I was doing some research when I came across an article in an old Movieline Magazine. The article was about the hot young Hollywood stars (and the agents, writers and directors) of 1991. Who did they pick as the stars of the future? And were they right? Let’s take a look.
Winona Ryder
Prediction: If only, for her sake and ours, she’d stuck with The Godfather Part III in the role Sofia Coppola took over. Now she has to find another role to grow up in on screen and show some of whatever it was that drove Johnny Depp to have her name tattooed on his arm.
How’d it turn out: Ryder had just starred in Mermaids and Edward Scissorhands. She did go on to become the Gen X actress of the 90’s before sputtering out in the new millennium. A bizarre shop-lifting scandal ended her time on the A-list though she still works in independent films and supporting roles today.
Penelope Ann Miller
Prediction: One of the best-trained and busiest young actresses in town, she’s such a chameleon it’s hard to track her (Big Top Pee-wee, The Freshman, Kindergarten Cop, Awakenings). It would be nice if someone gave her something substantial to do for once, though Other People’s Money with Danny DeVito is probably not it.
How’d it turn out: As it turns out, Miller had peaked the year before. She had a couple of hits left, but she never hit the A-list. She had a very public affair with Al Pacino while making Carlito’s Way which possibly hurt her career trajectory. Although she never achieved A-list status, Miller still works today.
Uma Thurman
Prediction: Towering starlet of arty bombs like The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Where the Heart Is, and Henry & June. Still awake? People tend to love her or hate her.
How’d it turn out: Thurman was just getting started. She wouldn’t peak until Pulp Fiction four years later. Her career cooled post 2005, but she continues to work.
Julia Roberts
Prediction: Sexy. Beautiful. Funny. Men love her. Women like her. The hot property of the moment. What more is there to say?
How’d it turn out: Today, this seems like a safe bet. Roberts went on to become the number one actress of the decade. But in 1991, she was still an unknown quantity. She had a reputation for being unstable.
Bridget Fonda
Prediction: This Fonda’s a star, though it may take time. Until The Godfather Part III, she’d made only obscure films but was terrific in them (Shag, Scandal, Strapless). Too bad she got mostly cut from Godfather, because her pairing with Andy Garcia was visual poetry. Another obscure one on the way, Leather Jackets, then Cameron Crowe’s Singles.
How’d it turn out: Fonda worked through the 90’s, but she never did become a star. Eventually, she settled down and married Danny Elfman. She retired in 2002
Samantha Mathis
Prediction: Whether in the little-seen Pump Up the Volume or the slew of TV movies she’s made, she always gets singled out for praise in reviews (she’s next up in This Is Your Life, written and directed by Nora Ephron). She’s a dark horse in need of a hit picture.
How’d it turn out: This dark horse never got her hit picture. While she has continued working steadily over the years, she never did become a household name.
Jennifer Connelly
Prediction: She’s been gorgeous since she debuted as a child in Once Upon a Time in America, but can she act? No one’s ever really asked and she’s never really put herself out there. But Disney’s got its money on her for its big-budget better-be-a-blockbuster for next summer, Rocketeer.
How’d it turn out: Well, Disney’s better-be-a-blockbuster was anything but. It took a while for Connelly to reach the A-list. In 2001, she won the Oscar for A Beautiful Mind. Since then, her career has cooled off.
Nicole Kidman
Prediction: Beautiful and gifted (see Dead Calm, forget Days of Thunder). She’ll next be seen in Billy Bathgate, with Dustin Hoffman, but will then star again with now-husband Tom Cruise (in Ron Howard’s The Irish Story), which has never done any actress any good.
How’d it turn out: The Irish Story was renamed Far and Away. It did reasonably well. But Kidman would go on to become a star on her own in 1995 with To Die For and Batman Forever. In 2001, she split from Cruise. She won Best Actress in 2002 for The Hours. Unfortunately, her career was slowed by some high profile flops. But she’s enjoyed a career resurgence of late.
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Prediction: Last year was a big one for actresses playing whores. Leigh’s long been memorable in the easy lay mode, but her turns in Last Exit to Brooklyn and Miami Blues won her genuine respect. Perhaps Ron Howard’s Backdraft, or Rush, in which she plays a true-life narc-turned-junkie, will move her into the mainstream.
How’d it turn out: After Backdraft and Rush, Leigh more or less turned her back on mainstream Hollywood movies. She did Single White Female in 1992 and then went on to concentrate primarily on independent films.
Sherilyn Fenn
Prediction: Gorgeous, but was a TV movie with Mark Harmon the right follow-up to “Twin Peaks” and a Playboy layout? Time to return to the big screen in something just a little more substantial, but not too much more substantial, than Two Moon Junction.
How’d it turn out: The Twin Peaks backlash took down just about everyone who was associated with the show. Fenn was no exception. Her career flamed out with the laughable Boxing Helena in 1993.
River Phoenix
Prediction: This over-serious young actor has been Oscar-nominated (Running on Empty), but, after his debut in Stand by Me, hasn’t had a winner except for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. But he gets credit for taking on the role of a narcoleptic gay hustler in Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho.
How’d it turn out: Sadly Phoenix died two years later of a drug overdose. He was a rising star at the time. One can only imagine the career he would have had if he had lived longer.
Patrick Dempsey
Prediction: Even if Disney’s Run doesn’t, the young gangsters saga Mobsters (in which he plays Meyer Lansky) may put Dempsey where he belongs–in a hit. Enough with the younger-man lover boy bullshit.
How’d it turn out: Run and Mobsters were not hits. The woman in the picture next to Dempsey was his wife at the time, Rochelle “Rocky” Parker. She was also the mother of his best friend and 26 years his elder. The couple divorced two years later in 1994. In 2005, Dempsey would finally become a star on the TV show Grey’s Anatomy.
Dermot Mulroney
Prediction: This is the guy who’s not Dylan McDermott, and is the guy in Young Guns. His performance in last year’s ensemble piece Longtime Companion singled him out, and his starring role in the off-beat Bright Angel could further distinguish him.
How’d it turn out: He’s still ” the guy who’s not Dylan McDermott”. Mulroney has continued working and even been in some hits. But most people confuse him with other, better known actors.
Christian Slater
Prediction: The camera loves him and he can play much smarter than he is. Look for a possible breakthrough as he co-stars as Kevin Costner’s sideman in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and stars as Lucky Luciano in Mobsters.
How’d it turn out: Expectations were high for Mobsters when this article was originally written. Turns out that movie wasn’t a hit. Of the four actors who might have become stars, only Slater did. But his constant run-ins with the law capped his success. He’s still working and relatively famous, but he was never quite a full-fledged A-lister.
John Cusack
Prediction: Finally done with high school roles he was way too old to play, he missed big in Fat Man and Little Boy and died respectably in The Grifters. Perhaps True Colors, in which he co-stars with James Spader, will give him a grown-up role in a hit.
How’d it turn out: True Colors didn’t exactly put Cusack or Spader over the top. But both had long careers with some level of success. Cusack has never become a big-name star, but he is a well-respected and prolific actor who has had a lot of leading roles.
Frank Whaley
Prediction: This guy’s always interesting (e.g. Born on the Fourth of July), and he’s funnier off-screen than he’s been allowed to be on-screen (e.g., as guitarist Robby Krieger in The Doors). We want more.
How’d it turn out: Whaley made for an interesting supporting player for much of the 90’s. But aside from Career Opportunities, he was never a leading man.
Johnny Depp
Prediction: If Depp’s Edward Scissorhands was such an easy role, as some have claimed, how hard was Hoffman’s Rain Man? Just wondering. Anyway, on the basis of Cry-Baby and Scissorhands, there’s no telling what’s in store for Depp. He’s moved beyond “21 Jump Street,” but has he really escaped James Dean clone hell?
How’d it turn out: What ever happened to that guy? I wonder… Depp struggled against his pretty-boy image throughout the 90s. He did some interesting work, but stardom eluded him. In 2003, Depp finally found his star-making role in Pirates of the Caribbean. Since then, he has been one of Hollywood’s most popular actors.
Richard Grieco
Prediction: Another “Jump Street” grad, this one with the ethnic look. He’s being given his chance on the big screen in Mobsters (he plays Bugsy Siegel) and If Looks Could Kill. Teen girls love him; Hollywood’s showing confidence. Time will tell.
How’d it turn out: Grieco’s inclusion dates this list like no other. When Mobsters flopped, that was it for him. Turns out there was only room for one 21 Jump Street grad in Hollywood.
Ethan Hawke
Prediction: The poetic kid from Dead Poets Society has (like some other actors) never been as good since leaving director Peter Weir’s hands (e.g., in Dad or White Fang). Next up in Orion’s Mystery Date, which doesn’t ask much of him.
How’d it turn out: Hawke has continued to work steadily without ever really becoming a big star. He has had a few hits even as recently as 2013’s The Purge. But it seems like his shot at being an A-lister passed years ago.
Keanu Reeves
Prediction: Though he’s yet to become a household word, he’s got a real career going. While consistently playing endearing, callow youths, he somehow manages to be in an eclectic array of films, and his upcoming trio continues this trend: Surf thriller Point Break, Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho, and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure II.
How’d it turn out: Reeves was still proving himself in 1991. And very few people expected him to make it. But with Speed in 1994 and the Matrix in 1999, Reeves would go on to be one of the most successful actors on this list. Whoa!
AGENTS
David Lonner/ICM
Perhaps the hottest literary agent in town: his screenplay deals for Jeffrey Abrams on Regarding Henry and The Rest of Daniel, and Pete Dexter on Rush, have captured the attention of Tinseltown.
Jay Moloney/CAA
At 26, he’s the fastest rising star in the business. Mike Ovitz’s personal protege, Moloney reps Martin Scorsese, Ray Liotta, Sean Young, Uma Thurman, Sean Connery, and Jennifer Lynch, for starters.
Bryan Lourd/CAA
He came up through the William Morris ranks, made the jump to CAA three years ago, and is as talked about for his handling of Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Richard Grieco, Robert Downey, Jr., Tom Hulce, and Teri Garr, as he is for his real-life romance with Carrie Fisher.
Beth Swofford/William Morris
She reps screenwriters Henry (Internal Affairs) Bean, Martha (Sibling Rivalry) Goldhirsh, Pen (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) Densham, and directors Gillian Armstrong and Mary Lambert. Inherited her sizable power base when mentor Judy Scott-Fox moved to the London office.
Todd Harris/Triad
His book and movie deals for writer clients like Warren (The War of the Roses) Adler and Glen (White Palace) Savin keep him at the forefront of the bidding wars so important in today’s Hollywood. Also reps Margaret (The Handmaid’s Tale) Atwood.
Hylda Queally/Triad
She reps Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis, Emily Lloyd, and Rachel Ward, among others. The word on her is that she’s beautiful enough to become an actress herself, but don’t expect her to defect to the silver screen–expect her to defect to an even hotter agency.
George Freeman/ICM
His background as a publicist at PMK has made him a natural crossover, and after only two years of agenting he’s already repping Nicolas Cage, Oscar-winner Denzel Washington, Anne Archer, and Dana Delaney.
Tom Strickler/lnterTalent
After two years at CAA, he’s been here for two more. Reps Isabella Rossellini, John Lone, Bill Pullman, and writers Ernest (On Golden Pond) Thompson and Larry (The Hunt for Red October) Ferguson, among others.
Nick Stevens/Harris & Goldberg
He started in the mailroom at William Morris, has been with Harris & Goldberg since it formed. Handles Lou Diamond Phillips, Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter, for openers.
Donna Chavous/CAA
Her unique positioning as a black female agent gives her an inside track on repping up-and-coming black filmmakers, and she’s said to have a good eye for promising comics, too. Reps Gregory Hines, Lou Gossett Jr., Kevin Meaney, among others.
Cynthia Shelton/Bauer Benedek
She was signed on to jazz up the agency’s young acting talent area (e.g., Jon Cryer) but made a name for herself with her $1 million deal for the writing team of Tom Parker and Jim Jennewein on Stay Tuned, the kids-running-amok-inside-a-TV-set fantasy that looks to be one of Morgan Creek’s big 1991 flicks.
PRODUCERS
Laurie Parker
The driving force behind Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy, she’s currently producing his My Own Private Idaho; just wrapped The Rapture (as executive producer). Also producing Before She Met Me with her Drug-Store Cowboy co-producer Nick Wechsler, and exec-producing Mark Peploe’s feature directorial debut, Afraid of the Dark.
Robert Simonds
This Yale philosophy major sold his first feature, Problem Child, to Universal on the strength of a one-sentence pitch. It was a major hit, and now he’s making his pet project, Shake It Up, optimistically described as Dead Poets Society crossed with Footloose. Not surprisingly, he has Problem Child II in development.
Nancy Tenenbaum
Instrumental in developing sex, lies, and videotape, she just finished co-producing The Rapture. In development: Mac, written, directed by, and starring John Turturro, and Craig Lucas’s Reckless.
Paul Collchman
Miles Copeland’s partner at IRS Media, where he wants to “be to movies what the IRS record label was to music,” i.e., on the edge. He’s produced or exec-produced ten movies for IRS Media in three years, including The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, and nine others you probably haven’t heard of; half of them haven’t yet been released.
David Heyman
Former exec at Warner’s and UA, he’s now independently producing Juice, an urban drama about four young black kids to be directed by Ernest Dickerson, Spike Lee’s cinematographer.
Brad Wyman
After getting kicked out of NYU for peddling student films to HBO, he teamed up with Cassian Elwes to produce Donald (Performance) Cammell’s White of the Eye. Currently producing The Dark Backward, a comedy about a guy who grows an arm out of the middle of his back, which teams Judd Nelson and Wayne Newton.
Loretha Jones
Went from being Spike Lee’s attorney to co-producing School Daze. Has jumped ship to produce The Five Heartbeats, Robert Townsend’s new movie.
Jonathan Furie
In one move, went from manager to producer when he persuaded Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick to star in Pyrates, a romantic comedy (written and directed by his client Noah Stern) about a young couple whose love-making literally starts fires.
Melissa Goddard and Peter Morgan
Friends since junior high, Goddard and Morgan went from a first-look deal with Dick Clark to producing Step Kids, a comedy/drama directed by Joan Micklin Silver, inspired by Goddard’s experiences as the child of multiple divorces.
DIRECTORS
Phill Joanou
Once best-known as Spielberg’s protégé, he’s managed to make Three O’clock High, U2: Rattle & Hum and last year’s State of Grace without making anyone any money. Now he’s doing the U.S. version of Michael Apted’s documentary 28-Up, with Apted producing.
Steve Kloves
Years passed between his screenplay for Racing With the Moon and his directing debut The Fabulous Baker Boys. Now he’s “writing a piece he’ll direct for Fox,” says his agent. Hope we don’t have to wait six more years.
Michael Fields
Fresh out of the gate with the strange and sensitive Bright Angel, he’s shown skill with actors and elliptical story lines. Now he needs to luck into a good mainstream project.
Steven Soderbergh
The pressure was on for a follow-up to sex, lies, and videotape, so he did the obvious and chose for his next film a story about…Franz Kafka! Not only that, Kafka’s reportedly a thriller.
Reginald Hudlin
After debuting with the raucous House Party, he’s signed up to direct (with brother Warrington producing) a pop musical for Tri-Star, no title yet.
Jodie Foster
She’s smart, she’s professional, she’s been around the business forever (how could she be so far under 30?), and she’s no weak sister, so it’s little surprise she’s decided to direct. Little Man Tate is her debut, and she stars in it as well, which means everything is doubly difficult.
Keith Gordon
After nice notices on his independent film The Chocolate War, this actor (Dressed to Kill)/director is beginning production on Midnight Clear, with a script he adopted from William Wharton’s WWII pacifist tale of young geniuses with guns.
Charles Finch
This son of Peter Finch “cried for four months” over his Italian-financed first film, but so far so good on mystery thriller Where Sleeping Dogs Lie (starring Dylan McDermott and Sharon Stone), written with mom Yolande Turner.
John Singleton
This 23-year-old USC grad has been called “an unknown genius who will be the real Spike Lee.” First foray for this Frank Price protégé is Boyz N the Hood (rolls right off the tongue) for Columbia.
David Fincher
A maestro of videos (Madonna’s “Vogue,” Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up,” Don Henley’s “End of the Innocence”), he’s hotly touted these days–so much so that he’s directing Sigourney Weaver in Aliens III. And he’s never made a movie before.
Gordon Eriksen/John O’Brien
Harvard grads both, they got attention for their no-budget, independent comedy The Big Dis. Eriksen’s now readying Peg, an HBO theatrical feature. O’Brien’s just done another obscure one, Vermont is for Lovers.
WRITERS
Shane Black
The granddaddy of the high-paid, under-30, buddy/violence screenwriting crowd, Black follows Lethal Weapon and The Monster Squad with the slick slam-bang The Last Boy Scout, which will star Bruce Willis, if that gives you any hint what it’s like.
Daniel Waters
After the brilliantly outré Heathers, he has headed for the big time. His The Adventures of Ford Fairlane got slammed, and now he’s banking on Hudson Hawk with Heathers pal Michael Lehmann directing. It stars Bruce Willis, if that gives you any idea what it’s like. Rolling off his pen right now is Batman II for Heathers producer Denise Di Novi, with Tim Burton directing.
Neal Jimenez
Following his script for River’s Edge way back in 1987, he wrote the semi-autobiographical The Water Dance, which he is now directing. His next project: Bette Midler’s For the Boys.
Ed Solomon
He struck paydirt with the immensely popular, lunatic Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and he’s gone on to do the sequel. He’s also scripted Ed (Glory) Zwick’s next one, Leaving Normal.
Scott Frank
He wrote the script for Kenneth Branagh’s Hollywood directorial debut, Dead Again, which stars Brannagh, wife Emma Thompson, and Andy Garcia. He also wrote Jodie Foster’s directorial debut Little Man Tate.
David Mickey Evans
After a short spate of post-film-school low-budget script doctoring, he sold Radio Flyer for big bucks and was even set to direct. Richard Donner took over, but Evans may get his chance with one of the projects he’s writing now.
Jeffrey Abrams
Abrams has teamed successfully with Jill Mazursky on Taking Care of Business and three films now in development (Adam and Eve on a Raft, Under the Gun, and Two Thumbs Up) but he does especially well on his own. Warner Bros. paid him $1.5 million for the cry¬ogenics romantic fantasy The Rest of Daniel, which will star Mel Gibson. And he’d already been paid $500,000 for Harrison Ford’s next one, Regarding Henry, directed by Mike Nichols.
Jill Mazursky
Mazursky (her father is director Paul) has turned her writing partnership with Jeffrey Abrams into a full-time job. Their first produced film was last summer’s Taking Care of Business, and the hot duo currently has three projects in development: Adam and Eve on a Raft at Disney, Under the Gun at Paramount, and Two Thumbs Up at Fox.
Peter Filardi
The guy who went from 0 to 90 in 60 seconds with the script he wrote on spec, Flatliners, is writing alone on spec again right now.
Kathy McWorter
Right out of <Cal State Northridge she sold her script The Cheese Stands Alone to Paramount where it’s now in development, and two more of her scripts have been optioned (Bats at Warner Bros., and The Boy Who Eats Rocks at Tri-Star).
The biggest star in Mobsters is still Anthony Quinn. Or maybe Michael Gambon (you know…Dumbledore)
It’s pretty impressive how well they did with their predictions. Of course they didn’t exactly go out on any big limbs.
Was the “Prediction” section published in the magazine?
Yes. “Prediction” is what was printed in the 1991 article. The rest is my commentary looking back from 2013. No, they didn’t really go out on any big limbs. They really liked the cast of Mobsters. But other than that, they played it pretty safe. But I had a blast going back and looking at things from the perspective of 1991 when these actors futures had yet to be written. I was 20 in 1991 and these were the actors of my youth. I followed most of their careers pretty closely as the WTHH articles probably demonstrate. Most of the… Read more »
It was an enjoyable stroll down memory lane.
I saw Mobsters on opening night and remember thinking it should have been awesome. The Luciano and Lansky from Boardwalk Empire entertain pretty well nowadays.
I should have guessed you would have been excited about Mobsters given your interest in the period. I have actually never seen it. I just remember the hype leading up to it and then the crickets chirping when it finally opened.
Oh, by the way, this is the 10,000th comment here at Le Blog!
I tried to give your comment a “thumbs up,” but it kept disappearing.
Period pieces have always been interesting to me, especially anything between the Civil War and the 1970s. I haven’t seen Mobsters since it was in theaters, so I can’t really offer a detailed set of reasons why it wasn’t great. I just remember being sort of underwhelmed and unimpressed with the generational nature of the story. Yes, the historical character Quinn played was murdered, but in the movie it sort of felt like lousy young actors bumping off a great older actor.
That seems to be the consensus on the movie. Obviously, it’s been a couple of decades. I’ve had opportunities to watch Mobsters. Seems like it’s been on cable a lot lately. But based on what I have heard, I’ve never felt motivated to do so.
Why didn’t Grieco do anything else!?!
He has actually done a lot of low budget stuff I’ve never heard of. I think he tried. He just didn’t get the right breaks.
I still weep over Sherilyn Fenn.
She was so classically Liz Taylor-like beautiful and seemed to have genuine talents, that her fading away still bothers me.
She could have had a career playing femme fatales atleast until she could transition to something more long-lasting.
I am right there with you. There were too many great actresses and too few great roles.
I’m going to be the weirdo who comments on something you said three and a half years ago, but: SHERILYN. I absolutely love this woman. I was 12/13 when Twin Peaks first came out, and I have wanted to be her ever since. Audrey Horne was more than just beautiful. She was this hip, weird girl with an attitude who dressed like it was 1955. And those eyebrows!
Today is her birthday. Happy birthday, Sherilyn, I love you.
It is her birthday—and you will find her getting her proper mention in today’s birthday article 🙂
You will find lots of those kinds of weirdos here. Our comments sections go on indefinitely. While this article was posted here three years ago, it actually dates back to 1991. We’re still talking about it.
I was definitely a Fenn fan. I am looking forward to seeing her again in the Twin Peaks reunion later this year.
cusack never wanted to be big star. he only did some popcorn flicks to fund his little projects. cusack seemed to enjoy films that are less commercially appealing. any chance depp or cusack will make the list soon though . what is ironic same eyar river died in 1993 leo had his breakthough role in whats eating gilbert grape some people think river would had leo role had he not died