Seven lessons from 2009.
Stars matter. Sort of. This one's kind of up in the air (heh). On the one hand, it's possible to launch and/or sustain a franchise these days with players who wouldn't have the ghost of a prayer in opening a movie on their own (take Shia LaBeouf's non-success-causing hand in the "Transformers" series, or the mostly low-rent "Star Trek" crew). But it decidedly helps if you have some kind of "star" to anchor your Indiewood movie, whether directly on-screen (George Clooney in "Up In The Air") or in some other important association (Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey's double-team on "Precious"). It gives the impression your film's something special enough to encourage someone famous to take a pay cut. Theory: a star like Clooney may have trouble launching his own studio product on a regular basis, but is nothing but an asset to the lower-budgeted fare. In the future, as "stars"...
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