."
Unfortunately for the studios, though, the more powerful that such proven hit-makers as Jersey become, the more difficult it is to hang on to them. If the original deal is no longer working, the stars in charge can (and often do) take their companies elsewhere.
When, at the end of 1996, studios decided to review the deals they had with various filmmakers, DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer shifted their interests from Sony to Disney, while Sean Connery moved from Fox to Disney.
Mel Gibson, despite having set up Icon at Warner, made "Braveheart" with Paramount when Warner passed. Meanwhile, Jodie Foster has taken Egg Pictures (producer of "Home For The Holidays" -- which she also directed -- and "Nell") from Warners to Paramount to collaborate with Icon on a bounty-hunter comedy, "Mace and Mardi."
The studios may try to tie them down, but it looks as though movieland will remain an actors' world for the foreseeable future.