Soliciting Star Interest

Get a subscription to IMDb Pro. If the actor isn't scheduled for any projects in the next year and they haven't done anything for the last year, they're cold.

Liam Neeson is not cold. Gabriel Byrne has probably had cold streaks, but I doubt they were very long. Erik Estrada is the cliched concept of the D-list actor who will work for scale...you need to think somewhere in the middle.

But, I can't stress this enough...if your project isn't AMAZING this knowledge won't be of any help.
 
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My last message just gave me a thought...

...we should maintain a list of cold actors. It shouldn't be public, otherwise it would lose its potency. But, imagine if we started to maintain a list of actors who were in a "cold zone" (no work last year and no work scheduled for next year.) We could maintain a list of agents who are receptive to proper indies (meaning, people with manners and social skills).

There are thousands upon thousands of actors in LA, NY and London. At least half are accessible. Maintaining a "Cold Zone List" would make it a lot easier for all of us to cast.

The only other thing we need is one regional casting director with LA contacts who could work for any of us for a flat fee. I've got a casting agent I work with in a smaller market, but this wouldn't be his cup of tea.

How cool would it be if we knew there was an agent we could go to for 1K and we both had a copy of the Cold Zone List and they could help us secure Cold Zone actors for our projects?

The only difficulty is filtering out the riff-raff. There has to be a reasonable, fair, gating device to prevent the classic inexperienced first time filmmaker from saying "You know, I'd like to get Curtis Armstrong for my project. He's in the Cold Zone. I'll tell him I'm from DVXuser and send him my script. He'll love it! It took me a whole three hours to write and I've got a $700.00 budget! He'll work for $150.00 for a weekend, won't he?" :2vrolijk_08:
 
Sounds like your next business venture.

BTW, I'm not too proud to accept a "$1,000 Off" Coupon for my next casting director fee for getting you rolling on this idea. :)
 
How good does your script have to be to get Booger?

Not sure having him in your picture is much of a selling point, I personally probably wouldn't see a movie if I knew he was headlining it.
 
A Messenger said:
How good does your script have to be to get Booger?

Not sure having him in your picture is much of a selling point, I personally probably wouldn't see a movie if I knew he was headlining it.
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Curtis Armstrong is a personal friend of mine. He's a stunningly good actor who has struggled for the last decade to break people's perceptions of what he did 20 years ago.

Have you seen him in Ray? Akeelah & The Bee? Smoking Aces? If not, I'd reconsider how you see him...he's THIS close to reinventing his career. Finally, he's doing high quality, big budget movies. And he's a DAMN good actor.

Writing Curtis off in the manner you did is a bit like saying "What's Rob Lowe done?" about 6 months before The West Wing aired. Today's "hack actor" is tomorrow's reborn, rebounded star.
 
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shutterspeedfilms said:
Sounds like your next business venture.

BTW, I'm not too proud to accept a "$1,000 Off" Coupon for my next casting director fee for getting you rolling on this idea. :)
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I'm not sure I understand...can you explain what you mean by this? I can tell it is positive, I'm just confused as to what it is positive about! :huh:
 
I wasn't writing off Curtis Armstrong I just thought it was sort of funny that you're throwing his name around like anybody would have heard of him. Why didn't you just say "Booger" from Revenge of the Nerds?

He was good in a supporting role in Ray I thought but the Rob Lowe comparison is a bit of a stretch. I see he's headlining a movie now though, so maybe you're right.

To move away from the personal. The real question is whether somebody like George Wendt is going to help your movie by legitimizing it more than he will hurt it with the stigma of having "Norm from Cheers" on the poster.
 
A Messenger said:
I wasn't writing off Curtis Armstrong I just thought it was sort of funny that you're throwing his name around like anybody would have heard of him. Why didn't you just say "Booger" from Revenge of the Nerds?
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I always think of him from Risky Business.


A Messenger said:
To move away from the personal. The real question is whether somebody like George Wendt is going to help your movie by legitimizing it more than he will hurt it with the stigma of having "Norm from Cheers" on the poster.
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I think any time you can get a recognizable face it will give you a better chance to find distribution. A potential distributor (who's first question is going to be, "who's in it.") is going to be a lot more interesting in hearing you've got George Wendt than George Citizen.
 
Blaine said:
I always think of him from Risky Business.




I think any time you can get a recognizable face it will give you a better chance to find distribution. A potential distributor (who's first question is going to be, "who's in it.") is going to be a lot more interesting in hearing you've got George Wendt than George Citizen.
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My favorite role of Curtis' was as Herbert Viola in Moonlighting. And I think you've hit it on the head...any recognizable name/face is worth it. The first question anyone asks in Hollywood is "Who is in your film?" I'd rather list a Cold Zone actor who serious skills than have to say "Oh, well, no one you've heard of...BUT I PROMISE THEY'RE GREAT!"

And only someone who doesn't understand actors, acting or directing would write off someone because they're cold. Quentin Tarantino hired Harvey Keitel and John Travolta while they were in a Cold Zone. Bruce Beresford hired Jessica Tandy (who had experienced a 30 year Cold Zone) and Morgan Freeman (who had only completed one major feature film after years on The Electric Company) for Driving Miss Daisy. The West Wing hired Rob Lowe and Martin Sheen, both of whom were "washed up" at the time. James Cameron hired Tom Arnold for True Lies...that was the best role of Tom's career! I wanted to hire Harry Dean Stanton until he got a gig on Big Love.

If you're thinking "Well, of course these situations worked out! These are great actors who I respect" then you really don't understand what I'm talking about. Every single one of these actors were in slumps so severe that the industry had written them off.

These are the kind of actors who need you as much as you need them. And they know it. It will never be said out loud...but both parties are thinking it.

And if you're lucky enough to cast George Wendt in a role, and the role fits him like a glove, you should JUMP UP AND DOWN. You can write off "Booger" all you want...he's a gifted actor who can deliver any line 20 different ways with complete and total conviction, he has amazing comic timing, he's easy to work with, he's a decent human being...your stigma of him is the 10 crappy movies he chose. Most actors see themselves as employees, not creators. They don't know how to pick projects for themselves. Rarely do they get the chance to do great work, particularly after they've done a couple crappy movies. Judge them for their ABILITY not their STATUS.

Oh, and Blaine I didn't mean to imply you don't get it. Clearly, you do. My comments were aimed at other members who may dismiss an actor as "Booger" without having researched their entire work history nor know what they're capable of.
 
Prodigi,

I have to say, if it wasn't for Revenge of the Nerds, Curtis Armstrong's mug may never have been recognized by the general public. Why do you assume anyone's attacking him on the basis of that particular movie? I think you'll find that most people who have seen the film have fond memories of it--the character of Booger, in particular.

Now, he probably should have stopped while he was ahead in the series... but that's another story.
 
His newest film is directed by Savage Steve Holland, who he has been friends with since SSH directed Better Off Dead.

I wasn't allowed to see Revenge Of The Nerds or Risky Business as a kid...they both came out when I was quite young. But, I was allowed to see Moonlighting. Moonlighting was a monster hit. I figured Moonlighting is what he was best known for.

The fact he's known for some forgettable movie like Revenge Of The Nerds is a surprise to me...proves my parents insulated me from a lot! I've never seen Porky's or Animal House...that entire genre was taboo.
 
Hey, I think I've got a way to generate a Cold Zone list.

Imagine getting access to secured website that lists every professional actor in IMDB who is currently in a Cold Zone. Currently, that would mean they didn't do anything in 2006, 2007 and they aren't booked for anything in 2008.

Would this be of interest to anyone? What's it worth to people?
 
Prodigi Pictures said:
Hey, I think I've got a way to generate a Cold Zone list.

Imagine getting access to secured website that lists every professional actor in IMDB who is currently in a Cold Zone. Currently, that would mean they didn't do anything in 2006, 2007 and they aren't booked for anything in 2008.

Would this be of interest to anyone? What's it worth to people?
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I think it's a great idea. You would probably want to do at least a couple levels of subscription ie., per year, per quarter, per month. Would have to be kept update (but you know that). Would be nice to also have their manager/agent contact info included in the info if possible.
 
It's a good idea. I'd say it's worth $20 for a 3 month subscription - about the time it takes to pre-prod something of decent size.
 
This has the potential of saving an indie director tens of thousands of dollars for each actor cast in an indie project. I would hope that is worth more than 20 bucks.
 
I see it like this - a good casting director already has this information. And he has it first hand, not like me scanning IMDb Pro and saying - Hey - Joe Pesci hasn't' worked in years except for a brief role in The Departed....what gives? He must be cold. (No, He's retired).

In any case, you tell me what you think it's worth. Then I can comment. I'm in preprod on 2 projects now so enlighten me.
 
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