I read a few years ago that one reason Europeans make so many movies in English was that Europe doesn't have enough movie stars any more. They need monolingual Hollywood celebrities to star in their movies so everything has to be in English.
Now the U.S. has the same problem. American stars have gotten old and there's no one to replace them.
From an article in Variety:
“Over the last 10 years, we’ve done a really shitty job of creating a new generation of movie stars,” groused one sales agent.
And a look at some of the projects on offer or premiering at Cannes seems to bolster that argument. There’s “Breakout,” an action-thriller featuring 75-year old Arnold Schwarzenegger that will be directed by “Expendables 4” filmmaker Scott Waugh; “Lords of War” with 59-year old Nicolas Cage returning to a role as an amoral arms dealer that he first played nearly two decades ago; “That’s Amore,” a rom-com with a 69-year old John Travolta; and “The Rivals of Amziah King,” a crime story featuring a 53-year old Matthew McConaughey. In most cases, these actors have been famous, globally so, since the 1970s or ’80s (McConaughey, a relatively newbie, had to wait until 1996’s “A Time to Kill” to make his mark).
And a look at some of the projects on offer or premiering at Cannes seems to bolster that argument. There’s “Breakout,” an action-thriller featuring 75-year old Arnold Schwarzenegger that will be directed by “Expendables 4” filmmaker Scott Waugh; “Lords of War” with 59-year old Nicolas Cage returning to a role as an amoral arms dealer that he first played nearly two decades ago; “That’s Amore,” a rom-com with a 69-year old John Travolta; and “The Rivals of Amziah King,” a crime story featuring a 53-year old Matthew McConaughey. In most cases, these actors have been famous, globally so, since the 1970s or ’80s (McConaughey, a relatively newbie, had to wait until 1996’s “A Time to Kill” to make his mark).
Read the whole thing here.
According to one guy they quoted, Hollywood stopped "being able to reliably make movie stars" when the DVD market collapsed in 2008.
“Nearly all of the actors and actresses who are [bankable] now had very
successful films when DVD and video was still a huge force,” said
Hamilton, who is selling several films at the festival including Polly
Findlay’s debut feature “Midwinter Break,” starring Lesley Manville
(“Phantom Thread”) and Ciarán Hinds (“Belfast”). “You could see that as a
dividing line shift in terms of older or newer generation. With the new
generation, there’s more divisions between success because you could
have the most-watched show or film on a streamer. But there might be a
whole swath of society who might not subscribe, and they’re not part of
that.”
Maybe this is why Hollywood still clings to violent recidivist criminals Shia LaBeouf and Ezra Miller. The South African guy who was going to use a computer generated James Dean in a movie may not have been so dumb after all.
I don't mention them here, but the article mentions a couple of female stars, by the way.
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