Thought of the Week: Twilight Is Big News, But What About It's Cast?
Twilight now has two entries, soon to be a third next summer with “Eclipse”. The 2nd film recently had the biggest opening day for any film in history, and in its two entries, the series has made a domestic gross of over $420 million and counting, with budgets of just $37 million and $50 million respectively.
Considering the Potter franchise had a starting price tag of $125 million, and has now worked its way up to a $250 million dollar budget with its sixth entry, the “Twilight” budgets are comparatively much lower. In short, Twilight is one of the most profitable and high profile film franchises that the industry has ever seen. Both represent the highest grossing vampire film’s, and the newest film New Moon is also considered the highest grossing werewolf film ever made. Robert Pattinson’s name has been plastered across tabloids, entertainment magazines, and newspaper headlines for the past year, and the entire cast has gotten considerable amounts of attention from the press as well (no one nearly to the degree of the male lead). The question that needs to be asked is whether or not any of these people who have been getting so much press are going to go anywhere in their acting careers at all? Is the Twilight franchise launching young actors to Hollywood stardom, or will most of them forever be remembered as those “Twilight” kids?
First, you might be asking if this is a ridiculous thing to say. Of course the “Twilight” stars are going to be big… right? I wouldn’t be so sure. Looking at other huge franchises starring relatively unknown young leads, we’ll use Spider-Man, but if you do the research it is true of almost all of them, it’s easy to see that none of the major actors from the films have gone far outside of the franchise itself. Spider-Man’s Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and James Franco have now been in 3 Spider-Man films, grossing around 2.5 billion world-wide combined, but what else have they done? Almost everyone has heard of all three of these actors, but it would be easy to argue that Maguire may have been headed towards a more respectable career before he did the first Spider-Man film. He had large roles in the acclaimed “Pleasantville”, “The Cider House Rules”, and “Wonder Boys” between 1998 and 2000. He was then cast in Spider-Man which came out in 2002 and since then he had one reasonable hit “Seabiscuit”, but to make that a hit it also took Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, great reviews, and most importantly , a summer season filled with literally no films like it. Everything was either an action film, a comedy, or a family film, there were pretty much no dramatic adult films to speak of. His other film outside Spidey, “The Good German” made just over a million dollars, and with George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, and Steven Soderbergh involved it could easily be considered one of the biggest bombs of the past decade. And just last weekend his high-profile Drama, “Brothers”, which could be his first leading role outside the franchise, co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman grossed a meager 9.5 million and received mediocre reviews.
James Franco has been noticed by young ladies across the country, and is now most definitely a “hottie”, but you wouldn’t know it from how many people go to see his films. The first large scale production that he had a big role in was “City by the Sea” which, even with Robert De Niro and Frances McDormand to help, it grossed 22 million on a 60 million dollar budget. His second billing in “The Great Raid” is another notorious bomb of the past decade, grossing just over 3 million on a budget of 70. This however is largely because it sat on a shelf for over a year and was shoved out the door by Miramax just as the Weinstein’s left the company. He finally gets a lead role in a studio production production “Tristan + Isolde” (The title of course blatantly steals the + from Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet from the mid-90′s) which grosses just over 14 million total. A few weeks after that another lead role in “Annapolis” yields 17 million with a 26 million dollar budget. The bad news continues as another lead role in “Flyboys” nets 13 million for the 60 million spent. The bad news does stop here as Franco’s talent truly comes out in 2008 with his co-starring roles in “Pineapple Express” and “Milk”. “Express” was also relatively successful, but he has not proven himself in bringing out an audience at all.
Kirsten Dunst, while fairly unknown for the most part before Spidey, her career was definitely getting started with a slew of indies, and her breakout role in “Bring It On”, which was a fair hit, but this is not the case after her female lead in “Spider-Man”. Her first major role in “Levity”, co-starring Morgan Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton scored 209 thousand dollars on a 7.5 million dollar budget. Following that her next film “Mona Lisa Smile” does okay with the help of good reviews and Julia Roberts and makes 63 million on a 65 million dollar budget, not a hit, but not really a bomb either. Her next major role comes with “Wimbledon” co-starring a then hot up-and-comer Paul Bettany. The film grossed just under 17 million on a 31 million dollar budget. More bad news comes with “Elizabethtown” co-starring another actor coming off of not one, but two huge franchises, Orlando Bloom. It does 27 million on a 57 million dollar budget. In 2006 Dunst finally scores a high-profile lead role in “Marie Antoinette”, but once again it does not perform. Just under 16 million on a 40 million dollar budget. In her most recent large production “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People”, things didn’t get any better. The film does an astoundingly low 2.8 million on a 28 million dollar budget, despite solid marketing, and help from male lead Simon Pegg, and supporting roles from Megan Fox and Jeff Bridges.
I could literally write a book about all the franchises that have turned out the same way for the young unknowns involved, but rather than bore you with any more details, I’ll talk about what’s coming up for the “Twilight Kids” in the near future. Robert Pattinson unfortunately has not had a real chance to prove himself since Twilight 1 other than a small independent film called “Little Ashes” where he played Salvador Dali. His first large release will come on March 12th of next year with “Remember Me”, with Lost’s Emelie de Ravin co-starring and Pierce Brosnan and Chris Cooper taking supporting slots. The film is a dramatic romance about family tragedy, what a change of pace there Rob (sigh). He has another film slated for next year “Unbound Captives”, which is the directorial debut of actress Madeleine Stowe (“The Last of the Mohicans”), and features a great supporting cast with Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman. This western may have a shot, but it is also a western, and rarely do you see a western hit it big at the box-office. In short, we’ll see about this one. And finally his last film that he’s been confirmed to star in “Bel Ami” co-stars Uma Thurman and Kristin Scott Thomas, and is about a young man that rises to power by manipulating wealthy older women… huh. It looks to me like Pattinson isn’t making awful career decisions, but if you look at who guided the Spidey actors in supporting roles, it looked the same for them as well.
Kristen Stewart actually has made a film since “Twilight” and while it was well reviewed (I myself didn’t like it) “Adventureland” did not score with audiences. While the film did come out in mid-spring, probably one of the worst times for a film to be a hit, it still grossed a meager 16 million with a full release, good advertising, and the director of “Superbad” to boot. This is a really good example of what these young actors may face for their careers after their big franchise has been seen through. She has a film expected to come out in January titled “Welcome to the Riley’s” and co-starring James Gandolfini. Kristen Stewart will play a “wayward young woman” according to the synopsis. As you can see, the girl’s a real versatile actress… Her more publicized role in “The Runaways” co-starring Dakota Fanning is a true story about a punk rock girl band from the 70′s. Music film’s are a tough genre and tend to need great reviews to rake in any dough. Her final film in development “K-11″ will be the directorial debut of Jules Mann-Stewart, Kristen’s mother (doesn’t look good already) and while it is in the early stages of production, Nikki Reed has been locked down to co-star. It’s rumored that Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes may cameo in the film as well.
While nothing can be proved, the Twilight star’s certainly don’t have any sure-fire hit’s either. Think what you will about where these two high-profile actor’s are headed, but I think they’re going straight to the back of your memory, where the Spidey cast has been camping out for years now. If one of them has a shot it’s Pattinson, I haven’t heard a word out of Stewart’s mouth that I believed. She gives “effortless” a new meaning, which is to say she puts absolutely no effort into any role that she plays. How she is even an actress, I don’t exactly know. I saw “Twilight” and “Adventureland”, so if there’s something I missed her in, inform me and I’ll give it a shot. Anyway, my money’s on both of them being memories within the next decade.
Sources: boxofficemojo.com ; imdb.com
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