B-List actor attached

Kevin Vega

Kevin Vega

Carbonite Member
How much more likely would getting a Pre-sale, or securing a sales agent, be with a B-List actors attached be? Say I were to have Joe Estevez attached... any value there?
 
Joe Estevez is not a "b-list" actor, he is not even d-list. B-list actors most certainly can get you pre-sales, for instance Michael Madsen is probably the most often quoted one. There are ways to research the potential for certain actors marketability for foreign sales. Going to film markets, talking to producers there, is maybe the best way.
 
Bosindy is exactly right.

Joe Estevez is not a "name". He is like a minor celebrity at best, a relative of a big actor. Joe Estevez can't not only get you pre-sales, but he probably can't get you any distribution after you've finished your film either.

Michael Madsen can get $0 in pre-sales, his name is pretty worthless even when talking about distribution for a finished film.
He might be good to some extent if you package your film with several bigger stars, but in that case he would be more of a filler material, someone you would hire for cheap for a few days.

If you want pre-sales you will need several names, all of them much bigger than Michael Madsen. And these names don't come cheap.
Expect to pay $50k-$200k per week per actor for the names that really matter.

Someone like a Joe Estevez is worth nothing, but if you want him I'd imagine his rate is like a couple hundred a day.

Madsen probably double scale or something like that. Certainly not worth anything more.

Needless to say for pre-sales you need more elements in your package than just names, an experienced director, experienced producer/production company, experienced crew etc. Your production will also need to be bonded and insured.

Pre-sales are rarely done on movies with budgets less than $1.5M, simply because all of the above cost money.
 
EuropeanDistributor said:
Needless to say for pre-sales you need more elements in your package than just names, an experienced director, experienced producer/production company, experienced crew etc. Your production will also need to be bonded and insured.

Pre-sales are rarely done on movies with budgets less than $1.5M, simply because all of the above cost money.
Click to expand...

This makes sense. I probably overstated with pre-sales and would have been more accurate to say names that get you interest in foreign distribution. I don't think Madsen is a good name either, he is someone who's face notoriously landed on numerous one sheets at the markets (or at least did for years, maybe not now). And those names from my understanding are action genre based names. I see you are a disty so you and others, sales agents and experience producers is who, if I was going to make a genre narrative, I would spend months talking to before casting a film.
 
bosindy said:
This makes sense. I probably overstated with pre-sales and would have been more accurate to say names that get you interest in foreign distribution. I don't think Madsen is a good name either, he is someone who's face notoriously landed on numerous one sheets at the markets (or at least did for years, maybe not now). And those names from my understanding are action genre based names. I see you are a disty so you and others, sales agents and experience producers is who, if I was going to make a genre narrative, I would spend months talking to before casting a film.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. It's not good when an actor starts making 20-30 movies a year.
There are actors who have been in demand for years now in the DTV market, like Val Kilmer, Steven Seagal, Christian Slater etc.
They play it smart, they only make 1-5 movies a year and do TV on the side. If they choose their projects wisely they can stay in demand for years to come. But of course their names will fade too.
It all comes down to the fact that people get sick of seeing the same names and faces in these movies year after year, they need fresh names, whether it be some newcomers or A-list stars who are starting to do DTV work like Nicolas Cage, Bruce Willis, Robert DeNiro, Ethan Hawke etc. Those are the big names doing DTV now. Pretty crazy, huh? Of course they are still at that point in their career where they can do a couple of DTV cheapies to get some quick cash and still continue making big budget studio pictures.
Allthough Hollywood really has moved on from the olden days of "movie star projects" meaning you see more and more ensemble movies and franchise movies, comic book movies etc. There are very few stars who can carry their own movies.
Eddie Murphy used to be one of the biggest stars ever, however his latest starring role movies have flopped miserably, only exception: Tower Heist, and ensemble picture.
Eddie Murphy alone is not enough anymore, and that same is true with so many other actors.
 
Kevin Vega said:
How much more likely would getting a Pre-sale, or securing a sales agent, be with a B-List actors attached be? Say I were to have Joe Estevez attached... any value there?
Click to expand...

What exactly do you hope to benefit from a "pre-sale" considering you won't get any or necessarily "all" of the money up-front anyway? Since even with a pre-sale you will need to seek your own financing, why pigeon hold yourself to a deal before you complete your project and have to go through all the conditions needed to even get a pre-sale ie. what cast is attached, what production company will be involved, who will be directing, etc...

There are pros and cons for sure, I'm just saying....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top