"Johnny, Brad and George have had a long and richly rewarding run at the box office.
But the holy trinity of Hollywood leading men is really beginning to show its age (Brad Pitt turns 46 on December 18; Johnny Depp is already 46; and George Clooney 48).
The major studios are now looking to Robert Pattinson, currently putting a bite into the box office with the latest movie from the Twilight vampire saga, to lead the next generation of bankable heart-throbs.
Robert Pattinson, Edward Cullen in "Twilight" (2008).The 23-year-old English star of New Moon is having a dramatic effect on young women and movie executives alike. Pattinson is being talked up as the leader of the next generation of male stars with the talent and appeal to carry a major movie.
Pretenders to the throne have come and faded away (with the likes of Ethan Hawke, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ewan McGregor and our own Colin Farrell falling just short).
Note from Weirdland: how Jake Gyllenhaal falling short?He's jumping high, never falling short.
And the studios are now set to jump a generation to the likes of Pattinson and -- possibly -- High School Musical's Zac Efron, young actors who are judged to have the potential to be classic leading men.They certainly have captured the young female market.
Hollywood's holy grail is to find young talent that can emulate established stars such as George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
Zac Efron has made a deliberate move away from musical movies with his next big release, The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud. Based on a popular novel, it sees Efron starring alongside Kim Basinger, playing a man who is devastated by the death of his younger brother.Efron is very aware of the need to stretch himself in more substantial roles -- while not alienating his core audience.
With movie-going audiences now heavily skewed towards teens, the Jonas brothers, Transformers star Shia LaBeouf and Pattinson have the kind of earning potential that Hollywood has never seen in actors in their early 20s.
British hunk Pattinson was "the most in-demand actor of the generation. Now the trend in Hollywood is not so much to have an actor who carries the movies, but a brand, like Twilight. Robert Pattinson is one of the few actors that the studios can build a movie around."
His co-star, Taylor Lautner, is also hot property". Source: www.independent.ie