OTHER BAD SHOTS

“For the past decade or so, Hollywood has been running scared. It’s increasingly difficult to predict hits and misses.”

FILM INSIDER

(produced by Clooney), so far running at a loss of around $20 million, because it wanted her to star in its forthcoming female-centric Ocean’s

Eleven reboot. What makes Jolie’s fireproofness even more extraordinary is that she initially came to fame as a wild child, the daughter of actor Jon Voight with a propensity for self-harming, who admitted to trying every drug “under the sun”, and who passionately embraced her brother on the Oscar red carpet.

Before meeting Pitt, Jolie married Billy Bob Thornton wearing a T-shirt with his name scrawled on it in her blood; for their first wedding anniversary, she gave Thornton his-and-hers cemetery plots. Yet all this has long been buried in the hype around Jolie’s selfless globetrotting and family devotion. “Everyone knows far more about Brangelina and the kids and Angelina’s charity work than they do about her movie work. Which is fine by the studios, because they bring in publicity in a way no one else could,” says the film insider.

“The truth,” he continues, “is that for the past decade or so, Hollywood has been running scared. It’s increasingly difficult to predict hits and misses.” For that reason, filmmaking has become unadventurous, with studios sticking to tried-and-tested formulas of endless sequels, superhero and action franchises and remakes of past hits. “There’s a never-ending debate about whether big stars actually sell movies,” says the sales executive.

Samuel L. Jackson, who has starred in several Marvel films, recently suggested that they don’t: “These movies have very little to do with us, they have to do with the event.”

Privately, insiders agree. “But we still need to hedge our bets, and casting a star is the best way of doing that.”

George Clooney’s latest movie, Tomorrowland, cost $190 million to produce but has to date only earned about half of that back at the box office. Indeed, of the 25 films Clooney has made, only four have made significant profits. In his last big hit,...

Cameron Diaz’s apparent star appeal barely took last year’s remake of Annie into profit.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s last “serious” film, Mortdecai, with Johnny Depp, brought in only $7 million.

Sandra Bullock’s recent passion project, Our Brand Is Crisis (produced by Clooney), is so far running at a loss of around $20 million