Lee Davis: Director and screenwriter in Los Angeles, California.

My pleasure. Hope to see you around the site!

There are tons of talented actors and actresses in the industry we know as Hollywood; however this is an age where armies of paparazzi chase after reality stars and to a certain extent help create modern icons battling to shove just one more picture of the smiling face on a red carpet. Brad, Angelina, Clooney, Denzel and Julia. They are the faces that launch fashion campaigns, sell perfume and exit a fashionable restaurant to the cascade of flashes like a zillion fireflies, as they hurry to a waiting chauffeur. And while many of the most talented seem to be with us for the blink of an eye such as Heath Ledger, Phiip Setmour Hoffman and James Gandolfini, the reason the movie star is endangered as a species is the industry of Hollywood itself. The business side has all but abandoned it's creative side. Matthew McConnahey's Oscar following perhaps his most daring, physically and emotionally challenging work, will hopefully not dissuade him from pursuing more of those roles. But the Hollywood engine has a way of working against that very notion. Cuba Gooding fresh off the Jerry McGuire Oscar went to Snow Dogs followed by a series of films I'll-fitting an actor of his tremendous talent and gift (briefly we have been rewarded glimpses of his greatness in such films as Ali and The Butler). Another movie star who I would put up against any movie star of any decade is Hallie Berry. Her elegance and beauty match with her overriding ability to commit to her character. Her Oscar reward movies included a James Bond movie, two forgettable films in Catwoman and Swordfish, and a recurring role in The X-Men franchise. Hopefully this fate does not await the brilliant Lupita Nyongo in the aftermath if her Oscar. This has nothing to do with the Academy. This is about the rush to put amazing actors into horrible movies in order to cash in on their success. In ffact the last X-Men movie which I enjoyed thoroughly, illustrates the "endangered species" of movie stars. An impressive assembly of A List talent including Fassbender, McKellen, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, James McAvoy and Hugh Jackman and still nothing memorable in the film in terms of performance. I wondered what made Ledgers Joker so electric in the Dark Knight? I wonder if Nora Desmond had it right and if in fact despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on studio films if in fact the movies have gotten smaller.

The problem is who is the "we" you speak of; I myself am probably who you mean by that we. However the majority of the ticket buying audience is the same age as the girls who decades ago went back time and again to see Leonardo in the Titanic --- I recall stories of girls playing video games outside when Leonardo was off screen; they would rush back into the theater when a their friend poked her head out shouting "he's back on screen!". Yesterday's Jennifer Lawrence ---a movie star -- is todays Shailene Woodley --- and they both command more "butts in the seats" power today than Tom Cruise or half a dozen others. They turn in virtuoso performances in dramas like Winters Bone or The Fault in Our Stars and are off to Hunger Games and the 85 million dollar Divergent and who knows what else...

Speaking of Jennifer Lawrence, if you haven't seen it, see "Poker House", biography of Lorri Petty. She nailed that. Stars will always be around, as the good ones generate ticket sales. If somebody else could have done a part with the charisma a star brings, they would have. Not every actor, no matter how good he is, has it. A star is somebody you want to look at. There will never be another Steve McQueen, Redford , nor Newman.

Sounds intense! I love it. If you are looking for another screenwriter/director to collaborate with let me know! Kolchak the predecessor in many ways to Cris Carters X-Files, so much so that they even gave Darren McGavin a recurring role on the show. FUN FACT: David Chase wrote 8 episodes of The Night Stalker. Yes THAT David Chase!