Rebooting Hollywood: The New A-List

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Remember when Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were the young guys of Hollywood? Remember when Charlies Angels movies made money?  If you stop and think, that was 15 years ago.  Since then, we’ve seen a lot of actors come and go.  Affleck, Damon, Diaz, and Barrymore are all in their 40′s now, so unless their swinging for Oscar fences, or playing fathers and mothers, they are definitely on the other side of their careers (that’s not a bad thing in all their cases).  That being said, I thought I would look across TV and Film to start finding a new crop of actors that can take over and transcend to the A-list.  This is pure speculation.  I know nothing more than anyone else, but I follow the patterns man..(spoken like a true conspiracy theorist).

 

1. Damon Wayans Jr.

He’s not even using his nepotism!  Damon Wayans Jr., fresh off the cancellation of Happy Endings, has come back to New Girl and injected life in a show that I mostly watched out of habit.  The internet collectively jumped for joy when it was announced his character would remain for the rest of the season.  He’s got the humor genes that all of the Wayans’ seem to have, but he’s a much better actor than the generation that came before him.  The only reason he’s not guaranteed to stay on New Girl past this year, is because he’s got his own TV deal with Fox.  Next year, he’ll also be co-starring with his New Girl buddy Jake Johnson in the comedy Lets Be Cops.  So he’ll be stepping back into the film arena with a lot of goodwill from TV.  At 31, he’s young enough to have a solid 10 year run as someone people give a crap about.  I’d safe he’s a safe bet to get to the TV A-list, with a strong chance of becoming a breakthrough comedic film actor.

2. Brie Larson

She’s not nearly a household name, but all it takes is time and the right role’s to be the next Jennifer Lawrence, instead of the next Bryce Dallas Howard (no offense).  So far Brie is an industry pro.  She’s has a family sitcom and a showtime no-quite-a-comedy under her belt, she was great as Envy Adams in the fanboy-favorite Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and was delightful in 21 Jump Street as the object of Jonah Hill’s affection.  She earned more fanboy credit this year as a guest on Community (who’ll be returning this year), and she has earned rave reviews for her role in Short Term 12, the only movie I wanted to see that doesn’t seem to want to be in theaters or on VOD or on video.  Her resume is airtight right now, but it doesn’t have that home-run yet.  To get into that J-Law territory she needs something with mass appeal.  Sarah Connor might be it.  There are few female heroines as popular as Terminator’s Connor.  With the series getting sequel-booted, Larson is on the short list to get the role.  Sarah Connor, these days, would make a career.  Katherine Brewster? Not so much (sorry Bryce).

3. Shailene Woodley:

 Shailene is following the path to the A-list perfectly.  She cut her teeth in TV on the Secret Life of an American Teenager, before segueing to her first big role in The Descendants.  She crushed it, and there, the floodgates opened.  She was given the role of Mary Jane in Spiderman 2 before being cut completely (rumor has it, she wasn’t pretty enough.  seriously).  That would have been the A-list catapult, but instead she took the role of Katniss..umm..I mean Tris in Divergent, and she went serious in The Spectacular Now.  She’s currently filming as the lead role in The Fault in Our Stars.  What her three most recent films have in common, is that they are all based on popular YA-fiction.  The quickest way to earn favor among legions of young people is to star in adaptations of stuff they like.  YA books might not be the best written stuff around, but depending on who the films cast, the films are usually miles better.  I think she might be an even safer lock for A-list than Brie.

4. Chris Pratt: 

If you told me five years ago, Andy from Parks and Recreation is going to be huge, I’d tell you you’re crazy.  However, as time has worn on, Andy transitioned from being a one-note character, to a two-note character! That doesn’t sound like high praise but it is.  In less capable hands, who knows where Andy would be.  Beyond Parks, Pratt has mostly made his bones being the best buddy of a dude who is dating a woman 11231923 times better than him.  He says a few funny lines and gets out.  Harmless stuff.  It was not until last year’s Zero Dark Thirty where I started to notice what apparently everyone else in Hollywood noticed: This guy should be big.  He played tough-ish and gruff-ish in ZDT and got into incredible shape for the role.  Usually he’s the not-quite fat, but not-quite fit guy, but once he cut himself up, you could see this guy can probably hold his own in the action-adventure (read: tentpole) arena.  Marvel quickly cast him as the lead, Starlord, in Guardians of the Galaxy, which is their biggest gamble yet.  The film takes place entirely in space, has no recognizable characters, and has way more humor than the previous films.  I’m predicting the film will do incredibly well and propel Pratt to that next level.  Universal is already taking note of his probably trajectory as they are currently courting him from Jurassic World, the latest sequel in the Dino-franchise, that will also serve as a soft-reboot.

 

So there you have it.  Do you agree? Disagree?  Leave comments!

About Russ Stevens

Russ Stevens is an editor and writer at Rookerville and a guidance counselor at Nyack HS. He mostly writes about either loving or hating things. In his spare time, he performs Improv comedy with his troupe Priest and The Beekeeper and is a co-producer of their monthly variety show Pig Pile. He loves all the New York sports teams that are historically bad, and he hates lateness more than anything in the world.

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