When it comes to understanding genre films in the studio system, it is important to look at the different forces that influence the creation and production of films. Ezra W. Zuckerman, a research professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, wrote the article “Typecasting and Generalism in Firm and Market: Genre-Based Career Concentration in the Feature Film Industry, 1935-1995” to take a look at the interactions among three different topics: the beginnings of career specialization, the different ways firms and the market govern career choices and the ways in which economic organization has influenced cultural diversity on the silver screen. The primary focus of this article is the change that Hollywood made from being a studio system based in forms to a modern market system, and the researcher uses that change to examine the assertion that restrictions driven by typecasting and that are placed on generalist identities are just as important within Hollywood as those same restrictions on generalism that appear in the wider market for labor. Career specialism, of course, is nothing new to Hollywood. Even near the beginning of the industry, characters and actors would develop close connections. Johnny Weissmuller was Tarzan; Bela Lugosi was Dracula. However, the big names were allowed to wander across genre lines, as their own name would sell tickets. This remains true, of course; Matt Damon has been allowed to be much more than Jason Bourne, and Christian Bale has been much more than Batman. However, when the star luster begins to wear away, typecasting can emerge, as Michael Keaton both demonstrated through his stint in the seat of Batman and in his star turn in the recent release Birdman.
Works Cited
Zuckerman, Ezra W. (2005). Typecasting and generalism in film and market: Genre-based career
concentration in the feature film industry, 1933-1995. Research in the Sociology of Organizations 23: 173-216. http://web.mit.edu/ewzucker/www/Typecasting_and_Generalism_in_Firm_and_Marke t.pdf
