Casting/recasting that helped "shape" the movie world.

[Aragorn]

So the title of this thread is a bit melodramatic, but decisions to cast or not cast certain actors in movies does have an effect on how we now view those movies as well as the actors' own careers. I'm going to stick with roles we know were originally offered to other actors instead of speculation. For example, I read somewhere that they wanted Al Pacino and Brad Pitt for Crimson Tide, but who knows if that was just in the pre-casting stage or if they were actually offered the parts.

For example, Dougray Scott had been cast as Wolverine but had to pull out due to an injury on another movie. Enter Hugh Jackman. Would Scott be a star now? Would we ever have heard of Jackman?

Would Cylops have been nonexistant in X2 and uncerimoniously dumped in X3 if it had been Jim Caviezel instead of James Marsden?

Stuart Townsend actually started filming as Aragorn on Lord of the Rings but the director pulled the plug on him and replaced him with Viggo Mortensen. That definitely helped Mortensen's career while Townsend never became the star he was projected to be. How would the fans have taken to a young, emo Aragorn?

Would Charlie Sheen still have a movie career if he hadn't turned down three roles that went to Woody Harrelson (White Men Can't Jump, Indecent Proposal, The Cowboy Way)?

Kevin Costner turned down Jack Ryan in The Hunt For Red October to make some movie about buffalos. Of course, that turned out to be Alec Baldwin's peak as he turned down Patriot Games and made bad movie after bad movie. Would Costner have continued making Jack Ryan movies, meaning no Harrison Ford?

And speaking of Harrison Ford, everyone knows Tom Selleck couldn't play Indiana Jones because of his Magnum P.I. commitment. Would Selleck have turned into an international movie star or would the Indy franchise not even be a franchise?

Would Pierce Brosnan have revitalized Bond with The Living Daylights or would have have also sunk and someone else would be getting the glory for Goldeneye?

How would The Matrix have been with Will Smith and Sean Connery?

Other web sites say Molly Ringwald turned down Pretty Woman, Ghost and Scream, and we all know where her career is now. Of course, her fame had already been slipping, so she could've also sank those movies.

Would you say Any Given Sunday was where people first started to take Jamie Foxx as a serious actor? He fought hard for the part, but only got it because Puff Daddy threw like a girl.

Would The Godfather Part III be viewed any differently if it had been Winona Ryder instead of Sofia Coppola?

The Fabulous Baker Boys were played by Jeff and Beau Bridges because Dennis and Randy Quaid said no.

Eric Stoltz had filmed quite a bit of Back to the Future before it was decided Michael J. Fox would be better for the role.

 

[ladyheather69]

What about Christopher Walken as Han Solo? Granted he has a very well received career as does Harrison Ford... now. But i think Walken would have changed the 'tone' of the character of Han Solo.

 

[JonathonWally]

What about Christopher Walken as Han Solo? Granted he has a very well received career as does Harrison Ford... now. But i think Walken would have changed the 'tone' of the character of Han Solo.

"Fast..SHIP?...You've never HEARD of the millenIUM..FALcon?




It's hard to do his voice in type.

 

[Christopher]

I was going to mention Casablanca with Ronald Reagan, but it turns out he wasn't actually offered the part.

 

[Aragorn]

^ Yeah, there's a lot of false casting rumors floating around, like Chuck Norris being offered the bad guy role in The Karate Kid.

 

[Nerys Myk]

And speaking of Harrison Ford, everyone knows Tom Selleck couldn't play Indiana Jones because of his Magnum P.I. commitment. Would Selleck have turned into an international movie star or would the Indy franchise not even be a franchise?

I'm not sure Indy would have been a big with Selleck. Selleck would probly continue a TV star who makes movies.

 

[Casi]

I would mention that this is very true of TV too. If anyone has seen the unaired pilot of Buffy without Alyson Hannigan as Willow you'll know what I mean. That show has been a corner stone of my life for years now, but I really don't think I would have watched it with the original Willow. The show might have even failed a lot earlier and tv would have never gotten all that great influence (which we can still see so clearly in a lot of the newer shows that are coming out lately).

 

[T'Baio]

For example, Dougray Scott had been cast as Wolverine but had to pull out due to an injury on another movie. Enter Hugh Jackman. Would Scott be a star now? Would we ever have heard of Jackman?

Actually, Dougray Scott had to pull out because he was committed to re-shoots on Mission: Impossible II, and they went over schedule.

And thank God, for that, I must say.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

What would Sean Young's career have looked like had she not fallen from a horse and broken her arm while filming Batman (leading to her being replaced in the role of Vicki Vale by Kim Basinger) and then gone bugfuck nuts trying to land the role of Catwoman in Batman Returns?

 

[Captaindemotion]

Had Eon studios the money, they would probably have opted for Cary Grant (creator Ian Fleming's first choice) or James Mason to play James Bond. They offered the role to Patrick McGoohan, but he disapproved of the sexual nature of 007 and turned it down. Enter a little known Scottish former milkman and bodybuilder, with very un-Bondian tattoos on his hairy forearms, but one who would soon become the definitive incarnation of the world's most famous superspy.

Around the same period, director David Lean spent spent a fortune in preparing Albert Finney to play Lawrence of Arabia, with test shoots, costume fittings etc. Only for Mr F to get cold feet and walk away, thus allowing Peter O'Toole to become a star.

Terence Stamp played the title role in a stage version of Alfie, which was a resounding flop. Asked to reprise the role for a movie version, he asked why he would want to go through that again. His former flatmate, Michael Caine, had no qualms about the role and thus landed one of his defining roles (some would play he's played it in almost every role since ...)

Sylvester Stallone was offered $$$$ galore for his script to Rocky, but was offered $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ more, if he agreed to let the studio cast Burt Reynolds in the lead role. Proving he's not as stupid as he looks, Sly pointed out that no-one would buy the world's biggest box office draw as a down on his luck palooka and held out to play the role himself. We all know the rest. We may not also know that Sly's other signature role, John Rambo, was first offered to the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Steve McQueen and John Travolta before him (the adaptation of David Morrell's First Blood novel having been kicking around Hollywood for the better part of a decade).

Paul Newman only landed the lead in Somebody Up There Likes Me because James Dean died in an accident (and hopefully went 'Up There' ...). Steve McQueen, who had a small role opposite Newman in SUTLM) was supposed to co-star with Newman in Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid but couldn't agree billing with Newman, so Robert Redford scooped the role and became a star. Redford, in turn, was the first choice to play Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate (BB in the novel is physically like the former Sundance Kid) but again, someone felt that no-one would believe him as an awkward, sexually inexperienced nerd, so the 30 year old Dustin Hoffman was sent on the road to stardom as the teenager.

The Godfather could have had Lawrence Olivier, Edward G Robinson or Burt Lancaster as the Don, opposite Redford, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Martin Sheen or Ryan O'Neal as Michael. James Caan auditioned for just about every role in the movie, while Robert DeNiro makes for a borderline psychotic Sonny in his audition (included on the DVD).

Some of the same names turn up for Superman The Movie, with Caan, Redford, Beatty, Reynolds and others (wisely) turning down the title role, while Dustin Hoffman was at one time supposed to play Luthor. Of course, we saw a near re-run of this over the last decade, with Nic Cage, Paul Walker, Jude Law, Josh Hartnett, Brendan Fraser, Henry Cavill and many others linked to the Role of Steel, befor another unknown was cast.

Other 'WTF?' casting that almost was - either John Wayne or Frank Sinatra as Dirty Harry. Richard Gere as John McClane in Die Hard (I shit you not), though had the original novel (Nothing Lasts Forever) been filmed as a sequel to its predecessor The Detective, it would have starred Sinatra, as he played the lead in in the movie of The Detective. DH was also mooted as a vehicle for Clint Eastwood in the early 1980s and a sequel to Arnie's Commando. Die Hard 3 started off as a spec script and was at one stage to be a Lethal Weapon 4.

Bruce Willis' role in Pulp Fiction was originally written for Matt Dillon, while Michael Madsen famously turned down the role of Vincent Vega (who is supposed to be the brother of his Reservoir Dogs' character Vic) to make Wyatt Earp, allowing John Travolta to rise from the dead. Samuel L. Jackson nearly blew his audition for that movie by treating it as a read-through (thinking he already had the gig) and would have lost out to Lawrence Fishburne, until his agents secured him a second chance.

Harvey Keitel was sacked from Apocalypse Now and made way for Martin Sheen. The main roles in that movie had already been offered to the likes of McQueen and Pacino before Brando and Keitel were cast.

Hard to imagine Jerry Maguire played by Tom Hanks, but when the script was written a decade earlier, that's who Cameron Crowe had in mind. Hanks was too old when the movie was filmed, so that other Cruise got arguably his best role to date. Crowe almost filmed Almost Famous with Brad Pitt as the guitarist in Stillwater, but as Pitt backed out at the last minute, the genuinely-almost-famous Billy Crudup replaced the Really Famous actor.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

What about Christopher Walken as Han Solo? Granted he has a very well received career as does Harrison Ford... now. But i think Walken would have changed the 'tone' of the character of Han Solo.

"Fast..SHIP?...You've never HEARD of the millenIUM..FALcon?




It's hard to do his voice in type.

I've got the voice in my head now, that's all that matters.

 

[Christopher]

Dustin Hoffman as Rambo? That would've been a lot more interesting than what we got. It would probably have made First Blood truer to the novel, which was a tragic anti-war story, and we sure wouldn't have gotten the jingoistic caricature that was Rambo: First Blood Part II. And an archetype would never have entered popular culture, which might have been for the better.

On Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, I find it deeply ironic that Paul Newman looks nothing like the real Butch Cassidy whereas Charles Dierkop, who had a tiny role in the film as a member of Butch's gang, looked uncannily like the real Butch. What might it have done for Dierkop's career if the filmmakers had been more concerned with historical accuracy? Maybe he'd be known as more than just the guy who was in love with the murdered belly dancer in the Jack the Ripper episode of Star Trek.

 

[JonathonWally]

Dustin Hoffman as Rambo? That would've been a lot more interesting than what we got.

No. it wouldn't have. Stallone is Rambo.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Dustin Hoffman was also attached to star in Blade Runner and spent quite a bit of time with the producers and screenwriters developing the project. But he wanted to take it much further afield from the novel than the producers were willing to (in particular he was very interested in cryogenics and wanted to make that a focal point of the film), so he left the project (thank God!).

Also, Beverly Hills Cop was initially developed for Sylvester Stallone as a gritty action film. When Stallone decided not to do it, it was turned into an action comedy vehicle for Eddie Murphy.

 

[Aragorn]

Chris O'Donnell said in an interview that when he signed onto Batman Forever, Michael Keaton was Batman and Robin Williams was Riddler. I also read somewhere that Rene Russo would've been the love interest for Keaton, but once Batman became Kilmer they needed someone younger.

 

[captcalhoun]

Marlon Wayans tried out for Robin in Batman Forever. Imagine the outcrry that would've caused. and maybe he might not have been derided for a series of crappy ass comedies with his brother(s) if it had worked.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

Old school: George Raft famously passed on what would be Bogart's two greatest roles-- Casablanca and the Maltese Falcon. (Though in Casablanca's case, it may be apocryphal.)

New school: Robin Williams was considered for the Joker in The Dark Knight.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Marlon Wayans tried out for Robin in Batman Forever. Imagine the outcrry that would've caused. and maybe he might not have been derided for a series of crappy ass comedies with his brother(s) if it had worked.

It wasn't Batman Forever. It was actually Batman Returns. Wayans was cast and paid for a role that ultimately never made it to the screen.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I wonder if Will Smith would now be such a megastar if Bad Boys had been a vehicle for Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz (as originally conceived), if Chris O'Donnell or David Schwimmer had had his role in Men in Black (they were offered it before him) or if I Am Legend had been filmed in the 1990s with Arnie, as was once the plan.

OTOH, Mr Fresh Prince also turned down Neo in The Matrix, as did Brad Pitt and Ewan McGregor ...

 

[Aragorn]

I read somewhere a while back where Arnold Schwarzenegger was thinking about doing So I Married an Axe Murderer. While the movie had no bearing on Mike Myers' career and wouldn't have affected Arnold's career, it would've been interesting to see how the movie would've turned out starring him.