Major actors used in minor part as main advertising for a film... Think again.

I HATE this ****. When I was in high school I would buy those VHS dubs of Hong Kong laser disc action flicks....and a few times I would be duped into buying stuff like THE KILLER TWO: STARRING CHOW YUN FAT AND DANNY LEE, only to find that Chow Yun Fat has one scene, and Danny Lee is nowhere to be found.

I hope he wins and gets a ton of cash, anything to make distributors realize they can't get away with this in the internet age.
 
I could understand it if he agreed to shoot the film as a favor AFTER he was famous, and they were doing it solely to use his name as a way to promote the film and he was completely cool with it. But thats the entire reason I decided against booking a name actor for a cameo in my last film (thats all I could afford them for) because I felt like it would be silly to "feature" them, as a main character when they would only be in like one scene. Sure it was a name actor in my movie, but I'd rather them just go "oh cool.. so and so is in this.. " vs. have them plastered on the front cover as if they were the star just to sell more copies.
 
Well the problem here is clearly a case of deception. He wasn't hired as a name actor in the first place; nowadays if you hire an actor with the goal of using their name, well, the actor knows all about that, and the contract will specify whether you can or can't use their name as a featured selling point.

It's entirely possible to hire a name actor for only a day and still be able to use them as a major character, it's all dependent on how you structure their role. If you write the role specifically so that it can be shot in one location, but that it's an important role, you can feature that actor quite thoroughly in the film. Weave their appearances throughout the film, but shoot them all in one location (maybe your character's behind bars in prison? Or they're a submarine commander so all their scenes are on the bridge of the submarine set? Or they're a dying mob boss whose scenes all take place from their hospital bed?)

Anyway, there's lots of ways to make it work, but you also will have to be honest in your dealings. You hire a known actor for a 12-hour day and you tell them that their scenes will be spread throughout the film and will result in about 25 minutes of screen time and you want to use their name in advertising, it's all good, they understand and you understand and you both agree. But if you hire them for an actual cameo, where they appear for 10 seconds, and then you try to use their name above the line as the "star"? That's dishonest, and your distributor and your audience and the actor will all resent you for it.
 
It also doesn't carry the weight it used to as far as getting distribution. It doesn't hurt, but having Bill Moseley (or whoever) in your film isn't the path to distribution it used to be. Now if you have a serious A list performer, even in a minor role, that can carry some weight.
 
Having a name in your film is mostly for securing foreign distribution and doesn't seem to have faltered in that regard.
 
When you hire a known actor that is the reason why you're hiring them is to use their name... the producer or Lions Gate should have just said with Jessie Eisenberg... but I wonder how many people here would not do the same thing... if it came to returning a profit for your film... which means a return of the investors money which equals... another chance at making another movie...
 
It probably would have been a non-issue if they had given him a heads-up and gotten his permission first. And if he didn't give his permission, it probably would have been made clear that this would be the result if they went ahead anyway.
 
I'm sure the contract he signed to be in the film says that the producer and then any buyer of that film has the right to use his name and image in marketing the film... again I think Lions Gate should have said WITH Jessie Eisenberg instead of promoting him as the star...

Here is another way to look at it... an actor friend of a friend of mine was in a movie years ago... sadly the filmmaker did it mostly as a student project so he only signed a festival contract with the actors... well the filmmaker gave this one actor a break because he needed something for a reel to show an agent or maybe it was a SAG card... so the filmmaker did him a favor... now that actor is a major player... and this film had a lot do with that... because the film turned out to be a really good film... you'd think that the major actor would be nice to the guy who helped him get started... nope... I think even the filmmaker offered him like 50% of the profits and the actor turned it down... and this was even before he became a big player... or at least this is the way I was told the story...
 
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