08 Dec Film Fund-amentals: Leave It to Beaver

Have you recently been suffering from a recurring nightmare in which Mel Gibson chases after you with a beaver attached to his hand? I know, it’s really scary. The whole idea sends a cold chill down Sigmund Freud‘s spine.

But the upcoming release of The Beaver is also a major example of the odd twilight zone where movie stars and indie films intersect. It’s a wild and sometimes touchy issue, often forced by a financial scene in which potential backers will insist on having a big-name star despite the proposed budget being smaller than a dormouse. The demand is insane, but it won’t go away. Fortunately, there are some reasons why a so-called big-name star might want to do a low-budget flick. Higher cinematic quality is only one of the reasons (and it’s not necessarily the most important).

Sometimes, it’s because the star really wants to do the movie. We call this the Sandra Bullock maneuver. Bullock did not do The Blind Side because she had to. She did it because she wanted to. She doesn’t join a film so much as she commits to it (which also means that she gets involved with the production and her low upfront salary is nicely balanced by her cut of the profits). Since she often picks her movies better than she does her husbands, this has worked pretty well for Sandra Bullock.

Unfortunately, most indie filmmakers are not going to get Sandra Bullock. What they might get is someone who is sort of known but not necessarily in the major star category. Which is OK, sometimes. Most movie careers follow erratic ebbs and flows, and sometimes it’s really important to develop a good hunch about which way the river is moving. For example, years ago Ben Affleck was briefly considered hot (though this was mostly in the feverish imagining of Hollywood suits who thought they were going to “create” a star). Then he had a train wreak called Gigli (though many of his “big” films were not exactly hot either). He was dead meat. Well, sort of. Affleck has been regrouping his career via small indie films (especially Hollywoodland and The Town). Though his name is still treated as a punchline to a joke, Affleck has been making himself viable (again).

While Affleck has done this by returning to his indie roots, other movie stars with floundering careers are looking for the Game Changer. They are the types who have had some good success with a certain genre or type of role. They were hot. Then suddenly, the music simply stopped. They keep doing the same stuff but the audience has gone away. They are on the road to Sunset Boulevard, and if they have any sense, they’re looking to make a sharp U-turn.

John Travolta is virtually the spiritual godfather of this strategy. His career didn’t merely flame out in the mid-1980s. It splattered all over the ground. It was finished — kaput. He became a question in Trivial Pursuit. He was barely able to get work in talking baby movies. This is why Pulp Fiction was such an important move for Travolta (and why he was willing to do it for scale).

When the Game Changer scheme works, everybody looks good. When it fails, you end up looking like Sylvester Stallone in Cop Land (slightly too big and a bit too burly and your eyes constantly searching for the cue cards because you know, like eh, nobody said nothin’ about having to like memorize this stuff). It is a risky maneuver in which the results are precariously balanced between brilliant discovery and utter embarrassment.

The other way of getting a major star for an indie production is when the star is scandal-plagued and desperate enough that they really need to do something that maybe, just maybe, might make them look like an artist and not simply a sex-crazed, boozed and drugged lunatic. At the very least, they need to look like a lunatic who is at least artistic. And they’ve got to do it quick before the judge throws them back into rehab. Robert Downey, Jr. has pulled this off brilliantly (multiple times, I might add). Lindsay Lohan can’t even make it through rehab. Most likely, Charlie Sheen will someday have to take this approach, once the TV show is over and he will actually have to work for a living (since with his lifestyle, you know the money he’s currently making is not going to last long).

Which brings us back to Mel and The Beaver. I suspect he originally agreed to do the role as a favor to his old friend Jodie Foster. But Mel’s career has been pretty bumpy and he really could use another good Game Changer (similar to the move he made back in the mid-1990s when he did The Man Without a Face). Since Gibson has also made the interesting decision to no longer suppress his intense state of latent hostilities (though personally, I kind of like his unique way of handling the press), he has successfully moved himself (and the movie) into the desperate zone.

It is possible that The Beaver will play strong and the audience will discover a fuzzy warmth about old Mel. Or they may just run from the deranged-looking guy with a rodent stuck on his arm. One big risk for a major star making the indie move is when the Game Changer becomes the Career Ender. Especially when the movie has a plot line that sounds like a Saturday Night Live routine gone sour.