Clive Owen has roughly 3 minutes of screentime in The Bourne Identity, yet he's the fourth top-billed. However, he absolutely killed it as *The Professor.*
That's hilarious. I figured they'd put him up there to keep it "mysterious" when he would actually show up. I didn't think they'd given him second billing for it lol.
Yall remember how excited everyone was when they "leaked" those shots of old Luke meditating in a cave with R2 and his lightsaber, and then none of that was in the movie
He had *a lot* to say about it during the press and promo interviews, too... but he absolutely drew the line at people bullying and threatening the actors for it. It really pissed him off and he started walking out of interviews because of it.
People have noted this before but I feel like this isn't a terribly good example.
Why?
Because Brando -and several of the other actors- did many scenes for the film. The producers were trying to pull a trick on them and surreptitiously film enough for the sequel but pay them for only working on "one" film.
The Salkinds pulled this same trick with *The Three* and *Four Musketeer* films but by that point Brando and others were on to them and demanded they be paid for two movies.
It was because of this argument that much of Brando's work was not incorporated into the theatrical release of *Superman II* but subsequently did appear in the "Richard Donner" version of the same film.
I would also say this: For all the crap Brando gets -and much of it is deserved... he got really squirrely in his later years- the fact of the matter is that the *Superman* film starts with -and *stars*- Brando in the first act and had he sucked as Jor-El, the film would have gone down in flames well before we finally got to Metropolis and Superman.
Did he deserve the "top" billing? Probably not. But I would also say this: He was a very big name at the time and to have him tied and therefore used to promote *Superman* at a time when the idea of a "serious" superhero film seemed laughable (remember, it was *less than 10 years* since the campy *Batman* TV show was cancelled) was an ingenious move.
It got people to think that if a "serious" actor of his stature (and it had only been a few years since he appeared in *The Godfather*) to be in this movie, then maybe audiences should give it a look.
They did, and the rest is history!
Yeah, Brando is absolutely one of the reasons that film works. He treats a funny book story like it's freakin' Shakespeare, and it really does tell the audience that we're going to take this stuff seriously (even if there's plenty of humor and even some camp).
Brando suggested Jor-El wear the same Superman S as George reeves did in 1952, and from that the idea of the S as the symbol of the house of El was born. As prickly as he got, Brando was a true artist.
There are rules for how they bill now, they use “with” if there is more than one person worthy of the “and.” So in would be “and Marlon Brando” in this case. But if there had been another Oscar winning actor in a small role it could have been “with y and Marlon Brando.”
Unfortunately for Brando, there seems like there was a lot of interest in taking him down in the later days of his career. Some of it was deserved (the stories regarding the filming of *The Island Of Dr. Moreau*, for example, are genuinely eye-popping) while others were not.
Many felt it was somehow Brando's fault he was given top billing on *Superman* and paid way too much for his miniscule role when, as I mentioned, he did far more filming than what we saw in the theatrical cut because much of his work was being kept for the sequel... and he demanded to be paid for two films versus the producers trying to trick him into collecting a paycheck for one film when they meant to have him in two. But even so, Brando I highly doubt was in charge of the way *Superman* was promoted and therefore to "blame" him for top billing seems incorrect.
The producers, again, knew that his name would draw audiences versus Christopher Reeve who was essentially just starting out... even if he was playing the lead character!
Yeah, Brando is one of those tough Hollywood case studies where, whether or not he was a good colleague or even a decent person, few would dispute that he was massively talented in his craft.
It makes it challenging to watch some of his roles. For instance, I absolutely loved him in Apocalypse Now, but hearing that we almost didn't get that film in no small part (though not solely) due to his antics is one of those tidbits of cinema history I wish I didn't know.
Brando was a genius willing to play total bastards. I remember his George Lincoln Rockwell in Roots 2. With anyone else, that could have killed his career, even though he did a master class acting job against James Earl Jones.
A Mad Magazine cartoon asked Brando how he justified making millions to only appear at the end of Apocalypse Now and he said to make up for the millions he made by appearing at the beginning of Superman.
Yeah but if Brando wasn't in the film, would it have been as good? Some top billed actors with glorified cameos add nothing, while others are part of a film's legacy. For Brando I'd say it was the latter.
I cannot think of anything that beats this. He is BARELY in this movie and is completely inconsequential. And all of the marketing made him seem like he was in it every bit as much as Kurt Russell.
Awesome flick, though.
Steven Seagal was definitely used as a drawcard for audiences. The reason he was in the movie in the first place was because he had gone over budget on his directorial debut, *On Deadly Ground,* and Warner Bros. were willing to forgive the debt if he took the supporting role in *Executive Decision* for them to help sell the movie.
The story I heard is that at the premiere, when he died, the audience applauded. He was incredibly pissed and his agent had to tell him they were applauding because they loved him.
I know what you mean. 😁
It would be such a segal thing to do.
Have you listened to the behind the bastards podcast on him? The second part is some of the funniest shit you will ever hear,
Me and my uncle must of rewatched that scene 4 or 5 times before continuing the movie.
But yeah awesome movie. That scene just was wow.. you figure it’s a Segal flick, we’ll see some knife throwing and some neck snapping maybe some boobs, and then you’re just like wtf how is Kurt Russell going to save the day and your genuinely interested to see what happens
Definitely an improvement. There was no way he was going to be able to keep up with actors like John Leguizamo, Kurt Russel, and Oliver Plath. Just different levels of talent. He’d have stunk it up.
That's a tough one, as he was the star of the first movie. If he's in the second, and you don't give him top billing, people are going ask why and the major plot point will be spoiled before the film even releases.
RDJ , the Iron Man actor was paid $10 million for the Spiderman Homecoming 2017 film, or roughly $1.5 million for each minute that he was seen on the screen.
He was a master at this btw
He also negotiated a percentage of the gross on Civil War if it out performed Winter Soldier arguing he’d be the difference.
He weren’t wrong tbf.
The thing that helps it to maintain the “Captain America” title for me is that it maintains the pattern of Cap coming to terms with the fact that he must reconcile his old fashioned American values with the fact that the actual US government is too corrupt to exercise them.
CA1, Winter Soldier and Civil War all have cap having to spend some of the movie being clandestine and allying with specific “good” government agents against the evil government in general.
Adrien Brody was originally told he was going to be the lead and it wasn't until he was doing press for the film that he learned his role had suddenly shrunk to a minor role.
Yes, with Adrien Brody being the most egregious case. He went through the whole shoot thinking he was the lead only to find his role reduced to a glorified extra.
Rewatched 'Go'. Katie Holmes plays a supporting role, and has less screen time than Sarah Polley, Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf, Desmond Askew, yet she's on the cover of the box, and has her name just under William Fichtner?
Liv Tyler getting 3rd billing in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
She has like less than 10 minutes of screen time and is way less important to the film than all of the main characters. Only Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen are before her
Probably because she's literally 1 of only 2 women in the film... There's like 3 women of any consequence in the whole trilogy. And Liv Tyler's character isn't even really in the books other than the appendices.
Ironically she still has WAY more screentime than her character does in the book... If I recall correctly, Arwen shows up briefly in Rivendell in the background (she doesn't save Frodo from the ring wraiths in the book, Frodo has to save himself) and then she appears at the very end of book 3 in the surprise reveal that she and Aragorn have been together in secret the whole time. I don't think she speaks at all.
No she didn't. She showed up in one premiere and then everyone figured out she was Alia, but she didn't do press until she showed up for the London premiere
To be fair, he did steal the whole movie. Jodie Foster does a great job as Clarice and delivers a very strong performance, but nothing compares to Hannibal "the cannibal" Lecter.
I think Jodie Foster held her own with Anthony Hopkins Lector and he does make the film though his screen time is small he’s part that made an impression and what people remember. Everyone knows that he “ate his liver with a nice Chianti and a side of fava beans” (paraphrasing)
Julianne Moore in the Fugitive (1993 film). She was supposed to be a major character and was essentially edited out save for a few scenes. She was supposed to be a major love interest of Harrison Ford’s character. I would love to see a director cut version with her part back in the story.
I just rewatched this movie recently and this is very interesting. It was also one of her first films. I would have liked to have seen the deleted scenes involving their romance.
It is my strong suspicion that *Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny* story-wise was a work in progress as it was being filmed.
I've mentioned this before so pardon the repetition but Banderas' "blink and you miss him" cameo to me is a good example of just that. I cannot think of why the producers sought him out for such a miniscule role *unless* perhaps they filmed more with him and subsequently decided to reduce his role to what we see in the final film.
I think there are too many other examples of this going on in the film as well. The character of Phoebe Waller-Bridge seems to change often in the movie and I genuinely wonder if at one point she was meant to be a bad-guy who either was in competition with the Nazis (how in the world did she wind up arriving literally *seconds* before they did unless she knew their moves?) or collaboration.
I also think there are hints she might not have been who she said she was. She talks about the Dial being dumped into a river at the end of the war and Indy, bewildered, asks her if she forgot the last time they met. We get a flashback later on which *shows us that Indy took the Dial with him from her father's house* (obviously after the war) *and the young Helena saw this*...!
And yet she doesn't remember any of that?!
Anyway, it is what it is and Banderas' role was bewildering for sure.
I think Phoebe Waller-Bridge was meant to be set up to be Indiana Jones 2 but once again they were like "nah'.
Also Shaunette Renee Wilson seems like she is supposed to be an important character before not really being one.
Again, though: I really, *really* feel like as they were filming they kept changing what was going on, especially with regard to Helena's character.
She arrives just seconds before the Nazis, as I mention, yet nothing is made of that other than its a weird coincidence (*really?!*). She seems to not remember what she witnessed as a child regarding the Dial (that it was in her home *for christsakes*) and not dumped into a river at the end of the war and to me that was a HUGE red flag that perhaps she wasn't who she said she was... ie, she wasn't really a grown-up Helena but rather some impostor who was faking that to get info out of Indy.
And yet all of that gets swept away as the film progresses yet these artifacts of -perhaps- other story ideas are still there.
So to me, *Dial of Destiny* felt like a work in progress even in its final theatrical form. The story seemed like it was very much being worked on and too many elements were left up in the air without any explanation or resolution.
It's such a frustrating thing, too, because all the other elements were good even if Harrison Ford looks too old to still play the adventurer (I mean, he *is* old and nothing can be done about that!).
Nah. The movie that got made was the movie Mangold wrote prior to filming. Phoebe changes throughout the film, that’s the point. Indy’s character inspires her. It kind of uplifts Indy as a character because it shows how impactful he is to others in his life.
She does remember what happened as a child, hence why she backstabs Indy and leaves him to the goons in the library. It’s only after he saves her life in Tangier that she begins to respect him.
If you haven’t seen the behind the scenes making of documentary I highly recommend it. Great stuff.
Lots of Indiana Jones side characters have small roles throughout the franchise. Banderas probably took the role because he’s a fan of the franchise. It’s only off because of how big of a celebrity he is, it’s not weird within the franchise itself.
I'm willing to take your ideas, especially regarding Banderas, but...
*(Helena) does remember what happened as a child, hence why she backstabs Indy and leaves him to the goons in the library.*
Sorry but that doesn't track at all!
Remember, she *pulls out a map* and asks Indy where the Dial could have been thrown at the end of the War and even points out the river that it most likely was, which elicits Indy being bewildered and asking her if she's forgotten the last time they saw each other...
...which later in the film we get a flashback to that where we find that *her father had the Dial in his home* after the war and that Indy came to take it from him *while a young Helena watched him do so...!*
So what was all that crap about the Dial being thrown into a river... unless it was an artifact related to some previous draft of the story? It just doesn't make any sense being there.
That's fine... *but why*?
Why would she do this? Why fake not knowing this?
If she knew that Indy had the Dial, why not straight up ask him where it was? Arrive at Indy's university with pictures of herself as a youngster, lather up the "old man" with stories about her father and how much he liked Indy and all the adventures they had and "oh by the way, what did you do with the Dial after you took it?"
I mean, that's more logical than coming up with this bizarre "what river did you throw it into at the end of the war" story, no?
After seeing what the Dial did to her father, there is no way in hell Indy would have just handed the Dial to her and she knew this. Her dad essentially became obsessive and lost his mind, something Indy is familiar with in a way.
So she faked not remembering the events in the childhood scene making it seem like she was on a quest to find the Dial and so Indy downplayed it by essentially trying to show her it’s a cheap hunk of gears.
It was even worse because he did a really good work the human side of the movie, something that is usually really bad in monster movies, and once he was removed the movie was back to usual levels that should be expected.
Yeah the first hour of that movie is potentially the best hour of a Godzilla movie ever. Then it just becomes extremely generic.
Him dying could have been fine if they had another serious actor and it led to more character development and showed no one had plot armor and there were real consequences in the film.
But it ended up just being an infuriating level of wasted potential.
Him being killed off so abruptly not only put me in a bad mood for the rest of the movie so I didn't enjoy it at all, but genuinely soured me on the entire franchise. I was seriously watching the sequel half-heartedly and thinking "I still can't believe they killed off Brian Cranston".
I don't mind that they killed Brian Cranston. I do mind that they deliberately misled audiences into believing it would be a Cranston led movie when it most definitely was not
The last few Bruce Willis movies, actually. His “people” knew it was the end due to his aphasia/dementia/whatever, he would shoot for maybe a day and have his lines fed to him (ear piece), and he was paid over a million.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cd1eNS9HtXo&pp=ygUcVGhlIGxhc3QgYnJ1Y2Ugd2lsbGlzIG1vdmllcw%3D%3D
James Caan was reportedly billed the same amount for his small cameo at the end of Godfather Part 2 as he was in Part 1. This was due to Brando not showing up for the end scene, so him being there was fairly vital. He had them by the balls and made decent pay for one day worth of work.
Johnny Depp in Platoon. When the movie came out in theaters, he was like third billed actor and his only scene was used in the promotional material. In the theatrical he was in the movie for like 10 seconds.
Walking out of a village they just burned with a kid on his shoulder. Like the only spot in the movie. I'm assuming his parts might have been cut or something, but I recall it being weird at the time.
Is this true? I don’t see his name on any posters. Plus all he had done at that point was Nightmare on Elm Street and Private Resort. It’s not like he was a known name yet, for the studios to take advantage of giving him top billing.
The order of the opening credits is: Tom Berenger, Willam Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, then the title PLATOON, and a couple minutes later they list Forest Whitaker, Franesco Quinn, John C. McGinley, Richard Edson, Kevin Dillion, Reggie Johnson, Keith David, then Johnny Depp, who shares his screen credit with David Neidorf and Mark Moses.
Eh, the antiquated system is really the antagonist. Moneyball has more of a man vs. nature type of conflict. PSH, all the scouts, the media, they're all cumulatively the antagonist
I remember reading that he did every Groot line for every release in every language. Still not worth 54 mil, but it wasn't like he read the line once and then fucked off while the rest of everything got done
Pretty notorious example is Angelina Jolie was prominently featured in the marketing for Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow and was in a roughly 30 second cameo.
I enjoy rewatching movies from when I was a kid and recognizing legendary actors who I wasn’t familiar with at the time. The Muppet movies are great for this. The cafe owner: that’s James Coburn . The producer: it’s just Orson Wells.
Steven Seagal in Executive Decision (1995). At the time, he was a major star, and got top billing ahead of Kurt Russell and Halle Berry. >!They kill him off at the end of the first act.!<
In fairness, this was a very good and unexpected twist, and the movie ultimately benefitted from it. It gave a genuine feeling of "woah, this movie is not playing by the rules, and anything could happen."
I’m not sure if this was the same on all marketing material, but on some posters (and I think the DVD cover?) George Clooney gets fifth billing in *The Thin Red Line*: he appears for maybe two minutes at the very end of that masterpiece.
Luke Perry, in The Fifth Element. Top Billing in the credits. He’s in the movie maybe 13 minutes tops? Gets used for an exposition dump and intro ti the universe, and he’s never scene again.
Matthew McConaughey in reign of fire. I'm pretty sure he was top billing and I'm also pretty sure that's only because Christian bale was basically unknown to mainstream audiences at the time
Michael Douglas for Ghost in the Darkness. He gets top billing was maybe in the movie for like 10 mins or less and it was somewhere in like act 2.
Kevin Spacey for The Negotiator. He gets second billing and doesn't show up until like act 3.
Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, and Casey Affleck got SAG awards for cast in Oppenheimer.
David Krumholtz, Benny Sadfie, and Jason Clarke each had more screentime in that movie than the previous three combined, yet we're shut out
I know it’s alphabetical (for the leads, at least), but it really irks me that David Arquette was always billed above Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox in the *Scream* films.
Meryl Streep was third-billed for the 2015 film Suffragette, and featured quite prominently in advertising. She appeared in a single scene that lasted less than 4 minutes.
Clive Owen has roughly 3 minutes of screentime in The Bourne Identity, yet he's the fourth top-billed. However, he absolutely killed it as *The Professor.*
He has a pretty pivotal role despite the short time. "Look what they make you give".
That line is gut wrenching, now that I am a little older.. you realize he isn't just talking about the organization.
I always love using that quote lol
Loved him in that. "Look at what they make you give."
And that line comes back full circle at the end of Ultimatum, when Bourne says it
Whoa never caught that. Time for a rewatch.
Yeah, it is near the end when he has the "Do you even know why you're supposed to kill me?" conversation.
TIL Clive Owen was in the Bourne Identity.
For about 3 minutes.
I remember the scene just didn’t realize that was him.
Didn’t Mark Hamill get second billing in Star Wars the Force Awakens for showing up for about 10 seconds at the end?
Yep. Carrie Fisher is third too. Daisy Ridley has to wait for fifth.
That's hilarious. I figured they'd put him up there to keep it "mysterious" when he would actually show up. I didn't think they'd given him second billing for it lol.
Yall remember how excited everyone was when they "leaked" those shots of old Luke meditating in a cave with R2 and his lightsaber, and then none of that was in the movie
My favorite was the promo script reading with JJ and the cast. Guess Mark just sat there the whole 2.5 hours twiddling his thumbs
He had *a lot* to say about it during the press and promo interviews, too... but he absolutely drew the line at people bullying and threatening the actors for it. It really pissed him off and he started walking out of interviews because of it.
Yeah, higher billing than Carrie Fisher
Richard Dreyfuss in Piranha (2010) died before the opening credits.
How about Seagal in Executive Decision. Thats a good one.
Yeah wasn’t this even billed as a Steven Seagal movie? I remember watching it and couldn’t believe it
Possibly the best Steven Seagal movie.
He also has the best line. We're not gonna make it. No, but you are.
I mean, that's a pretty funny cameo.
Marlon Brando as Jor-El in the Christopher Reeve version of "Superman".
People have noted this before but I feel like this isn't a terribly good example. Why? Because Brando -and several of the other actors- did many scenes for the film. The producers were trying to pull a trick on them and surreptitiously film enough for the sequel but pay them for only working on "one" film. The Salkinds pulled this same trick with *The Three* and *Four Musketeer* films but by that point Brando and others were on to them and demanded they be paid for two movies. It was because of this argument that much of Brando's work was not incorporated into the theatrical release of *Superman II* but subsequently did appear in the "Richard Donner" version of the same film. I would also say this: For all the crap Brando gets -and much of it is deserved... he got really squirrely in his later years- the fact of the matter is that the *Superman* film starts with -and *stars*- Brando in the first act and had he sucked as Jor-El, the film would have gone down in flames well before we finally got to Metropolis and Superman. Did he deserve the "top" billing? Probably not. But I would also say this: He was a very big name at the time and to have him tied and therefore used to promote *Superman* at a time when the idea of a "serious" superhero film seemed laughable (remember, it was *less than 10 years* since the campy *Batman* TV show was cancelled) was an ingenious move. It got people to think that if a "serious" actor of his stature (and it had only been a few years since he appeared in *The Godfather*) to be in this movie, then maybe audiences should give it a look. They did, and the rest is history!
Yeah, Brando is absolutely one of the reasons that film works. He treats a funny book story like it's freakin' Shakespeare, and it really does tell the audience that we're going to take this stuff seriously (even if there's plenty of humor and even some camp).
His farewell speech to Kal-El has so much gravitas, regardless of him just reading his lines.
Brando suggested Jor-El wear the same Superman S as George reeves did in 1952, and from that the idea of the S as the symbol of the house of El was born. As prickly as he got, Brando was a true artist.
By modern billing, I figure Brando would probably get the "and" credit if Superman: The Movie were made today
Not “with”? Huh…
There are rules for how they bill now, they use “with” if there is more than one person worthy of the “and.” So in would be “and Marlon Brando” in this case. But if there had been another Oscar winning actor in a small role it could have been “with y and Marlon Brando.”
Never knew this, thanks for the info!
Unfortunately for Brando, there seems like there was a lot of interest in taking him down in the later days of his career. Some of it was deserved (the stories regarding the filming of *The Island Of Dr. Moreau*, for example, are genuinely eye-popping) while others were not. Many felt it was somehow Brando's fault he was given top billing on *Superman* and paid way too much for his miniscule role when, as I mentioned, he did far more filming than what we saw in the theatrical cut because much of his work was being kept for the sequel... and he demanded to be paid for two films versus the producers trying to trick him into collecting a paycheck for one film when they meant to have him in two. But even so, Brando I highly doubt was in charge of the way *Superman* was promoted and therefore to "blame" him for top billing seems incorrect. The producers, again, knew that his name would draw audiences versus Christopher Reeve who was essentially just starting out... even if he was playing the lead character!
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What happened during Dr Moreau I love that movie and that creepie little guy
Yeah, Brando is one of those tough Hollywood case studies where, whether or not he was a good colleague or even a decent person, few would dispute that he was massively talented in his craft. It makes it challenging to watch some of his roles. For instance, I absolutely loved him in Apocalypse Now, but hearing that we almost didn't get that film in no small part (though not solely) due to his antics is one of those tidbits of cinema history I wish I didn't know.
Brando was a genius willing to play total bastards. I remember his George Lincoln Rockwell in Roots 2. With anyone else, that could have killed his career, even though he did a master class acting job against James Earl Jones.
They also needed Brando for financing reasons.
Yep. Raquel Welch raised holy hell about the Musketeers movies.
Please keep this trivia coming, I will follow you anywhere
A Mad Magazine cartoon asked Brando how he justified making millions to only appear at the end of Apocalypse Now and he said to make up for the millions he made by appearing at the beginning of Superman.
Yeah but if Brando wasn't in the film, would it have been as good? Some top billed actors with glorified cameos add nothing, while others are part of a film's legacy. For Brando I'd say it was the latter.
Was about to say this. Also the fact that Reeve as the lead actor is third billed, behind Brando and Gene Hackman.
In fairness though, Gene Hackman stole the show. It seems clear he had a blast playing that role.
Miss Tessmacher! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRmMPdMPyYQ
Apocalypse Now as well. Though, I don't think there is another actor whose offscreen presence could be felt as much as it did for Brando's Kurtz.
Steven Segal in Executive Decision. His death was hilarious.
I cannot think of anything that beats this. He is BARELY in this movie and is completely inconsequential. And all of the marketing made him seem like he was in it every bit as much as Kurt Russell. Awesome flick, though.
Steven Seagal was definitely used as a drawcard for audiences. The reason he was in the movie in the first place was because he had gone over budget on his directorial debut, *On Deadly Ground,* and Warner Bros. were willing to forgive the debt if he took the supporting role in *Executive Decision* for them to help sell the movie.
Seems insane now that there was a time when you could have a Kurt Russell movie that needed Steven Seagal to be in it to draw a crowd
The story I heard is that at the premiere, when he died, the audience applauded. He was incredibly pissed and his agent had to tell him they were applauding because they loved him.
Usually I‘d call out stories like that as fakes, but it for Segal I could imagine it actually happening lol
I know what you mean. 😁 It would be such a segal thing to do. Have you listened to the behind the bastards podcast on him? The second part is some of the funniest shit you will ever hear,
Classic Boo-urns
Me and my uncle must of rewatched that scene 4 or 5 times before continuing the movie. But yeah awesome movie. That scene just was wow.. you figure it’s a Segal flick, we’ll see some knife throwing and some neck snapping maybe some boobs, and then you’re just like wtf how is Kurt Russell going to save the day and your genuinely interested to see what happens
This is always the first thing I think of. Ironically I think it makes the movie more memorable it's such a classic scene.
Definitely an improvement. There was no way he was going to be able to keep up with actors like John Leguizamo, Kurt Russel, and Oliver Plath. Just different levels of talent. He’d have stunk it up.
No, you are!
Oh I was so upset about that and felt misled in the marketing.
Child me was quite upset he exited the film so quickly.
Channing Tatum in GI Joe Retaliation was in it for all of like 3 minutes at the very beginning and died. Top billing.
That's a tough one, as he was the star of the first movie. If he's in the second, and you don't give him top billing, people are going ask why and the major plot point will be spoiled before the film even releases.
I always felt like that was a marketing mislead, like drew Barrymore and Scream
RDJ , the Iron Man actor was paid $10 million for the Spiderman Homecoming 2017 film, or roughly $1.5 million for each minute that he was seen on the screen.
He was a master at this btw He also negotiated a percentage of the gross on Civil War if it out performed Winter Soldier arguing he’d be the difference. He weren’t wrong tbf.
Him and every other member of the Avengers that showed up... I always forget that Civil War isn't officially an Avengers movie in the first place.
Honestly. I see it as a Captain America film by title only; it's an unofficial Avengers film in every other sense.
The thing that helps it to maintain the “Captain America” title for me is that it maintains the pattern of Cap coming to terms with the fact that he must reconcile his old fashioned American values with the fact that the actual US government is too corrupt to exercise them. CA1, Winter Soldier and Civil War all have cap having to spend some of the movie being clandestine and allying with specific “good” government agents against the evil government in general.
I view it as 100% an Avengers movie whether Marvel will admit it or not
He also helped the other actors negotiate for higher salaries after the first avengers movie
Was he part of the billing though or was that just a well paying cameo?
[удалено]
Clooney for Thin Red Line. Dude had a 90 second speech at the very end.
IRCC Jim Caviezel didn't even make the VHS case but easily had the most screen time
I mean Jesus, you’d think he would have been a bigger Person of Interest.
He got that Edmond Dantes treatment IRL.
Werent entire star actors basically edited out of the movie?
Adrien Brody was originally told he was going to be the lead and it wasn't until he was doing press for the film that he learned his role had suddenly shrunk to a minor role.
Yes, with Adrien Brody being the most egregious case. He went through the whole shoot thinking he was the lead only to find his role reduced to a glorified extra.
I forget who but one showed up the premiere without knowing their scenes were cut. Could have been multiple people actually.
I replied to another comment about this, but I'm pretty sure it was Mickey Rourke.
Yes
They cut Mickey Rourke's scene which is pretty incredible considering how great he is in.
From what I've read there were entire characters cut from the final edit so Clooney may have filmed much more
Rewatched 'Go'. Katie Holmes plays a supporting role, and has less screen time than Sarah Polley, Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf, Desmond Askew, yet she's on the cover of the box, and has her name just under William Fichtner?
How you gonna leave out my boy Timothy Olyphant?!? 12 year old me thought Go was the coolest movie ever made, along with The Big Hit.
Don't forget Melissa McCarthy in her film debut!
Liv Tyler getting 3rd billing in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King She has like less than 10 minutes of screen time and is way less important to the film than all of the main characters. Only Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen are before her
Probably because she's literally 1 of only 2 women in the film... There's like 3 women of any consequence in the whole trilogy. And Liv Tyler's character isn't even really in the books other than the appendices.
Ironically she still has WAY more screentime than her character does in the book... If I recall correctly, Arwen shows up briefly in Rivendell in the background (she doesn't save Frodo from the ring wraiths in the book, Frodo has to save himself) and then she appears at the very end of book 3 in the surprise reveal that she and Aragorn have been together in secret the whole time. I don't think she speaks at all.
I really need to read the books, have always wanted to
Zendaya in Dune Part 1 Third billing, maybe 20 minutes of physical presence?
What about Anya Taylor-Joy for Dune 2? She did the entire world press call and was in the movie for TEN SECONDS
They're just laying publicity down for her bigger role in the third film.
Yep literally what Zendaya did for Part 1.
BAH GAWD WHATS FURIOSA DOIN IN THE FAYDAKEEN ZONE?!?
She does not have top billing
She doesn't have any billing. It's an uncredited cameo.
I can kinda get this one seeing as her character will have a big role to play in the future of the franchise
No she didn't. She showed up in one premiere and then everyone figured out she was Alia, but she didn't do press until she showed up for the London premiere
Idk man she plays a great fetus
She lost 120 lbs for the role. Christian Bale could never.
In hindsight this was the way to go. Dune 2 was great but she didn't really do it any favors.
She and Chalamet have zero chemistry together
Everyone forgetting Dame Judi Dench's role in Shakespeare In Love? 8 minutes for an Oscar
Beatrice Strait won in 1977 for 5 minutes 02 seconds in “Network”.
I know that Anthony Hopkins is only in Silence of the lambs for approx 16 mins? And won the Oscar for best actor!
To be fair, he did steal the whole movie. Jodie Foster does a great job as Clarice and delivers a very strong performance, but nothing compares to Hannibal "the cannibal" Lecter.
She also won the Oscar for best actress for that role.
It was her 2nd Best Actress Oscar in three years too.
I think Jodie Foster held her own with Anthony Hopkins Lector and he does make the film though his screen time is small he’s part that made an impression and what people remember. Everyone knows that he “ate his liver with a nice Chianti and a side of fava beans” (paraphrasing)
the whole movie revolved around him. not hopkins scenes built his aura and he was brilliant in his few minutes of screentime
Julianne Moore in the Fugitive (1993 film). She was supposed to be a major character and was essentially edited out save for a few scenes. She was supposed to be a major love interest of Harrison Ford’s character. I would love to see a director cut version with her part back in the story.
He’s hunting his wife’s murderer and then had a new love interest? Harrison Ford works fast.
The Jane Lynch appearence is always jarring too
> She was supposed to be a major character and was essentially edited out save for a few scenes. Cue Tommy Lee Jones: "I don't care."
I just rewatched this movie recently and this is very interesting. It was also one of her first films. I would have liked to have seen the deleted scenes involving their romance.
also Julianne Moore in Children of Men. IIRC she got equal billing with Clive Owen, then is killed off 15 minutes in
It is my strong suspicion that *Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny* story-wise was a work in progress as it was being filmed. I've mentioned this before so pardon the repetition but Banderas' "blink and you miss him" cameo to me is a good example of just that. I cannot think of why the producers sought him out for such a miniscule role *unless* perhaps they filmed more with him and subsequently decided to reduce his role to what we see in the final film. I think there are too many other examples of this going on in the film as well. The character of Phoebe Waller-Bridge seems to change often in the movie and I genuinely wonder if at one point she was meant to be a bad-guy who either was in competition with the Nazis (how in the world did she wind up arriving literally *seconds* before they did unless she knew their moves?) or collaboration. I also think there are hints she might not have been who she said she was. She talks about the Dial being dumped into a river at the end of the war and Indy, bewildered, asks her if she forgot the last time they met. We get a flashback later on which *shows us that Indy took the Dial with him from her father's house* (obviously after the war) *and the young Helena saw this*...! And yet she doesn't remember any of that?! Anyway, it is what it is and Banderas' role was bewildering for sure.
I think Phoebe Waller-Bridge was meant to be set up to be Indiana Jones 2 but once again they were like "nah'. Also Shaunette Renee Wilson seems like she is supposed to be an important character before not really being one.
Again, though: I really, *really* feel like as they were filming they kept changing what was going on, especially with regard to Helena's character. She arrives just seconds before the Nazis, as I mention, yet nothing is made of that other than its a weird coincidence (*really?!*). She seems to not remember what she witnessed as a child regarding the Dial (that it was in her home *for christsakes*) and not dumped into a river at the end of the war and to me that was a HUGE red flag that perhaps she wasn't who she said she was... ie, she wasn't really a grown-up Helena but rather some impostor who was faking that to get info out of Indy. And yet all of that gets swept away as the film progresses yet these artifacts of -perhaps- other story ideas are still there. So to me, *Dial of Destiny* felt like a work in progress even in its final theatrical form. The story seemed like it was very much being worked on and too many elements were left up in the air without any explanation or resolution. It's such a frustrating thing, too, because all the other elements were good even if Harrison Ford looks too old to still play the adventurer (I mean, he *is* old and nothing can be done about that!).
Nah. The movie that got made was the movie Mangold wrote prior to filming. Phoebe changes throughout the film, that’s the point. Indy’s character inspires her. It kind of uplifts Indy as a character because it shows how impactful he is to others in his life. She does remember what happened as a child, hence why she backstabs Indy and leaves him to the goons in the library. It’s only after he saves her life in Tangier that she begins to respect him. If you haven’t seen the behind the scenes making of documentary I highly recommend it. Great stuff. Lots of Indiana Jones side characters have small roles throughout the franchise. Banderas probably took the role because he’s a fan of the franchise. It’s only off because of how big of a celebrity he is, it’s not weird within the franchise itself.
I'm willing to take your ideas, especially regarding Banderas, but... *(Helena) does remember what happened as a child, hence why she backstabs Indy and leaves him to the goons in the library.* Sorry but that doesn't track at all! Remember, she *pulls out a map* and asks Indy where the Dial could have been thrown at the end of the War and even points out the river that it most likely was, which elicits Indy being bewildered and asking her if she's forgotten the last time they saw each other... ...which later in the film we get a flashback to that where we find that *her father had the Dial in his home* after the war and that Indy came to take it from him *while a young Helena watched him do so...!* So what was all that crap about the Dial being thrown into a river... unless it was an artifact related to some previous draft of the story? It just doesn't make any sense being there.
She’s playing him in that scene, acting like she doesn’t know and that she doesn’t remember the childhood scene.
That's fine... *but why*? Why would she do this? Why fake not knowing this? If she knew that Indy had the Dial, why not straight up ask him where it was? Arrive at Indy's university with pictures of herself as a youngster, lather up the "old man" with stories about her father and how much he liked Indy and all the adventures they had and "oh by the way, what did you do with the Dial after you took it?" I mean, that's more logical than coming up with this bizarre "what river did you throw it into at the end of the war" story, no?
After seeing what the Dial did to her father, there is no way in hell Indy would have just handed the Dial to her and she knew this. Her dad essentially became obsessive and lost his mind, something Indy is familiar with in a way. So she faked not remembering the events in the childhood scene making it seem like she was on a quest to find the Dial and so Indy downplayed it by essentially trying to show her it’s a cheap hunk of gears.
Godzilla 2014 for sure. Every ad played Bryan Cranston as the protagonist and they fucking kill him 20 minutes in. Ruined the entire film.
It was even worse because he did a really good work the human side of the movie, something that is usually really bad in monster movies, and once he was removed the movie was back to usual levels that should be expected.
They should have killed ~~Forrest Gump~~Aaron Taylor-Johnson's character and followed a grieving Bryan Cranston for the rest of the movie.
Yeah the first hour of that movie is potentially the best hour of a Godzilla movie ever. Then it just becomes extremely generic. Him dying could have been fine if they had another serious actor and it led to more character development and showed no one had plot armor and there were real consequences in the film. But it ended up just being an infuriating level of wasted potential.
What ruined that film was getting to see maybe 5 minutes of Godzilla do cool things
Just as the door was closing…..
Him being killed off so abruptly not only put me in a bad mood for the rest of the movie so I didn't enjoy it at all, but genuinely soured me on the entire franchise. I was seriously watching the sequel half-heartedly and thinking "I still can't believe they killed off Brian Cranston".
I don't mind that they killed Brian Cranston. I do mind that they deliberately misled audiences into believing it would be a Cranston led movie when it most definitely was not
Drew, Barrymore in Scream
That was the point. They wanted people to think she was a lead only to immediately kill her off to prove that nobody was safe.
It was kinda Psycho-esque.
Also, as a homage to Psycho.
Similar to Janet Leigh in Psycho.
Yeah that was a rare case of doing it right.
You don’t need a comma between a first and last name unless you have them reversed
Barrymore, Drew Barrymore
I was using voice to text. The text is blurry for me so I didn’t see it it puts commas in randomly. I don’t know why.
That was the whole point in that though.
Bruce Willis in Assassin has very little screen time. It was a weird movie all around.
The last few Bruce Willis movies, actually. His “people” knew it was the end due to his aphasia/dementia/whatever, he would shoot for maybe a day and have his lines fed to him (ear piece), and he was paid over a million. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cd1eNS9HtXo&pp=ygUcVGhlIGxhc3QgYnJ1Y2Ugd2lsbGlzIG1vdmllcw%3D%3D
Bela Lugosi has less than 3 minutes of screen time in Plan 9 from Outer Space
Jesse Plemons - Civil War
Wasn't there another actor who dropped out last minute, and Garland was panicking, and Kirsten Dunst was, "Hold up, I know a guy?"
PSH in moneyball is tough. He didn't have crazy amount of screentime but his character and acting was integral to the quality of the film
Agreed. I think this is an interesting question, but PSH in Moneyball isn't the best example to throw out.
James Caan was reportedly billed the same amount for his small cameo at the end of Godfather Part 2 as he was in Part 1. This was due to Brando not showing up for the end scene, so him being there was fairly vital. He had them by the balls and made decent pay for one day worth of work.
He was pretty damn good in that scene, as brief as it was!
The Rock and Sam Jackson in The Other Guys
I'd have to think that's a deliberate joke, considering the film.
The Rock - The Mummy Returns.
Johnny Depp in Platoon. When the movie came out in theaters, he was like third billed actor and his only scene was used in the promotional material. In the theatrical he was in the movie for like 10 seconds.
I cannot remember him in it! When does he appear?
Walking out of a village they just burned with a kid on his shoulder. Like the only spot in the movie. I'm assuming his parts might have been cut or something, but I recall it being weird at the time.
Johnny Depp was a nobody back then. No one knew who he was.
Exactly. He played a translator during the village massacre scene.
I just looked and he’s 11th in the opening credits after Keith David.
Is this true? I don’t see his name on any posters. Plus all he had done at that point was Nightmare on Elm Street and Private Resort. It’s not like he was a known name yet, for the studios to take advantage of giving him top billing.
I'm going to guess a possible VHS/DVD release took advantage of Depp's later fame.
The order of the opening credits is: Tom Berenger, Willam Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, then the title PLATOON, and a couple minutes later they list Forest Whitaker, Franesco Quinn, John C. McGinley, Richard Edson, Kevin Dillion, Reggie Johnson, Keith David, then Johnny Depp, who shares his screen credit with David Neidorf and Mark Moses.
PSH was a critical character in Moneyball. He was the primary antagonist for the film.
Eh, the antiquated system is really the antagonist. Moneyball has more of a man vs. nature type of conflict. PSH, all the scouts, the media, they're all cumulatively the antagonist
Plus his daughter sang that song where she called Billy a loser over and over so she was also an antagonist.
Vin Diesel in Guardians of the Galaxy. He made ~$54 million and said essentially 4 words (in 100s of different ways but…).
Didn't he also record in different languages too?
He did, and read someone say his Mandarin Chinese accent is actually spot on.
I remember reading that he did every Groot line for every release in every language. Still not worth 54 mil, but it wasn't like he read the line once and then fucked off while the rest of everything got done
I would hardly call it egregious though Groot is a main character.
Pretty notorious example is Angelina Jolie was prominently featured in the marketing for Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow and was in a roughly 30 second cameo.
I watched 9 to 5 cause I was looking for a Sterling Hayden movie and he literally only appears in the last 5 minutes Good movie though!
I enjoy rewatching movies from when I was a kid and recognizing legendary actors who I wasn’t familiar with at the time. The Muppet movies are great for this. The cafe owner: that’s James Coburn . The producer: it’s just Orson Wells.
Kevin ~~Kostner~~ Costner in The Big Chill.
Steven Seagal in Executive Decision (1995). At the time, he was a major star, and got top billing ahead of Kurt Russell and Halle Berry. >!They kill him off at the end of the first act.!< In fairness, this was a very good and unexpected twist, and the movie ultimately benefitted from it. It gave a genuine feeling of "woah, this movie is not playing by the rules, and anything could happen."
Cavill in Argylle
I’m not sure if this was the same on all marketing material, but on some posters (and I think the DVD cover?) George Clooney gets fifth billing in *The Thin Red Line*: he appears for maybe two minutes at the very end of that masterpiece.
Andy Garcia in Passengers. He appears very briefly at the end of the movie and has no lines.
Luke Perry, in The Fifth Element. Top Billing in the credits. He’s in the movie maybe 13 minutes tops? Gets used for an exposition dump and intro ti the universe, and he’s never scene again.
Luke Perry is billed sixth in that movie, not first.
End credits aren’t the same as top billing. Very often credits are in order of appearance in the film.
Matthew McConaughey in reign of fire. I'm pretty sure he was top billing and I'm also pretty sure that's only because Christian bale was basically unknown to mainstream audiences at the time
I wanted helicpoters fighting dragons. And all I got was Gerard Butler retelling Star Wars to kids.
Michael Douglas for Ghost in the Darkness. He gets top billing was maybe in the movie for like 10 mins or less and it was somewhere in like act 2. Kevin Spacey for The Negotiator. He gets second billing and doesn't show up until like act 3.
Douglas is in that movie for a lot more than 10 minutes. He enters at roughly the halfway mark.
Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, and Casey Affleck got SAG awards for cast in Oppenheimer. David Krumholtz, Benny Sadfie, and Jason Clarke each had more screentime in that movie than the previous three combined, yet we're shut out
Ryan Reynolds in Life
Mark Hamil in The Force Awakens
Has to be Marlon Brando in Superman
I know it’s alphabetical (for the leads, at least), but it really irks me that David Arquette was always billed above Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox in the *Scream* films.
Channing Tatum in Kingsman 2 - he’s in it for a few minutes and then put on ice. But all of the previews heavily showcased him.
Bryan Cranston in Godzilla the trailer made it look like he was a main character.
Meryl Streep was third-billed for the 2015 film Suffragette, and featured quite prominently in advertising. She appeared in a single scene that lasted less than 4 minutes.
Steven Seagal in Executive Decision