As Soon As The Gods Go

Allow me to throw some names out into the blogosphere; Clint Eastwood. Gene Hackman. Jack Nicholson. Harrison Ford. Robert De Niro. Al Pacino. Morgan Freeman. (Sadly, apart from Dame Helen Mirren, the British and Irish giants have already left us.)
Only two of the above Hollywood legends are under 70 (Ford and De Niro). It got me thinking, who the hell is going to replace these guys, true heavyweights of cinema, when they finally get a casting call from the Great Director in the sky? Who has the chutzpah to fill these iconic loafers? Nobody immediately springs to my mind. Well a few names do but I cringe at the idea.

An icon of our times

Let us see; Brad Pitt. Johhny Depp. Jason Statham. Orlando Bloom. Leonardo DiCaprio. Rhys Ifans. Erm...that will do for now because its making me depressed. Don't get me wrong, I like these guys (mind you Pitt has made some stinkers recently), but do they really possess the magic of the old timers? Really, really? I have grave doubts. Of those mentioned I would pick Johnny and Leo to reach the vertigo inducing heights of legendom (not a word? It should be), while the others simmer on a much lower heat.
In fact DiCaprio has impressed me no end since my initial misgivings in the more-fashion-show-than-film Titanic. Movies like The Departed, Gangs Of New York, and the earlier Basketball Diaries about poet Jim Carrol showed me that. He's a fine actor. Ditto Depp but the rest seem very...shall I say flimsy.
I had high hopes for Brad Pitt but the older he gets, the more (for me) he seems to lose a little stardust. And the Brits I mention are great (I love Statham films) but are they great enough? In my opinion no.
When the likes of Eastwood and De Niro leaves us, Hollywood will become a much poorer place, and judging by most of the films it churns out these days, that will be the End of it.