Star Power

Star Power

 

A: The great lie in the movie business, and one that you'll hear all the time is "the material is everything". The material is actually nothing. OK, the material doesn't matter. You can show up with the greatest ¹⁾script on earth and flop¹ it down in front of the ²⁾studio executive and they can come back with the greatest reasons on earth not to become involved with it. And you realize that what really drives the entire business is ³⁾attachment².

B: Star power. In order to pre-sell a movie, in order to ⁴⁾convince somebody in Germany that they should put enormous amounts of money on the line to bet on the script, they could bet on a star.

C: A bad movie with Bruce Willis will make more money than a bad movie without Bruce Willis. And a good movie with Bruce Willis will still make a lot more money than a good movie without Bruce Willis. Yeah, the other thing, none of them want to pay taxes again... ever.

D: As part of creating an event, you want to anchor that around a large personality. And those personalities³ are few, as always, are few and far between. Even back in the old studio days, there were basically five to ten stars who were very big. And so everybody wants those very big stars.

E: It's ruled by fear. What they seem to want is to be believed of the necessity of making a decision, which goes like this: If Tom Cruise is in the movie, well, it's going to be a hit. And if it's not a hit with Tom Cruise, well, it's not our fault because the last five Tom Cruise pictures were hits.

(In the movie Mission Impossible II)

Tom Cruise: You got to be kidding!

 

明星的魅力

 

A: 电影行业有个弥天大谎，你常常听到的一种说辞是“素材决定一切”。实际上素材什么也决定不了，明白了吧？素材怎样无关痛痒。你可以亮出全世界最好的剧本，把它递到电影公司主管的面前，他们也能找到最堂皇的理由拒绝拍摄，你会发现真正让这个行业运作的力量说穿了就是明星效应。

B: 运用明星的魅力。为了能提前卖出电影，为了要说服德国的某个人投资大笔金额来拍片，他们就要打出明星的招牌。

C: 有布鲁斯·威利斯的一部烂片要比没有布鲁斯·威利斯的一部烂片赚的钱更多。有布鲁斯·威利斯的一部好片比没有布鲁斯·威利斯的一部好片赚的钱更多。还有一件事，他们中无人愿意交两次税，永远是这样。

D: 要创作一部大片，你必不可少地要用上一些明星。而真正的明星凤毛麟角，少之又少。哪怕是回头看看，电影史上也只有那么五到十人是算得上巨星的。所以人人都想找那几个真正的巨星来拍片。

E: 这种效应是由惧怕所操控的。人们似乎确信在做决策时，这么想是理所应当的：如果片中出现了汤姆·克鲁斯，好了，片子一定会卖座；而如果有了汤姆·克鲁斯也不卖座呢，啊，那可不是我们的错，因为汤姆·克鲁斯的前五部片子都很卖座。

（电影《碟中谍II》中的对白）

汤姆·克鲁斯：你在开玩笑吧！

 

注释:

1) script [skript] n. 剧本

2) studio [5stju:diEu] n. 电影厂

3) attachment [E5tAtFmEnt] n. 附属；依恋

4) convince [kEn5vins] v. 使确信，使信服

1 flop   

n.失败(者)，扑通一声；vi.笨重地行动，沉重地落下

参考例句：

• The fish gave a flop and landed back in the water.鱼扑通一声又跳回水里。
• The marketing campaign was a flop.The product didn't sell.市场宣传彻底失败，产品卖不出去。

2 attachment   

n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附

参考例句：

• She has a great attachment to her sister.她十分依恋她的姐姐。
• She's on attachment to the Ministry of Defense.她现在隶属于国防部。

3 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。