The movie biz loves its lists. While making countdowns of
best-reviewed genre movies is our niche here at Rotten Tomatoes, categorizing
human beings is a task we happily pass over to someone else. That’s where
Premiere Magazine comes in. They’ve just published the
Power
List 2007, their annual organized compendium of Hollywood’s 50 most notable
movers and shakers.
The Power List list holds few surprises, though considering
its function as a reflection of all the big events over the last 12 months,
arguably that’s how it should be. Each actor, producer, director, and studio
exec on the list are included based on a criteria revolving around their power,
influence, and visibility throughout the world. Essentially, the more schedules,
projects, and 323 area code phone numbers stuffed inside your BlackBerry — and
the more snarky blog posts written about you — the more likely you were to make
it on the list.
The top five Power 50 slots are occupied by studio heads,
with Pixar founder
John Lasseter
at #2, a drop from being top Hollywood toast last year. (Click here for our exclusive article with Lasseter.)
Steven
Spielberg leads the way for creative artists with his placement in sixth.
Judd Apatow,
who has gone from cult TV hero to the ubiquitous face behind Hollywood comedy,
enters the list for the first time, impressively staking a claim at #13.
Apatow’s name has been inseparable from two of the most
beloved comedies this year (Knocked
Up and Superbad),
and he’s producing and/or writing five upcoming comedies, each highly
anticipated: Walk Hard:
The Dewey Cox Story, Step Brothers,
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,
Forgetting
Sarah Marshall, and
The
Pineapple Express.
George Lucas
is also back on the list, though, for once, it has nothing to do with
Star Wars.
Premiere argues that ILM’s role in creating the CG denizens of
Harry Potter,
Pirates of
the Caribbean, and
Transformers,
combined with Lucas’s producer role for
Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, is enough to be #17. Meanwhile, the sheer
act of announcing a new movie (Avatar)
has put James
Cameron at #29.
Mainstays like
Reese
Witherspoon (#38),
Julia Roberts
(#37), Jim Carrey
(#35), Mel Gibson
(#30), and Tom
Cruise (#20) showing signs of vulnerability as they slide down the list. On
the other hand,
Paul
Greengrass (#47),
Sacha Baron
Cohen (#49), and
Shia LaBeouf
(#50) made big enough splashes in 2007, and have bright enough 2008 horizons, to
crack the list.
Click
here
for the rest of the Power List 2007.
