*CALL FOR CHAPTERS *
*‘STARS AND FRANCHISES’ EDITED COLLECTION *
**
*Edited by Sarah Thomas (University of Liverpool) and Mark McKenna
(Staffordshire University) *
**
*Deadline for proposals: 30^th July 2022 *
This edited collection seeks to examine the intersections between two
significant media systems: stardom and the franchise. It will explore
the convergences, tensions and inter-dependences that star-driven texts
and franchise cultures have constantly negotiated within the
entertainment industry, on a global, historical and multiplatform scale.
It aims to analyse franchise sites and strategies as significant nexus
where an understanding of stars is created, managed and interpreted, and
to analyse the place and value of the star to media franchise production.
Whilst not aiming to be exclusively contemporaneous in its outlook, the
collection intervenes at a moment where /Variety /has argued that ‘IP,
not actors, is the main attraction’ (Rubin & Lang 2021). A particularly
Western-centric perspective, this statement is informed by – among other
things - the increased dominance of Disney and the Marvel Universe and
their pursuit of seemingly endless franchised, multiplatform
entertainment that subsume countless Hollywood A-listers into those
texts and contexts. From the digital de-ageing of established performers
in the MCU, the rise of a young generation of stars (like Tom Holland)
fluent in the fragmented media markets that often typify franchise
cultures, to noteworthy conflicts around contract negotiations and image
rights, and star ownership stakes in their franchise IP (Keanu Reeves
and /John Wick/), significant shifts are occurring around star image,
labour and agency in the midst of the asset value of media licensing and
intellectual property.
The star-franchise intersection represents a tension between distinct
forms of media marketing. Whilst these ‘two modes of product
differentiation may converge [they] do not easily coalesce’ with
contemporary stars ‘under pressure to support franchise world
development, not supplant it’ (Lomax 2020: 188). In intellectual
property networks like franchises, ‘stardom and celebrity persona take a
back seat, replaced by character brands’ (Johnson 2008: 217). And yet
star identities, where the actor-signifier is foregrounded over the
character-signifier, have persisted across franchise texts, industries
and cultures. In the contemporary era, stars like Harrison Ford and
Jamie Lee Curtis stand as authenticating devices to anchor franchises,
conveying ideas of legacy and nostalgia or as a means of negotiating
digital aesthetics (see Knee and Fleming [2020] and Golding [2021]). The
video game FIFA has integrated playable star ‘icons’ in its recent
editions, like David Beckham and Dua Lipa. Hindi superstar Salman Khan
stars in the popular Tiger franchise, while Shah Rukh Khan owns major
stakes in international sports franchises. Historically, star-driven
franchise properties include Bing Crosby and Bob Hope’s ‘Road to’
series, Peter Sellers and The Pink Panther series, and Tom Mix’s films,
comics and radio shows. Cultural icons like Mexico’s El Santo, the UK’s
Norman Wisdom or Carry On stars, and Hong Kong’s Kwan Tak-hing are all
associated with a variety of franchised entertainment. These brief
examples show the different relationships that can exist between star
and property that the volume wishes to examine, each revealing how
repetition, remediation and re-interpretation of stars through franchise
properties work to extend a star’s economic and cultural value.
Our collection seeks chapters that investigate the star-franchise
intersection, including (but not limited to):
* Case studies of specific stars or franchise properties.
* Star-driven franchises.
* Franchises where the franchise IP exceeds that of the star(s).
* The paradoxical relationship between star identities and franchise
texts where to support ongoing lives as multiplatform, historical
entities, franchise properties often celebrate /and/ dismiss the
central star brands that exist within them.
* The impact of star persona and character creation /over time/ where
franchises provide a sustained environment to construct performance,
image and identity through core texts, branded marketing content and
other multiplatform extensions.
* Franchises in non-cinematic contexts
* Ideological and cultural readings of franchise stardom and star image.
* Absent or underdeveloped franchise stars and spaces, especially in
terms of race, gender and sexuality
* Research that engages with questions of media industries and labour,
thinking about what it means for star performers to work in a
franchise environment.
* The impact of this on wider conceptions of star power and systemic
entertainment infrastructures, economics, and legislations.
* Franchise stardom as product differentiation and marking/branding
strategy, including promotional personae.
* The consideration of these (and other) issues within global,
multimedia/multiplatform and historical contexts.
* Research that explores to what degree the contemporary Hollywood
moment reflects broader uses and cultures in industries around the
world and through different decades of production and cultural
history.
*Please send abstracts of 300 to 500 words and a brief biographical note
of 150 words to **[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
<mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>***
* Deadline for chapter proposals: 30 July 2022
* Notification of acceptance: 31 August 2022
* Full chapter submission: 31 June 2023
Further dates to be confirmed as the collection progresses.
*Editor bios: *
Sarah Thomas is Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media at the
University of Liverpool. She researches screen performance and
industrial approaches to stardom, with a current focus on digital and
immersive media and franchise production. She is the author of the
monographs /Peter Lorre – Face Maker/ (Berghahn 2012) and /James
Mason/ (BFI Bloomsbury 2018), and co-editor of /Cult Film
Stardom/ (Palgrave 2013).
Mark McKenna is Associate Professor of Film and Media Industries at
Staffordshire University. His research focuses on media marketing and
distribution, censorship and regulation and global media industries. He
is the author of /Nasty Business: The Marketing and Branding of the
Video Nasties/ (EUP 2020) and the forthcoming /Snuff /(Liverpool
University Press), and co-editor of /Horror Film Franchises/ (Routledge
2021).
*References: *
Fleming, David H. & Adam Knee. 2020. ‘The analogue strikes back: Star
Wars, star authenticity, and cinematic anachronism’, /Celebrity Studies
/11:2: 205-220
Golding, Dan. 2021. ‘The memory of perfection: Digital faces and
nostalgic franchise cinema’, /Convergence/, 27:4: 855–867
Johnson, Derek. 2008. ‘A Knight of the Realm vs. the Master of
Magnetism: Sexuality, Stardom, and Character Branding’, /Popular
Communication/, 6:4: 214-230
Lomax, Tara. 2020. ‘Cruising Stardom in Hollywood Franchising: Tom
Cruise as Franchise Star in the Mission Impossible and Dark Universe
Storyworlds’, in Sean Redmond (ed.) /Starring Tom Cruise/, Detroit:
Wayne State University Press: pp.187-208
Rubin, Rebecca and Brent Lang. 2021. ‘After ‘Spider-Man’, Tom Holland
Could Fill Hollywood’s Void of Millennial Leading Men’, /Variety/, 22^nd
December.
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