Noticed something the other day with an ad for the movie Twister, which was going to be played on a TV1 - a cable channel.
I can’t guarantee 100%, but my memory suggests that at the time of release Twister was billed as starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt.
This recent ad, had the voice over man saying watch Twister featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Helen Hunt. Poor old Bill is missing the love now.
Suddenly because Hoffman’s career has rocketed and despite only being part of the supporting cast he’s now getting top billing?
Found it very interesting. And in this case a little misleading. If someone had never seen Twister and thought I’ll check this out if Hoffman is the star would be a bit dissapointed.
Wondering if anyone else has run across anything similiar?
A slight hijack just to point out that the offical American rating descriptor for Twister is possibly the funniest of all time- “Rated PG-13 for intense depictions of very bad weather.”
Some years ago, a local TV channel that played movies most nights was airing a promo for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The voiceover was something like, “Charlie Sheen teaches some uptight teens to relax in … Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Uh, Charlie Sheen? He was in one scene. That scene was hilarious, but still. You gave him top billing in your promo?
My favorite examples is something different in the terrible SF film Unknown World (similar premise as The Core, but with even worse science).
Victor Kilian played the leader of the expedition. After the film was in the can, Kilian was blacklisted, so the film was released with no mention of him in the credits.
Apocalypse now. When the “redux” edition was put out, Harrison ford was not just added to the listed credits (he wasn’t on the original poster), but he was given a prominent position (for about 1:30 of screen time, early in his career). I think Lawrence Fishburne (who was about 14 when it was filmed) was on the original poster, but he’s more prominent on the Redux poster.
It’s called marketing, folks. You promote something’s hotness and recognition value even if the consumer will feel ripped off afterwards. Because by then, you have their money.
I remember Mad Magazine spoofing this as (paraphrased from memory) playing up Ed Asner’s role in advertising an old movie soon to play on TV, though the film actually starred Kay Francis and William Gargan “but you probably never heard of them, so we’re going to play up Asner, even though he only has a bit part in one scene.”
Of course, these days, Asner himself is slipping from the collective consciousness. The last thing I recall him doing was providing the voice of Granny Goodness for an animated Justice League episode, which I personally thought was an impressive and inspired bit of casting.
For a real-life example, I remember the TV broadcast of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure where every commercial break mentioned that the movie starred James Brolin and Morgan Fairchild, though they only appear in the final minutes.
Heathers - Admittedly, Shannon Doherty does have a large, important role in the film, but when the film came out in theaters (pre-“Beverly Hills 90210”) only Wynona Ryder & Christian Slater got a star billing. A few years later (post 90210), in TV reruns, Doherty’s name went to the top of the marquee.
Similarly, reruns of the original Friday the 13th mentioned that it ‘stars’ Kevin Bacon - even though he’s one of the first to get offed.
The posters from the film Rounders show this phenomenon perfectly.
1st poster: Look, it’s a movie starring Matt Damon, Edward Norton and Gretchen Moll.
2nd poster: Hey look, it’s a movie starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton. Also, Gretchen Moll is in it too.
3rd poster: Check it out, it’s a movie starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton.
I like it when they retrospectively promote some of the then better known cast members to star billing, but I was baffled last week when TV here showed Stanley & Iris giving top billing to Martha Plimpton and Jamey Sheridan. If you had held a gun to my head I would have only been able to recall De Niro and Fonda from this.
A Few Good Men is an interesting example, because it is always on. A few years ago, Noah Wylie of ER got prominent billing in the TV commercials despite being in two scenes (although admittedly he’s pretty good in them). No longer.
Way back when, there was a terrible movie called Wild in the Streets about teenagers taking over the government.
Here’s the original billing order:
Shelley Winters … Mrs. Daphne Flatow
Christopher Jones … Max Jacob ‘Frost’ Flatow Jr.
Diane Varsi … Sally LeRoy
Hal Holbrook … Sen. Johnny Fergus
Millie Perkins … Mary Fergus
Richard Pryor … Stanley X
Years later, when videos were invented, Pryor’s name and face were front and center, even though he was on-screen for maybe 20 seconds.
In fairness, though, who among us would even have given it a second look if Diane Varsi had been featured on the box?
I’ve got one. A few years back, there was a remake of Walking Tall, starring Dwayne Johnson and Johnny Knoxville, of Jackass fame. I’ve seen ads for the movie on TV, starring Dwayne Johnson and Neal McDonough. I guess Johnny Knoxville is out and Neal McDonough is in favor, due to his new rold on Justified?
There was a rock documentary called “Superhsow” filmed in 1969 that had a bunch of people on it. Given a limited release at the time, it appeared on VHS in the mid 1980s when Led Zeppelin was dominating the AOR airwaves. led Zeppelin, who have one song on the 80 minute concert, got prominent billing and their picture on the cover. Looking at Amazon, it is listed as unavailable and has pictures of Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton and Buddy Guyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supershow.
Farrah Fawcett had a major contract dispute with ABC and didn’t appear on a lot of "Charlie’s Angels: much that year. One network (NBC?) was promoting the network appearance of the “Logan’s Run” movie from 1976 where Farrah was listed as 5th in the credits. But to hear the promos for “making a rare television appearance this year”, you’d have thought it was a Fawcett vehicle.
I wonder how many times Warner Brothers/movie theatres tried to remove Paul Henreid’s name from the “starring” if he hadn’t threaten to sue for breach of contract.
