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This entry is trivia, which is cool and all, but not a trope. On a work, it goes on the Trivia tab.

Production Posse

The cast of every Christopher Guest movie.

Johnny Depp: Do you have any who my leading lady is on this film?
Ricky Gervais: In the Tim Burton film?
Johnny Depp: Yeah.
Ricky Gervais: Um... Helena Bonham-Carter?
Johnny Depp: How'd you know?
Ricky Gervais: Stab in the dark.

—Life's Too Short, Episode 2

A group of people that, whenever one is involved in a production, others are almost guaranteed to show up at some point.

This used to be a very enforced part of media making. Studios expected artists to specialize into units. An example would be John Ford being specialized in westerns, which meant that large parts of the crew�both in front of and behind the camera�would literally always work together.

See also Those Two Actors. When each member tends to play the same sort of role every time, they're a Universal Adaptor Cast. Associated Composer is a subtrope.

Examples:

The Rat Pack.
The Brat Pack.
The Frat Pack.
- In fact, there's a whole stable of big time stars like Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell, supported by many actors (usually because of Second City connections) that could be from The Office US, SNL, or The Daily Show. Judd Apatow probably plays behind the scenes.
- Any movie produced or directed by Judd Apatow is almost guaranteed to have one or more of the following actors in it — Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, Bill Hader, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jason Segel, Leslie Mann (his wife) and, more recently, his daughter Maude Apatow.
The John Ford Stock Company.
Quentin Tarantino writes and directs all his movies. Lawrence Bender, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, Michael Madsen, Harvey Keitel, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, and especially Samuel L. Jackson are never too far behind. All of his films were edited by the late Sally Menke (it is unknown if Fred Raskin will succeed her as a stable editor from here on out), and from Kill Bill onward he's used Robert Richardson as his cinematographer. Whenever he wants to collaborate with another director, he usually turns to Robert Rodriguez (see below).
- Also of note, as of late, is Christoph Waltz, who not only became the first actor to win an Oscar for a Tarantino film, but did so twice (for Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained). The two seem set to work together for quite a while, given how Tarantino has credited Waltz for "saving" the former film from Development Hell.
Robert Rodriguez's regular stable of actors includes Mickey Rourke, Antonio Banderas, Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin, Rose McGowan, and he made Salma Hayek. As for crew? He is the crew. Also, a lot of bit-parts and behind the scenes work involve members of his family, particularly his sons Rebel, Rocket and Racer, credited as consultants for the Spy Kids movies.
- Spy Kids stars Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega could very well end up here as well as he's used them each in each of the two Machete Movies respectively.
Christopher Guest movies all involve the same actors.
Wes Anderson films: Owen and Luke Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray and Indian actor Kumar Pallana, who has been in all of Anderson's films except The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou." He also usually has Robert Yeoman as cinematographer and Mark Mothersbaugh as the composer.
Actors in Joss Whedon projects have a tendency to reappear in his future projects. There's a handy table on Whedon's page on The Other Wiki showing which of his posse appeared in which of his projects.
- Crossover between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel was to be expected, since they exist in the same universe. But after Firefly was cancelled, no fewer than four of the main cast (Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Gina Torres and Summer Glau) were given bit-parts in Buffy or Angel.
  - Summer Glau was on Angel first, and then cast on Firefly.
- Then when Dollhouse hit the air it featured two of them (Alan Tudyk and Summer Glau again) in larger roles, along with ex-Angel actor Amy Acker, ex-Buffy/Angel actor Alexis Denisof, and an ex-Buffy/Angel actor in the lead (Eliza Dushku). Felicia Day had a bit part in both Buffy and Dollhouse; Christina Hendricks had bit parts in both Angel and Firefly. Meanwhile, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog starred both Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day.
- And to keep the pattern going, Whedon's feature film The Cabin in the Woods stars Amy Acker (again) and Fran Kranz (from Dollhouse) and features Tom Lenk (from Buffy), while Alexis Denisof (again) and Enver Gjokaj (from Dollhouse) show up in The Avengers. Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye in Avengers) previously had a bit part in Angel, and Chris Hemsworth (Thor in Avengers) was one of the leads in Cabin.
- Besides Dushku, Glau and Denisof, there are four less-well-known actors (Jonathan Woodward, Jeff Ricketts, Bob Fimiani, Carlos Jacott) who have appeared in three of Whedon's four TV shows.
- This has now started to carry over to shows featuring former alumni who had worked on Buffy, as an episode of Grimm produced by David Greenwalt had Amy Acker (again!) as a guest star. And Tim Minear's short lived show Drive on FOX starred Nathan Fillion.
- In the season 1 DVD of Dollhouse, there's a whole behind the scenes look at all the cast and crew who return to work with Joss for the show. He's got a production posse that doesn't just act, but also write, produce, shoot, etc.
- In one further unusual take on this trope, an episode of Dollhouse was directed by John Cassaday, the artist from Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men.
- Actors from Joss productions often appear together even without Joss himself being on scene. In Castle, star Nathan Fillion has often appeared opposite Firefly alums, culminating in "Headhunters", where even the network was promoting the Adam Baldwin/Nathan Fillion reunion. Less well-known is the fact that the Season 2 executive producer was Jose Molina... himself a Buffy and Firefly alum.
- Much Ado About Nothing marks the reunion for so many Joss alums that it's pointless to count them. And the movie was filmed at Joss's house.
  - To make an attempt:
  - From Angel, Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker play love interests Benedick and Beatrice (no doubt delighting the fans who wished to see them together on the show).
  - From Buffy, Tom Lenk appears as Verges. Riki Lindhorne was a guest on the show before appearing in Much Ado as Conrade. Also, Anthony Head was the original choice to play Leonato.
  - Coming from Firefly are Nathan Fillion as Dogberry and Sean Maher as Don John.
  - Dollhouse had Fran Kranz, who plays Claudio here, and Reed Diamond, who plays Don Pedro.
  - The Avengers has Clark Gregg, who ended up taking the part of Leonato after Head dropped out.
Jason Reitman has put JK Simmons in all four of his movies
Adam Sandler and his Happy Madison production house:
- Expect any permutation of Rob Schneider, David Spade, Chris Rock Kevin James, and Nick Swardson (in more recent movies) to be somewhere among the cast members. Of his crew of actors, some are former SNL cast members from the early 1990's.
- Sandler's recurring actors also have included Steve Buscemi, Peter Dante, and Allen Covert.
- And with crew members, Sandler has Rupert Gregson-Williams as composer (he's also worked Teddy Castalucci several times), Perry Andelin Blake as production designer, Brooks Arthur as music supervisor and Jack Giarraputo as producer. He also has the Panavision Genesis used on all his projects after working with Dean Semler (one of the creators of the camera) on a pair of projects.
- Sandler's Personal Assistant Jonathan Loughran who appears in most of his movies.
The Kevin Smith gang includes Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Jason Lee, himself, his wife, Jason Mewes, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson, with Joey Lauren Adams and Ethan Suplee to a lesser extent. Most of his movies took place on the same universe, which meant there were some actors playing multiple characters. Additionally, most of his movies feature crew members Scott Mosier (producer) and Dave Klein (director of photography).
Where Tim Burton is, Danny Elfman is sure to follow, and Johnny Depp will probably not be far behind. Softer members of the posse include current significant other (Lisa Marie and Helena Bonham-Carter) and Paul Reubens. Christopher Lee or Christopher Walken (or both) could also feature in there. Burton likes his horror vets. Frequently making appearances have been Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O'Hara, Winona Ryder, Glenn Shadix and Michael Gough (who Burton twice got out of retirement). In the early days, Michael Keaton filled the role that Depp fills now, with starring turns in Batman and Beetlejuice. Early Burton films also had a tendency to feature Danny De Vito, Jan Hooks and Jack Nicholson.
Hayao Miyazaki always taps Joe Hisaishi to do the soundtracks for his movies He also had a tendency in the 80's to cast Sumi Shimamoto for the lead roles in his films, but stopped that later on.
Say what? Darren Aronofsky is making a movie? Expect Clint Mansell to do the score, Matthew Libatique to be the cinematographer and Mark Margolis to appear in it.
When Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney got the idea to remake Ocean's Eleven, they went on to form a pretty tight A-List clique themselves. When a movie is directed, or at least produced by the two, it's pretty common to see Clooney, Matt Damon, or Brad Pitt starring opposite Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie or strangely enough, Cate Blanchett. Don Cheadle, David Strathairn, and Casey Affleck are commonly in supporting roles.
The Wachowski siblings have a stable of behind-the-scenes production folks that they use on every movie. Not so much for actors, but Hugo Weaving has started to become their go-to guy when they need a good actor. Yet, somehow, he was nowhere to be seen in Speed Racer. Huh.
Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Joe Cornish, Dylan Moran, Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding, Matt Berry, Rich Fulcher, Richard Ayoade and Matthew Holness. They often pop up in each other's various projects.
Simon Pegg is actually a member of another posse, which includes Mark Heap, Kevin Eldon, Julia Davis, Amelia Bullmore and Rebecca Front. Chris Morris is often leading charge. They've appeared in a number of works including Big Train, Jam, I'm Alan Partridge, Look Around You, Spaced, Brass Eye and Nighty Night. Don't be surprised to see other familiar British comedy faces, such as Catherine Tate and members of The League of Gentlemen popping up.
Any given Star Trek TV series is likely to share a significant portion of its crew with any other Star Trek series. Trek directors are especially likely to have started out as Trek actors. They also have a pool of actors that they like to pull from for recurring or one-shot characters, such that there are five actors who have played seven or more different Trek characters: Vaughn Armstrong (12 characters! 13, if you include that Mirror Universe character), Thomas Kopache (7), Jeffrey Combs (9), J.G. Hertzler (8), and Randy Oglesby (7). Joseph Ruskin's only got six, but he's got the distinction of having appeared in five Star Treks.
- Relatedly, a pizza trophy for the late Majel Barrett, the First Lady of Star Trek, who (unless the 2009 pre-boot gets a Spin-Off of its own) will go down in history as the only person to be involved in all seven versions of the franchise (TOS Nurse Chapel and pilot episode's Number One; TAS Lt. M'ress; TNG & DS9 Lwaxana Troi; TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, and ST2K9 Computer Voice).
- Star Trek The Animated Series had a low budget that led to it using the main actors as guest actors, so James "Scotty" Doohan and the aforementioned Majel Barrett voiced almost every guest character across the series' run.
- This happened even outside Star Trek. Gargoyles started with Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis as part of the main cast. By the end of the series, minor and recurring characters were voiced by Brent Spiner, Kate Mulgrew, Nichelle Nicols, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Avery Brooks, Colm Meaney, and some others.
  - And it happened again on 24. Former Star Trek: Enterprise showrunner Manny Coto joined their staff for Season 6; then Brannon Braga came onboard for Season 7. That same year they had Trip Tucker, Dr. Phlox and Worf's brother in various one- or two-shot guest roles (hapless dock guard, hapless scientist kidnapped by Tony and Sangalan tyrant General Juma, respectively). At least for Season 8 they branched out to some hotshot pilots...
Practically every Mitchell and Webb production includes Olivia Colman - best known as Sophie from Peep Show, which also stars Mitchell and Webb - and James Bachman.
See something made by Sam Raimi?
- Keep your eyes peeled for Bruce Campbell and Sam's own Oldsmobile Delta 88. Ted Raimi will usually have a cameo. Older brother Ivan used to co-write a lot of his screenplays as well. He's also cast Lucy Lawless in three different series now: Hercules and Xena (as Xena) and Spartacus; Blood and Sand. She also cameos in Spider-Man.
- And more often than not, Rob Tapert will handle producing duties.
- Josh Becker, who grew up with Sam, Bruce and co. and made Super8 Films with them in their teens worked on The Evil Dead Trilogy and Xena and has used the group in some capacity in all but one of his own Indie Films.
- Joseph LoDuca has scored the Evil Dead trilogy and many TV series Raimi and Tapert produced (Hercules, Xena, Jack Of All Trades, Cleopatra 2525 and Legend of the Seeker).
- And cinematography duties are usually handled by Bill Pope, but Raimi has returned to his DP from Evil Dead 2, Peter Deming from Drag Me to Hell and up.
The Coen Brothers
- Usually draw from the same posse of actors, such as John Goodman, Frances McDormad (Joel's wife), Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, George Clooney, John Turturro, Jon Polito and Billy Bob Thornton. And again Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell tends to show up in small parts. They also gave Jeff Bridges two starring roles.
- Carter Burwell and/or T Bone Burnett have done all their scores.
- Roger Deakins has done cinematography on every Coen film since Miller's Crossing other than Burn After Reading. Before that it was Barry Sodenfield for the first three films.
Many movies directed by Blake Edwards have soundtracks by Henry Mancini.
Monty Python members are known to appear in each others' movies, and in the works of Python-animator-turned-movie director Terry Gilliam. Like Jabberwocky, Brazil, Time Bandits, Yellowbeard and The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen.
Steven Spielberg has his Associated Composer in John Williams (except for The Color Purple and his segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie). He also uses the same editor (Michael Kahn), in all since Close Encounters except ET, and has the same cinematographer (Janusz Kamiński) since Schindler's List.
Robert Zemeckis often casts Tom Hanks, who he first worked with on Forrest Gump. Zemeckis has declared that Hanks is his "favorite actor" and that "there hasn't been a single situation where we didn't see eye to eye. Not one." In the olden days, he frequently found parts, however minor, for Marc McClure and Wendie Jo Sperber, who were among the leads of his first professional film I Wanna Hold Your Hand. Yes, they're Marty's brother and sister in Back to the Future. Alan Silvestri has scored every Zemeckis film since Romancing the Stone. He worked with cinematographer Dean Cundey from Romancing the Stone to Death Becomes Her and from there had Don Burgess as his DP from Forrest Gump up to Cast Away, after which he went to performance capture, with Burgess returning for Flight.
Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Raise the Red Lantern) worked for a long time with acclaimed actress Gong Li. Unfortunately, they broke up, and now he's adopted Ziyi Zhang (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as a muse instead.
John Woo used to work with Chow Yun-Fat a lot back in his Hong Kong days. About the only big Heroic Bloodshed movie he made in Hong Kong that didn't feature him was Bullet in the Head.
Movies featuring John Cusack will usually feature other Cusacks, as well as Jeremy Piven, a longtime friend.
In the early George Lucas days, it was rare that his films didn't include Harrison Ford. Ironically, he was not the first choice for any of his early roles.
Mel Brooks' movies were known for having Dom De Luise, Harvey Korman, Dick Van Patten, Gene Wilder, and Madeline Kahn, among others (for instance, Liam Dunn appeared in at least two of Brooks' movies).
John Waters regularly featured Divine, Edith Massey, and Mink Stole in many of his works.
Nowadays, if there's a work directed by JJ Abrams, there's secondarily Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman as writers and Michael Giacchino as the score composer. He tried to give Greg Grunberg (Parkman from Heroes) a role in every project he did for a while, whether it was major or just a cameo like LOST (his cameo in Star Trek is voice only); he's lessened this over time.
There is a lot of osmosis between Full House, Step by Step, and Family Matters; they had the same producers and the same lead vocalist for their theme songs.
- Bob Saget's comedy projects often include his Full House castmates, especially Dave Coulier, Candace Cameron Bure and Jodie Sweetin.
If it's a Pixar feature film, John Ratzenberger will have a voice role in it. And expect music by either Michael Giacchino, Randy Newman, or Randy's cousin Thomas Newman (Brave, scored by Patrick Doyle, is the only exception to date).
- When Pixar's John Lasseter supervised the dub of Spirited Away, he even brought over Ratzenberger as a participant due to his "good luck charm" status.
  - Joe Ranft did voices too, until his death.
- Pixar Animation Studios is one of the most close-knit group of artists in history: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Joe Ranft, Lee Unkrich, Bob Peterson and Brad Bird. Most of them were students together at Cal Arts in the late 70s. Each of the filmmakers display their unique vision, but all the filmmakers pitch in on each other's work during the process, no egos involved, for the purpose of creating the most entertaining and the most meaningful movies they possibly can.
- Before Pixar, the Disney Animated Canon has also had its common band of voice actors and composers, starting with the end of the Golden Age: Phil Harris, Eva Gabor, Sterling Holloway, George Lindsey, Alan Menkin, Randy Newman, and Cheech Marin.
Ron Howard often Co-produces with Brian Grazer. Also, expect Ron's brother Clint to show up at some point.
Any movie directed by Akira Kurosawa in the '50s and '60s could be expected to feature some combination of Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, and Minoru Chiaki. (Tatsuya Nakadai took Mifune's place in Kurosawa's later films, after Mifune and Kurosawa had a falling out in the mid '60s.) Part of this was the Toho studio system and Japan's relatively small pool of actors after World War II, but after a while Kurosawa started writing parts specifically for Mifune and Shimura.
Don't be surprised if you see Michael Biehn or Bill Paxton turn up in a James Cameron movie. Arnold Schwarzenegger is not uncommon to star (at least before he became The Governator). You'll probably find Lance Henriksen in it or possibly Sigourney Weaver. The score is most likely either done by Brad Fiedel or James Horner.
John Carpenter's famous collaboration with Kurt Russell, in Escape From New York, The Thing (1982) and Big Trouble in Little China. For the rest of the crew? He wrote, directed and often scored his own movies. Robert Rodriguez cited him as his major inspiration in that part. He even played the scores from Escape From New York and The Thing (1982) during the shoot of Planet Terror.
- John Carpenter has also repeatedly worked with Adrienne Barbeau (and was also married to her at one point), Keith David and Donald Pleasence.
  - In his early days he often collaborated with Debra Hill as writer/producer, Tommy Lee Wallace as production designer/editor and Nick Castle as a writer (he also played the original Michael Myers) and all his movies from Halloween 1978 to Big Trouble in Little China (minus Star Man and Christine) were shot by Dean Cundey and from then he's used Gary B. Kibbe on all except for Memories Of An Invisible Man.
If a movie is directed by Colin Nutley, Helena Bergstr�m (his wife) almost invariably plays the female lead.
Akiyuki Shinbo, the director for all of Studio Shaft's works, has a selection of voice actors that pop up time and time again. Hiroshi Kamiya, Chiwa Saitou and Miyuki Sawashiro are the ones most likely to show up.
Martin Scorsese and his go-to guys Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent, and these days, Leonardo DiCaprio. The editor of all of his movies since Raging Bull is Thelma Schoonmaker.
Guy Ritchie and his frequent producer (and now a director himself) Mathew Vaughn often use the same group of actors. Dexter Fletcher and Jason Flemyng have appeared in nearly every film either of them have done.
When Judd Apatow switched from TV to movies, he obviously kept the section of his old Rolodex with the "freaks" from Freaks And Geeks (Seth Rogen, James Franco and Jason Segel) and one of the "geeks" (Martin Starr). Linda Cardellini and Busy Phillips, not so much.
- Also from his second short lived series Undeclared Jay Baruchel and Carla Gallo.
  - Apatow's wife Leslie Mann has been in all four of his movies so far. Their two daughters in three.
Want to know who's going to star in Dan Schneider's next series? Similar to Disney Channel's series and movies just look to the recurring guest stars of the current one.
Guillermo Del Toro movies tend to have Ron Perlman, Luke Goss, and/or Doug Jones; Hellboy II featured all three of them in notable roles. The cinematography is usually done by Guillermo Navarro and Marco Beltrami scores most of his films.
Rob Zombie often uses the same actors in many of his films; usually the actors from one film will show up in the next. His wife, Sheri Moon, is in everything he's done.
Two well-known ones in Hong Kong cinema:
- The "Seven Little Fortunes", a subset of which are the "Three Brothers" - Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung (Martial Law), and Yuen Biao, and Yuen Wo-Ping (martial arts director for The Matrix and others), Yuen Wah and Yuen Qiu (Kung Fu Hustle) which started out as a Chinese opera troupe but gradually moved on to movies in the 70s, essentially defining Hongkong action cinema.
- They have a Spiritual Successor in a new "Brat Pack" of sorts, a stable of young talents including Edison Chen, Shawn Yue, Stephen Fung, Nicholas Tse, Cecilia Chung, Joey Yung, Gillian Chung and Charlene Choi (the last two even record albums under the name Twins). Sadly these kids are better known nowadays for Edison's scandal, wherein the people repairing his laptop went the extra mile to upload his Porn Stash on the internet - which included nude pics of some of the ladies.
Ed Wood and his posse: Dolores Fuller, Tor Johnson, Bela Lugosi, The Amazing Criswell, Bunny Breckinridge, Conrad Brooks, etc.
Kenneth Branagh films are likely to feature appearances by BRIAN BLESSED, Richard Briers, Geraldine MacEwan, Michael Maloney, and sometimes Derek Jacobi. Before Branagh and Emma Thompson divorced in 1995, she also played major roles in most of his films. Patrick Doyle usually does the music.
Spike Lee has a particularly large one. Members of it include his sister, and are all listed on his page on The Other Wiki. He also reuses crew members, such as cinematographer Ernest Dickerson.
The work of the "Black Pack" from the late 80's and mid 90's (Eddie Murphy, Robert Townsend, Arsenio Hall, Paul Mooney and Keenen Ivory Wayans).
All of David Cronenberg's films since The Brood (except for The Dead Zone) are scored by Howard Shore and he has worked with cinematographer Peter Suschitzky on all of his films since Dead Ringers (before that, his go to guy was Mark Irwin). Robert Silverman often shows up in a smaller role. Viggo Mortensen and Jeremy Irons are also frequent collaborators with him.
Saturday Night Live alumni tend to work together a lot, usually members of the same cast, however it has been cross-generational as well.
- Bill Murray, and Chevy Chase in Caddyshack. (The only time they've been in the same thing outside of SNL.)
- Murray and Dan Aykroyd in Ghostbusters which was also originally to star John Belushi and Eddie Murphy as well
- Aykroyd and Murphy in Trading Places
- Belushi and Aykroyd in Blues Brothers
- Aykroyd and Chase in Spies Like Us
- Murphy and Mike Myers in Shrek
- Tina Fey and Amy Poehler turn up together a lot.
  - Their respective Sitcoms, 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation, have featured their former SNL colleagues as Special Guests. Will Forte and Fred Armisen have appeared on both shows. Ironically, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have not themselves appeared on each other's shows.
  - While Fey has not appeared on Parks and Recreation, Amy Poehler has since appeared on a live episode of 30 Rock as a young Liz Lemon.
- Adam Sandler, David Spade, Chris Farley, Chris Rock, Rob Schnieder and Kevin Nealon, in any combination, can be found in a lot of films.
  - Sandler's Happy Madison production company is behind Spade's Rules Of Engagement, though Sandler has no credited involvement. In a What Could Have Been, a Sandler-executive produced pilot starring Norm MacDonald and Jon Lovitz was also produced.
- Dennis Miller has also been known to collaborate with his SNL co-stars. MacDonald appeared frequently on Dennis Miller Live and his current radio show.
Christopher Nolan has a noticable tendency to cast the same actors in different films. Michael Caine has appeared in his last 4 films. Christian Bale, Cillian Murphy, and Ken Watanabe have also had recurring roles. Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt appear to be the newest members; after Inception, all three have roles in The Dark Knight Rises.
- He does screenwriting with his brother Jonathan, his wife Emma Thomas will usually be producing, Wally Pfister will be doing cinematography, Lee Smith will be editing, either David Julyan or Hans Zimmer will be writing the score, and Chris Corbould will be on special effects.
If Tony Scott's making a new movie, then chances are Denzel Washington's not far behind. See Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, D�j� Vu, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and Unstoppable. Denzel also starred in American Gangster, made by Tony's brother Ridley Scott.
Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, The Princess Diaries) always includes a role for Hector Elizondo.
Ever since Gladiator, Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe frequently reunite.
If Robert Altman is directing a movie, Shelley Duvall, Lily Tomlin and/or Diane Lane can't be too far behind.
Ditto Hal Needham and Burt Reynolds, Dom De Luise and/or Jerry Reed.
BBS Productions in the late 60s and early 70s. For every film made by the company (with the exception of The Last Picture Show), the producer, director, writer and lead actor jobs were always filled by some combination of Bob Rafelson, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper and Henry Jaglom.
Toronto-based Nelvana Studio is prone to using the same actors and actresses in its productions, be they live-action or animation. Common talent includes/included Alyson Court, Tara Strong, Sunny Besen-Thrasher, Michael Fantini, Hadley Kay, Jim Henshaw, Billie Richards, and Cree Summer, among many, many others.
- Many animation studios often had their own stock company of voice actors. Hanna Barbera's productions usually had Daws Butler, Don Messick, John Stephenson, Janet Waldo, and Frank Welker among its regulars.
Funimation, while huge, always ALWAYS uses voice actors for the lead roles who had appeared in their previous titles. They do look for new meat, but anime dubbing is so specialized that they really have no choice to cast the same people for the lead roles. Their actors also direct, write, line produce, and sound mix their dubs!
Filmation productions often noticably featured characters voiced by Lou Schiemer, one of the company's co-founders, although he was usually either uncredited, or went by the name "Erik Gunden".*
Fat Albert fans will know him as the voice of Dumb Donald; Masters of the Universe fans will know him as King Randor, Orko, and others.
Other regulars included Lou's daughter Erika Schiemer, Jane Webb, John Erwin, Melendy Britt, Linda Gary, and the late George DiCenzo*
Perhaps better known as Sam Baines in Back to the Future
.
- During much of the 1980s, DIC tended to have Bettina (the title character in all of their Rainbow Brite productions), Scott Menville, Cree Summer, Danny Mann, Danny Wells, Jeannie Elias, character actress Marilyn Lightstone, and various other Canadian talents who also recorded voices for the aforementioned Nelvana.
Ingmar Bergman frequently worked with the "repertory company" of Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, Liv Ullman, Gunnar Bjornstrand and others, and almost always worked with cinematographer Sven Nykvist.
Koichi Mashimo frequently works with favorite seiyus Miyu Irino, Aya Hisakawa, Maaya Sakamoto among others. Musically he frequents the group Ali Project, and Yuki Kajiura. Also has his favorite screenwriters. In addition he always goes to the same studio for the art direction and in-betweening and completion work of his anime.
William Shakespeare had a stock company which included Richard Burbage (who generally played the leads) and Will Kemp (who played the comic roles). This is lampshaded in Hamlet where the actor playing Polonius is the same actor who originally played Julius Caesar (and therefore got stabbed again by Richard Burbage who played both Hamlet and Brutus).
During the 70s Mexican TV producer Roberto Gomez Bola�os (AKA: "Chespirito") used the same pool of actors on all of his shows, usually playing similar characters. This was particularly noticeable on El Chapul�n Colorado, which only had one regular character (El Chapulin, played by Bola�os himself) since any other characters in the show where played by actors from his other hit show, El Chavo del ocho (where they played regular characters.) They consisted of some combination of himself, Carlos Villagr�n, Ram�n Valdez, Florinda Meza, Mar�a Antonieta de las Nieves, Edgar Vivar, Ruben Aguirre, and (occasionally) his younger brother Horacio Gomez Bola�os.
Don Bluth was always followed by Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy, and the three had left Disney at the same time to start Bluth's independent animation studio. Among the actors normally cast, Dom De Luise was a regular, with Will Ryan not to far behind.
A Disney Channel Original Movie made these days will likely feature one, or more, or several stars from the channel's original series, and maybe similar directors or writers.
- Likewise, many of the Disney Channel's stars from a six or seven year period started as special guests in the period previous to it. Shows premiering around 2010 or 2011 (Shake It Up, A.N.T. Farm, Good Luck Charlie) largely star actors and actresses who had a guest role on Hannah Montana and/or Wizards of Waverly Place beforehand.
  - Selena Gomez started on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Hannah Montana prior to Wizards of Waverly Place. Before that, she was in a pilot for a Lizzie McGuire spinoff that never caught on as well as one for The Suite Life of Zack and Cody starring Arwin titled Arwin!.
- Miley Cyrus seems to the exception. Aside from a non-speaking Cameo in High School Musical 2, she never appeared in a Disney Channel Original Movie.
Every Matthew Vaugh movie has Jason Flemyng in it, is produced by Jane Goldman, probably has Dexter Fletcher, and there's a huge list of regular collaborators (including Guy Ritchie and Brad Pitt) at the other wiki
- And until X-Men: First Class, a score by Ilan Eshkeri.
Otto Preminger:
- Laura stars Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews became Preminger's favorite actors to cast at 20th Century-Fox. In the 1960s, Preminger brought them back for a minor role in one film each after their lives had deteriorated, Tierney in Advise and Consent and Andrews in In Harm's Way. Both those last two films also featured Burgess Meredith, who appeared in four other Preminger films.
- Character actor Gregory Ratoff was a good friend of Preminger from his earliest days working at 20th Century-Fox, and appeared in three films directed by Preminger; Preminger also played a small part in one film directed by Ratoff.
- Doro Merande played small parts in four Preminger films, and was also in several Broadway flops Preminger directed.
- More closely associated with Preminger than any actor was Saul Bass, who did promotional art and title sequences for most of Preminger's films (and a few plays) after he went independent.
- Max Slater, a friend of Preminger's since his years in Vienna, supervised the dialogue on most of Preminger's later films. His last name was Schulz, but he changed it to that of a character he liked in The Moon Is Blue.
Director James Mangold almost always has Cathy Konrad as producer, Phedon Papamichael as cinematographer and Arianne Phillips as costume designer. But he never used the same composer twice until The Wolverine (which reunites him with Marco Beltrami after 3:10 To Yuma).
In the early 1990's, it wasn't uncommon to see a Roger Corman production with Phedon Papamichael, Janusz Kaminski, Mauro Fiore and Wally Pfister all in the camera crew (usually with Papamichael as the main cinematographer). All four have gone on to respectable careers in the cinematography field.
Dan Schneider in the Nick Verse (Nickeldoeon shows iCarly, Victorious, Drake & Josh and Zoey 101) has certain actors having 3 or 4 different characters in the same shared universe. The main force behind this is that Dan reuses favoured actors as well as finding his future lead stars by casting them in guest or less than starring roles whilst they are younger, for example, Miranda Cosgrove having iCarly built around her through her work as Megan on Drake & Josh, with Nathan Kress being recruited for the show because of a one-shot guess character named Toplin; Jennette McCurdy's character Sam is based on a one episode character she played in Zoey101. Victoria Justice who was in Zoey 101 and iCarly before Victorious which was built around her when Dan identified her as a future star years earlier when she was on Zoey 101.
Lucky Mc Kee usually seems to have Angela Bettis as one of his actors (and when Bettis made her directorial debut, Mc Kee was the lead actor).
Rob Thomas's Party Down features Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, Ken Marino, and Ryan Hansen, all of whom appeared on Veronica Mars.
- It also featured a ton of other Veronica Mars stars and guest stars in the first season and a few in the second including Enrico Colantoni, Jason Dohring, and Alona Tal.
Justin Lin almost always has Sung Kang in one of his films (this would likely explain why Kang is the only actor from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift to appear in future installments).
Virtually every movie that David Lean ever directed featured Alec Guinness in a key secondary role (Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations, Fagin in Oliver Twist, Emir Feisal in Lawrence Of Arabia and quite a few others), with Guinness only starring in The Bridge on the River Kwai. The two men had a falling out eventually and the next movie Lean made, in which he deliberately did not cast Guinness, was his first critical and financial failure since he began working with Guinness, and so for the rest of Lean's life Guinness always had a role in Lean's films, albeit increasingly smaller ones. The two men never became friends again but Lean still considered Guinness his 'good luck charm.'
- With five Lean films to his credit, John Mills rivals Guinness as Lean's go-to actor. But Lean's earlier films generally feature many recurring actors: Celia Johnson, Kay Walsh (Mrs. David Lean for a time), Robert Newton, Stanley Holloway, Francis L. Sullivan, Joyce Carrey, Trevor Howard. Ann Todd also did three films with Lean during their brief marriage.
Quite a few movies that Tyler Perry directs and/or produces will have himself in a lead role, and also will have Tasha Smith, David Mann and Tamela Mann (the latter two are husband and wife).
Before he left the Church of Happyology in 2010, Paul Haggis usually had Michael Pena as one of his actors and Mark Isham as his composer (the latter two are active members).
Stu is usually accompanied by his girlfriend Jeanine Kasun, as well as writers/historians Mark Evanier, Earl Kress, and Jerry Beck.
Clive Doig's puzzle-based Edutainment shows for The BBC generally featured one or more of Janet Ellis, Sylvester McCoy, Mark Speight, Phillip Fox and Wilf Lunn.
Makoto Shinkai has not been involved in any project that does not have the name of composer Tenmon in it.
Along with Frank Capra and John Ford, the classic Hollywood director who had the most identifiable stock company was Preston Sturges. Such actors as Eric Blore, Al Bridge, Jimmy Conlin, Robert Grieg, Raymond Washburn, and most famously of all, William Demarest, appeared in most if not all of the movies Sturges directed for Paramount. He also directed Joel Mc Rea in three films and Eddie Bracken in two.
Voice director Jack Fletcher (known for Disney's early dubs of Ghibli films, the numbered Final Fantasy games, Tenchi Muyo! and more) seems to work frequently with certain actors, such as John DiMaggio, Sherry Lynn, Matt K. Miller, Debi Derryberry, Roger Jackson, and Dwight Schultz. The Animatrix got some attention from fans of Final Fantasy X because it featured the entire main cast from the game (the exceptions being Paula Tiso [Lulu] and Gregg Berger [Jecht]), as well as much of the supporting cast.
Voice acting in general is prone to this. While voice actors are generally freelancers, a lot of studios and casting directors tend to have their own little talent pool, though there is some overlap when it comes to popular and in-demand talent. For instance, while all three studios use Los Angeles-based actors, it's easy to distinguish a dub by New Generation Pictures from one by Bang Zoom! or PCB Productions.
The Sherlock Holmes movies are an attempt to enforce this trope. Around the time Game of Shadows came out, interviews with the director and the cast had them quoted saying they wanted to keep largely the same cast and crew for each movie in the series.
Every show created by Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere will usually feature most of or all of the actors of one of their previous shows. The most common ones being Kath Soucie, Pamela Adlon, April Winchell, Eddie Deezen, Justin Shenkarow, E.G. Daily, Ashley Johnson, Anndi McAffee, Tress MacNeille, and many more.
Joe Wright has directed Keira Knightley in 3 out the 5 films he's made (the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Atonement and the upcoming adaptation of Anna Karenina) and in a commercial for Chanel's 'Coco Mademoiselle' perfume.
Joe Dante films all notably have an appearance by actor Dick Miller, with Kevin McCarthy appearing in several as well. Jerry Goldsmith scored every single Dante film from 1983 onwards up until his death.
Craig McCracken has had 3 animated shows (one of which hasn't aired yet), he tends to use some of the same voice actors, often casting them in roles different from the other shows of his they've appeared on. These actors include Tom Kenny, Tara Strong, Tom Kane and Keith Ferguson. Grey DeLisle and Phil LaMarr, while regulars on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, had done voices at some point in The Powerpuff Girls.
Along with some of the Star Trek examples mentioned above, Greg Weisman often tends to bring back some of the actors from Gargoyles in bit or main characters as well as reusing actors he started working with after Gargoyles. This includes Thom Adcox-Hernandez, Jeff Bennett, Edward Asner, Dee Bradley Baker, Cree Summer, Vanessa Marshall, Bill Fagerbakke, Clancy Brown, Steve Blum, and Keith David, among others.
Every series that Tom Ruegger and Steven Spielberg collaborated on in the 90s seemed to have some combination of these voice actors: Tress MacNeille, Rob Paulsen, Maurice Lamarche, Frank Welker, Paul Rugg, Cree Summer
- Julie Brown was a guest on one episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, and later became a regular on Animaniacs.
- Tom Ruegger also cast his son Nathan in three of his series.
Sam Peckinpah had a "stock company" to rival John Ford: Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones, R.G. Armstrong, John Davis Chandler, David Warner, Slim Pickens, Cassie Yates, Aurora Clavell to name the most frequently occurring. He also frequently worked with cinematographer Lucien Ballard and composer Jerry Fielding.
David O Russell has begun to form a production posse so far consisting of Jennifer Lawrence, Christian Bale,Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro.
In music, EVERY RAP GROUP, CREW OR LABEL EVER. Every solo album one member does, you can almost guarantee the others won't be far behind. This is particularly prevalent in the somewhat self-insular rap groups the Wu Tang Clan and Odd Future.
- and Young Money. Any album by any member of YMCMB is probably going to have at least another member of the team on it somewhere (and there are several). Being the labels' founding musicians, chances are any YMCMB album will have some sort of vocal involvement from either Birdman or Lil Wayne.
  - Or Drake or Nicki Minaj. The three of them along with Wayne make up YMCMB's Power Trio, and are the three most well-known members, so this is a Justified Trope to some extent.
- GOOD Music, Kanye West's clique and label, does this as well - chances are any album the label releases will have involvement either in production or in vocals from Kanye himself, a hook from The-Dream, and features from any artist on the roster.
  - Kanye himself. Most stuff he's done since the start of his career has involved Common, John Legend, Malik Yusuf, Mos Def and Jay-Z somewhere along the line. He also gained his childhood friends Really Doe and GLC considerable exposure, along with his cousin Tony Williams. These days, if Kanye has a new album out, you can usually expect any (or indeed all) of these artists to be in hot pursuit - anyone mentioned above, Kid Cudi, Raekwon, The-Dream, Jay-Z, anyone not mentioned who is signed to GOOD Music, Talib Kweli, La Roux and Rihanna.
Brad Paisley, a current country music star with a very healthy respect for country music's history and traditions, seems to not only include the likes of Little Jimmy Dickens, Dolly Parton, Bill Anderson, the late Buck Owens, George Jones and Bill Anderson in his music videos and album tracks, but they seem to show up often at Brad's public appearances, too, including award shows. Non-country music celebrities Brad's been known to pal with include Jason Alexander, William Shatner and his wife, actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley.
Any time Bob Hope and Bing Crosby would hit the Road, Dorothy Lamour would invariably be along for the ride. Subsequent Bob Hope movies tended to feature Bing Crosby in a cameo, sometimes stealing the girl away from Bob at the last minute. Jerry Colonna appeared in some of the Road to ... movies, as well as some other Bob Hope projects. Lampshaded in the theme from "Road to Morocco":
Where they're going, why we're going, how can we be sure?
I'll lay you eight to five that we'll meet Dorothy Lamour.