Our Brand Spankin’ New Star System

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I really love show business. I don’t always enjoy working in it, but otherwise, I’m a pretty huge fan. I like reading about it, seeing documentaries about it, listening to podcasts about it, whatever is going to tell me more about the history of Hollywood and the people who have worked in it, creating all this fantastic (and awful) stuff we have watched and enjoyed (and hated) over the decades.

Because of that, I’m pretty well schooled on how things used to be, especially the old studio system, which basically indentured actors to long contracts that put them completely under the control of the men who ran the studios. This allowed these fellows to personally make and break careers, and pass the actors back and forth like chattel, loaning them out to each other when the spirit, and dollars, moved them.

This system eventually fell apart, of course, passing into history like silent films and the Hollywood Canteen, but not without doing plenty of damage before it did.

Over the years, the whole idea of being a movie star has changed. It’s something I’ve discussed a time or two over the last few months, but will mention again. Whereas there used to be genuine stars whose very presence in a picture could almost guarantee a sizable audience, that’s not really the case anymore. Yes, there are still a select few men and women who can draw the crowds — Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sandra Bullock, and Denzel Washington immediately come to mind — but otherwise, more often than not it’s the concept that’s the star these days, not the actors.

At least, that’s what the major studios would probably have you believe.

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Over the years, they have stopped paying the big salaries they used to pay and cut down on the vanity deals they would hand out to actors and their production shingles. Remember Matthew McConaughey’s j.k. livin productions? It had an overhead deal with New Line for a spell before the company decided that it wasn’t actually getting anything out of the agreement and didn’t renew it. Nothing against McConaughey, of course, but it’s not like his shingle was terribly prolific. The thing was, while he was drawing audiences to theaters, it was worth the studio’s money to be in business with him. Once the economy took a downturn and the studios were forced to tighten their belts, a lot of those types of deals went by the wayside.

Alright, alright, alright, nobody get angry, because I’m not picking on McConaughey, I’m just using him and his company (which actually no longer functions as a production entity and focuses instead as a nonprofit dedicated to empowering high school students) to make a point. While there are plenty of producing deals still in play — for the likes of Leo and Robert Downey, Jr., (both at Warner Bros.), George Clooney and Grant Heslov, Will Smith (Sony), Elizabeth Banks, and Vin Diesel (Universal), just to name a few — those are for companies that were actively producing successful films. Successful films mean money for the studios, and that’s what it’s all about. Money talks and the vanity deals that used to be in play are no longer, because eventually it was no longer worth it to keep them around. Those kinds of deals used to be everywhere, and then they weren’t. End of story.

But now things have started to shift again. The thing is, the idea of the True Movie Star has definitely plateaued in the wake of the Concept, which is now king. We’ve discussed this before, that studio movies are currently as much about merchandising and brand management as they are about entertainment, and I’m not here to talk about that again, because we’ve covered it enough. What’s interesting, though, is when the studios get behind a Concept that they deem successful enough to start a franchise. This leaves them on the hook for it and beholden to the talent who helped it make it thus.

Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Entertainment

Which brings us to Margot Robbie and the sweet deal she just signed with Warner Bros. to produce movies for them in which she will also star. One of those, obviously, is the Harley Quinn spinoff from Suicide Squad, which the studio desperately wants to see happen. This gives Robbie all the leverage. Which leads to her getting said deal that also includes the prestige project Queen of the Air, in which she will also star and produce under her suddenly very productive shingle, LuckyChap Entertainment. Because of course it does. I mean, if you’re going to agree to have another go round as a comic book character, you might as well get to do one or two for yourself, too, and on the studio’s dime.

I actually love this, because after all these years of studios calling the shots, a deal like this puts the power firmly in the hands of an up-and-comer like Robbie. She now gets to take control of her career in a way that few actors have been able to do at such a young age, because the studio badly needs her and her rising star power, and will give her a lot to continue to have access to it.

Yes, she has been very lucky, but she’s also very good, and has set a precedent for other actors who come into a project, knock it out of the park, and make themselves indispensable. The shoe is firmly on the other foot, and it’s more than a little entertaining to see.

It’s a unique situation that shouldn’t be so. This should, by all rights, be the first of a bunch of these kinds of deals, but I’m not sure how realistic that is. For one thing, Robbie is a special case, not just because of her talent and her connection to this particular role, but also because of Warner Bros.’ focus on female-driven storytelling. For another, roles like Harley Quinn don’t come along all that often for other actors to exploit for such purposes.

But, the fact that both talent and studio recognized that she had them by the proverbial short hairs is a step in the right direction. Now, we just need to take more such steps. A lot more, because the more of these deals that get made, the higher the likelihood that the studios start making good movies again, movies that aren’t just a line item in a merchandising plan.

Of course, that might be too much to ask, but a boy can dream.

Neil Turitz is a filmmaker and journalist who has spent close to two decades working in and writing about Hollywood. Feel free to send him a tweet at @neilturitz. He’ll more than likely respond.