Which TV stars could make the jump to the big screen?

For a leading man I'd go with Dylan Walsh from "Nip/Tuck." I could see him in any number of super hero roles (Daredevil, Captain America) but also more conventional leading roles. Hopefully he'll get some chances but it seems that it's his co-star that's getting all the offers (though he's cool to).

I think Walt Goggins, who plays Shane on "The Shield," should end up being a great supporting actor in film once that show ends. I also see him in the Sizemore/Madsen mold.

It probably goes without saying that I believe Michael Imperioli from "The Soparnos" should be getting as many shots at the big screen as James Gandolfini has been given.

I've always thought Noah Wylie could do some decent work with the right role and right director.

To me, the line between movies and TV isn't as defined as it used to be. I used to kind of see it as TV was the minor leagues and movies were the bigs but now its more of a level playing ground. The fact that so many people that used to be strickly movies have cropped up on TV the last 5 years proves that point to me even more. TV is the big payday now adays.

I'll add to the thread though, Tom Welling. Sure The Fog wasn't exactly the best vehicle for him (I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard the reviews!!!) but I still think that this will lead him to another project and he could become the next Clooney, or the next Dean Cain.

What's Cain doing these days?

Clooney and Cain are two completely different ballparks in two completely different continents.

James Callis from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

David Caruso! Oh, hold on a minute...

I think he was making the distinction between having a career or not having a career.

Dammit... you're right. My bad.

Let's take it easy on Dean Cain, it's bad enough he's going to have to go through some type of horrible demise thanks to the "Superman Curse."

Should we make a distinction between actors who've had roles in movie and those who haven't? Dominic West and Tim Olyphant both had movie careers before getting starring roles on TV, as did Dylan Walsh and James Gandolfini. Or are we talking about these guys becoming genre transcending MOVIE STARS like Clooney?

I think the idea is actors who are most associated with television that should be in bigger film roles. Yeah, Dylan Walsh was in CONGO and BLOOD WORK but he didn't really start to be recognized for his acting until "Nip/Tuck."

I don't really know how you would classify Kiefer Sutherland in all this. He started as a big time film actor, became a big time TV star, and should probably be back to a big time film actor down the line.

agreed, I think the guy is great.

Will Arnett, Jamie Denton, Evangeline Lilly all need a chance to do some big screen work in a leading capacity. Jason Segal is long overdue for the chance to show off his comedic talent in feature films.

I couldn't agree more, especially where Evangeline Lilly and Jason Segal are concerned. Segal's a really rare talent.

If we're talking about comedic actors this guy, along with his co-stars, would all do a lot to help out most of the sorry ass comedies that end up being made.

Chiki has so much more potential than Sizemore/Madsen roles though. he could do Shakespeare if he wanted.

The good news: He'll be in the new Tenacious D movie.
The bad news: I doubt he'll shine as "Frat Boy #1".

PS–He has some pretty impressive dance moves.

I can't believe no one's mentioned Lost yet.
Matthew Fox has the potential to make a big leap into feature films. He's charasmatic, handsome and has talent. He could be the next George Clooney as long as he picks his projects right.

The same could be said for a number of those other cast members.

Timothy Olyphant gives me a serious Michael Biehn vibe. I swear they even sound alike. Does anybody else get this? And yeah, Olyphant could be a star (or at least he should be).

That's weird because I always get more of a Bill Paxton vide from Olyphant, though I haven't seen him on "Deadwood" and I'm basing that by what I've seen of him in GO, A MAN APART, and THE GIRL NEXT DOOR.

I definitely think Jason Segel deserves a shot at some big-screen projects. So does Evangeline Lilly.

James Van Der Beek could go far, provided he chooses the right roles.

Christopher Meloni could be an interesting big-screen player.

Nathan Fillion's got leading man written all over him.

More exposure for Lauren Graham, please.

I was gonna list McDermott, but I figured he was one of those guys who'd had a reasonably high-profile film career before headlining a TV series. Either way, I'd like to see more of him.

Another guy I'd like to see more of is Daniel Benzali, who headed the cast of MURDER ONE's first season back in the '90s. Sure, he looks a bit like Shrek. But he's got crazy charisma and a badass Wincott-style rasp. There's no reason this guy couldn't land some good big-screen supporting roles.

If Paul Walker's getting movie leads, there's no reason LAS VEGAS's Josh Duhamel should not. Likewise Eric Close from WITHOUT A TRACE. That said, I'd rather have a few seasons of WITHOUT A TRACE on my resume than INTO THE BLUE and 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS.

Carlos Bernard, who plays Tony on "24," would be a good fit for films. Again, probably not the leading man type but definitely as the "partner" type or even as the heavy.

I don't watch "CSI" but it's weird that William Petersen hasn't used that show's success to appear in more films. The last big movie I remember him being in was "The Contender" and that had to be right around the time that "CSI" started. The guy was in all sorts of movies for a good 15 years before "CSI" premiered so I wonder why he's just stuck with his show.

The thing about Jerry Bruckheimer's TV dramas - well, the three CSI shows and WITHOUT A TRACE - is that they've all got leads who are charismatic, talented actors (sue me, I dig Caruso) who don't have quite enough presence to topline a film. (And I know Petersen was great in TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. and MANHUNTER, but what other big-screen appearances of his stand out?)

Personally, I'm stoked that guys like Kiefer Sutherland, James Spader, Vincent D'Onofrio and the like are getting both a good payday and the opportunity to develop interesting characters on TV. And it has a bounce-back effect on their careers as well - when I interviewed Schumacher about PHONE BOOTH, he said studio execs nixed his idea for Sutherland as the sniper until 24 did well, then they were all "Could you call Kiefer for us?"

I won't sue you, I like Caruso to. I don't watch his "CSI" either but I'm glad that he was able to recover from the whole "NYPD Blue" disaster. PROOF OF LIFE leaves a lot to be desired but Caruso was one of the few good things in it.

I would still think that Petersen must get offers to be in big movies, if not as a solo lead then at least the type of roles that Gandolfini gets offered. MANHUNTER is his finest acting job but he was the best thing about YOUNG GUNS 2 and he played the freaked out father role perfectly in FEAR (sue me for those last 2 admissions on my part).

Speaking of Petersen, there is another actor who I believe has been stolen from film. It's John C. McGinley. He went from being in every other movie made to almost nothing once "Scrubs" started. This sucks because he was always worth watching in film. I looked up his IMDB page and what's weird is that he has 3 films supposedly finished that are all directed by other actors. The 3 actors are D.B. Sweeney, Mekhi Phifer, and Craig Sheffer (yeah, I did a double take at a couple of those as well).

Jason Bateman

Given the right project (and director to support his brilliant dead-pan acting) I think Jason Bateman (from Arrested Development) could be great in a film.

It's a tricky one, actors finding the right medium. D.B. Sweeney was kind of a blank on the big screen but perfectly badass in HARSH REALM. The coolness of Jake Weber was known by only a few until MEDIUM got him a wider audience.

I always thought Sheryl Lee would do more. She was incredible in TWIN PEAKS, both the series and FIRE WALK WITH ME.

Forgive me if this makes me sound like a complete perv, but if HEARTBREAKERS had been a little spicier (one topless scene!) it would have given Jennifer Love Hewitt a movie career. She's actually gives a halfway-decent comic performance - I still think she could have a Jamie Lee Curtis kind of career, if she gets the right opportunities.

Chad Michael Murray is moving beyond his pretty-boy work to show a bit of grit and substance - he was a standout in HOUSE OF WAX.

I'd be more concerned about actors I like 'slumming it' in TV if more movies were as good as SCRUBS, THE WIRE, HOUSE, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, THE SHIELD, NIP/TUCK, UNDECLARED, FIREFLY, LOST, WITHOUT A TRACE...to name just a few.

It is true that TV is no longer the step down that it once was and guys like Joe Pantoliano, Robert Patrick, Dennis Hopper, and Anthony Anderson have been able to take their (sometimes brief) TV roles and keep up their film work with no problem at all. I guess I'm griping about McGinley because I don't watch "Scrubs" and wish he'd get back to making more movies.

Jason Bateman? Three Words: Teen Wolf II

Alright, that was a cheap shot. Actually, from his performances on AD, and his Fred Willard "Best in Show" impression from "Dodge Ball", I think he'd make a great supporting role comedic straight-man. Not so sure about a lead though.

I third the James Callis love.
I think he is fantastic.
English actor David Tennant, who has been cast as the new Doctor Who, was utterly fantastic in a production of Casanova on the BBC. He gets a go on the big screen as Bart Crouch in Goblet of Fire.
I caught an episode of Moonlighting on cable the other day. That Bruce Willis guy could go places if he found the right role.

Starsky & Hutch.

His Dodgeball cameo was the funniest thing I'd seen in a long time.

Really? You think so.

I thought Caruso was hilariously bad in PROOF OF LIFE. Mainly because he seemed to be treating the whole movie as if he were in an acting competition with Russell Crowe. His attempts at "scene stealing" were so funny, but pretty sad as well. He'd try to wring uneccesary emotional pathos out of the most banal statements. It's like he couldn't come to terms with the fact that he never made it as a movie star, and was in a movie to support a movie star, so his every scene was overplayed, maybe in an attempt to look like the big, bright shining STAR, he always felt he should have been. I'm surprised Crowe didn't hit him during the filming.

Totally agree about William Petersen though. Guy should have been a real, deal movie star. He was also great in to LIVE AND DIE IN LA, holding his own against Willem Defoe in splendidly slimey form.

Wow. These are the exact five people that I came here to mention.

I think Dominic West is a very fine actor, but in a show like The Wire, that's filled with excellent actors from top to bottom, I consider West to be one of the 2 tier performers on the show (comparitavely speaking. He still plays his part excellently). He's the nominal "leading man" of The Wire, but I don't think his work as Detective Mcnulty has the same sort of dramatic impact that other titular "leads" bring to their respective shows (ie Gandolfini in The Sopranos, Sutherland in 24, Chiklis in The Shield ect). He comes off more like Matthew Fox in Lost (Fox is also the nominal leading man, but his performance doesn't really stand out as being especially better or more significant than the rest of the ensemble).

I guess it's a testament to West's lack of vanity as an actor that he plays Mcnulty as being so "ordinary", but a drawback of that is that his performance lacks the sort of dynamic urgency you'd typically expect from a movie star. He has the looks, and he can certainly act, but I'm not sold on him being able to regularly carry movies. Not on the evidence of his playing Mcnulty anyway.

To be honest, I think the castmembers from The Wire with the most big screen potential are the two big "villains" of the show. Idris Elba, who played
Stringer Bell, and Wood Harris (Avon Barksdale). Both are handsome cats, so could do the leading man thing. And both have an amazing charisma and danger about them that carries off their amoral performances. I guess the bad guys do get more chances to be showy.

My main problem with PROOF OF LIFE was that for such an emotional situation both Crowe and Ryan looked to be sleepwalking through the entire film. Caruso seemed to give the film a spark whenever he showed up on screen. The only other actor who I enjoyed in that one was David Morse, who's another guy who starred on a TV show then went onto movies and hasn't been in enough films since he had that "Hack" show a couple years ago.

Speaking of "Hack," Andre Braughrer should be all over movie screens. I know he's in the POSEIDON remake but he should be doing more than just the routine Hollywood disaster type film.

Josh Holloway would make a pretty good Texas Ranger.

The problem is that actors in a ensemble show like "Lost" tend not to stand out . But Fox is good, no doubt.

David Boreneaz: This guy should be HUGE. He can do comedy and brooding and bat-shit crazy. My pick for Batman or failing that, Harvey Dent.

Alexis Denisof: Awesome actor from Angel. He can do tough and smart

Adam Brody: Everyone seems to love Brody and the guy can actually act. I say he's the next Tom Hanks.

Nicholas Brendan: He has great comic timing and could be a hit in comedies

Neil Flynn: On the Scrubs commentaries they said that he ad-libs most of his lines as The Janitor. He could be the next Will Ferrell.

Sarah Chalke: She can do silly, sexy, and funny. She could build herself a career like Julia Roberts, both light movies and stuff like Erin Brockovich and Closer.

Two words: Peter Krause.

Even though I wanted to reach into the screen and slap him silly during THE WHOLE TEN YARDS, I always hoped Matthew Perry would make the leap to the big screen. The guy's funny as all fuck, in my opinion, and he's got range: his guest spots on ALLY McBEAL and THE WEST WING showed he could be more than Chandler Bing.

I also think ED's Tom Cavanagh could kill in the right role.

I agree this guy's one of the best reasons to watch THE O.C. (and I dug his supporting role on GILMORE GIRLS). But I haven't seen enough of him to know if there's more to his act than Seth Cohen. He's made such a strong impression that he's going to have to work doubly hard to break away from that character.

Something about this guy just rubs me the wrong way. Of course, that could stem from my love-hate relationship with SPORTS NIGHT, which can be sparkling one second, incredibly preachy and self-righteous the next.

Have you seen the British short-run series ULTRAVIOLET, Stew? Elba does pretty much just that as a Vatican-funded vampire killer working for a government death squad. He's pretty awesome, as is the show (it's got kind of an X-FILES vibe).

That's TEEN WOLF TOO, mister. Because, you see, he was also a teen wolf...oh, how we laughed.

You're right: As dead-on as Bateman's ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT and DODGEBALL work is, I'd be happy to see him in Jeremy Piven-style supporting roles where he can steal a few scenes and not have to carry the whole production. I mean, someone like John Cusack has got enough presence, acting talent and residual good will to emerge from adult-contemporary dreck like SERENDIPITY and MUST LOVE DOGS semi-unscathed. I'm betting they're the kinds of roles with Bateman's name on them if and when he's offered big-screen leads, and I think he'd take the hit the hardest if they flopped.

Some brit imports -

Adrian Lester
Matthew MacFadyen
Jaime Murray(who apparently is being screen tested for Wonder Woman)

Ricky Gervais of the original "The Office". the man has awkwardness down pat--full of pregnant pauses and utter failure. A glorious trainwreck--kind of like this guy: www.ditty-o.com