By David Klaus: Deadline’s Nikki Finke reports Avengers 2 casting isn’t settled because everybody needs more money:
First and foremost Marvel does not have Downey in place yet. ”They need him, and they don’t have him. He’s got a lot of leverage,” one insider tells me. Much less so Scarlett Johannsen (paid to pop up in Marvel movie after movie), Chris Evans (whom some sources say made his deal for Avengers 2 when he signed for Captain America 2), Chris Hemsworth (a much bigger star now than before and unsigned for Avengers 2), Mark Ruffalo (whose Hulk role already was cast 3 times and could be the most vulnerable), Jeremy Renner (probably grateful for more exposure), Samuel L. Jackson (Scarlett’s doppelganger) among others who were paid pittances for their first movies, not much better for the sequels, and are counting on at least $5 million upfront and better back ends for Avengers 2.
Comic fans are going to be really upset if there are major actor replacements for some of the now-established Marvel hero characters — but with Robert Downey, Jr. getting $35,000,000 in salary for The Avengers while other leads got as little as $200,000, rumblings are inevitable — when you add the strict diet and exercise required for the super-hero physiques….
It’s like first-season Star Trek, in which Shatner got $5,000/per week, and Nimoy got $1,250/week for the same work load.
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Oh, heavens. A mere $200,000 for maybe four months work, most of it in a comfortable studio in front of a green screen. however will the poor second-string stars cope? Oh wait, but there’s diet and exercise involved!
I promise that when I become a hollywood star, I will resist the temptation to whine if Robert Downey Junior gets 35,000,000 to my 200,000.
I used to think like Jason about hockey players. Oh, dear … Play hockey for four months and make $100,000 … poor things. Of course, that was when hockey season didn’t last from late September to early June … and when salaries were not sometimes in the millions of dollars.
But I later decided that if the owners of the clubs and the NHL organiazation itself were making hundreds of millions of dollars, why should the players be modest in their demands? The half million dollars the average player can make would only be used to buy mink wrapped cigars for the owners’ girlfriends to burn. Is that better?
So, why not pay Harrison Ford or Johnny Depp $10,000,000 for even lackluster appearances in movies? Hollywood will only spend the money on nose candy and Ferraris anyway?