[Commlist] 'Stars and Franchises' Edited collection call for chapters

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*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 **(s.k.thomas /at/ liverpool.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(s.k.thomas /at/ liverpool.ac.uk)>***

  * 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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