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Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson make a hot coupling — but it doesn't always translate to box-office gold. Felix Cheong takes a look at the mysteries of perfect casting.
Put two and two together. The result could be a cash bonanza.
Just check out the high-profile casting of several films either currently showing or coming soon.
In the Dr Seuss tale, Horton, Jim Carrey trades one-liners with Steve Carrell — the "It" comedian of the 1990s with his heir-apparent, respectively. The cartoon has already raked in more than US$196 million ($266 million) worldwide.
Imagine the producers laughing all the way to the bank if both men were to appear in a live-action movie together.
In the same vein, Cassandra's Dream plays tag-team with two of the most popular British actors in recent memory, Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell, while the period drama The Other Boleyn Girl pits two of the finest American actresses of their generation, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, against each other.
But tighten your seatbelts, the best is yet to come: Jackie Chan squares off against Jet Li in the gongfu extravaganza, The Forbidden Kingdom, due to be unleashed next week.
The mere mention of their names in the same billing is enough to set cash registers ringing. Which is why such dream-team combos crop up every now and then.
It makes good marketing sense — at least on paper. Of course, sometimes it just doesn't translate into box-office gold.
Take, for instance, Heartburn (1986), featuring two of the most decorated Hollywood stars in recent memory, Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, who between them share 26 Oscar nominations and five statuettes. It should have been a no-brainer, but the Mike Nichols romantic comedy about two Washington journalists failed to pull any heartstrings, grossing just US$25 million.
It could have been the lack of that ill-defined thing, chemistry. Still, even when it exists, it's not fool-proof that it'll create sparks the second time round.
Such was the case with the recent Fool's Gold, which reunited the ditzy blonde antics of Kate Hudson with the bronzed, good looks of Matthew McConaughey. The pairing worked magic in 2003's How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days to the tune of US$177 million worldwide.
No such luck with Fool's Gold — it sank with just US$75 million in takings.
Blame it on the poor script, which is probably why Ocean's Twelve didn't quite pull it off as slickly as the first Ocean's Eleven even though both films had the ooh-la-la appeal of two of the sexiest men on the planet, George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
So, it all boils down to how the dream team plays together to a good script — everything else is just marketing hype.
The award for the dream team cast, in my opinion, must surely go to Wong Kar Wai's second feature film, Days of Being Wild. Everybody who is now a somebody in Hong Kong cinema had a role in that 1991 flick: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Leslie Cheung, Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Maggie Cheung and Carina Lau.
The moody story about young drifters was made at a time when these names were still breaking onto the scene.
Try reuniting them — apart from resurrecting the late Leslie Cheung — and you'd probably need a budget upwards of US$20 million.
I guess even dreams come with a price tag. - TODAY/fa
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