Cast-packed pics: A new trend? (NYT)

By Nancy Tartaglione

Star-packed movies: Coincidence or trend? That's the question posed today by The New York Times which points to the upcoming smorgasbord of big cast rosters and big names in films like "The Expendables," "Scott Pilgrim vs the World" and "Red."

Robert J. Thompson, the founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse gave the NYT his theory that features are reaching toward the complex, multicharacter scenarios that have made hits of TV series like "Mad Men" and "The Sopranos."

But, says "Scott Pilgrim" producer Marc Platt, "I don't know that anything is changing" in terms of storytelling patterns.

Still, Platt allowed that a drop in star salaries and a declining number of films have made it easier to round up an ensemble. "A lot of actors want to go to work," he said.

At Comic-con last month, Bruce Willis introduced "Red," a spy romp with so many actors he appeared to lose count, says the NYT.

"I think over 75 movie stars are in 'Red,'" said Willis, who was flanked by his co-stars Helen Mirren, Mary-Louise Parker and Karl Urban. They carried the flag for an ensemble that also includes Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Richard Dreyfuss and Ernest Borgnine.

Group films have a long, rich history in Hollywood, from classics like "Dinner at Eight" and "The Women" to star-filled disaster flicks like "The Poseidon Adventure" and "Towering Inferno" in the 1970s to the works of Robert Altman.

The film historian David Thomson told the NYT he didn't believe the ensemble film "has ever quite taken root in America. It goes too much against the grain of stardom and stories about 'important' people."

If that is changing, Thompson of the Syracuse center said the shift may have something to do with a marketing play.

"It gives you a palette with a lot more color," he said, noting that a big cast allows marketers to appeal across ethnic and generational lines - though sometimes at the expense of a story's integrity. "In some cases they're borrowing the aesthetic of 'The Love Boat,'" he said.

Meanwhil, Roger Ebert chimed in with: "Cast size has nothing to do with whether a picture is better or worse."