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What if a different actor would have taken the role?

post #1 of 162
2/4/08 at 8:18pm
Thread Starter 
I'm wondering what movies would have been worse, the same or better if another actor/actress who was originally offered the role had taken it.

Movies I can think of right now...

Will Smith was offered the role of Neo in The Matrix. I have to admit I think I might have liked him just as much or a little more than Keanu Reeves. It would have been a much different character but I like Will Smith a lot better and think he could have pulled off a badass version of Neo.

Tom Hanks was offered the role of Lester Burnham in American Beauty. As much as I love Tom Hanks I'm glad that it went to Kevin Spacey. He was terrific in it.

Tom Selleck was offered the role of Indiana Jones. Again, I'm really happy he didn't get the role since no one could have replaced Harrison Ford, IMO.

Arnold/Sylvestor Stallone were originally cast in Face/Off. I thought Nicolas Cage and John Travolta were really good in it but come on... I would have taken Arnold and Stallone over those two, easily just to see them in a movie together.

That's all I can think of right now. What do you think of the people I just mentioned and who else/what other movies can you think of?
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post #2 of 162
2/4/08 at 8:35pm
Apparently Ball wrote American Beauty for Chevy Chase, who ordered his agents to never bring him anything like that again after reading it.
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post #3 of 162
2/4/08 at 8:40pm
Stallone in WITNESS would have been interesting. Not better than Ford, but he might have been able to pull if off.
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post #4 of 162
2/4/08 at 8:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Upgrayedd View Post
Will Smith was offered the role of Neo in The Matrix. I have to admit I think I might have liked him just as much or a little more than Keanu Reeves. It would have been a much different character but I like Will Smith a lot better and think he could have pulled off a badass version of Neo.
And Val Kilmer was apparently offered the role of Morpheus. Though I love Fishbourne and Reeves in there parts in the Matrix, Kilmer and Smith would have made an even better duo for me. Kilmer would be great in anything actually.
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post #5 of 162
2/4/08 at 8:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
Apparently Ball wrote American Beauty for Chevy Chase, who ordered his agents to never bring him anything like that again after reading it.
I just got an image of Clark Griswold shaking a pissed-on baloney sandwich at a naked, rose-petal-covered Mena Suvari.
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post #6 of 162
2/4/08 at 8:58pm
Don't know what role he was offered (Mr. White?), but James Woods learned from Tarantino a year after the fact that Woods' agent passed on Reservoir Dogs. Woods fired the agent.

Tom Mankiewicz wrote a script for Batman in 1981 that was supposed to star Bill Murray.

Alec Baldwin lamented in interviews around 1991 that Burton didn't ask him to play Batman.
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post #7 of 162
2/4/08 at 8:58pm
Tarantino wanted James Woods in Reservoir Dogs but Woods' agent didn't bother to give him the script (and was summarily fired).

Harvey Keitel as Willard in Apocalypse Now would have been interesting to see.

Wasn't Ewan McGregor up for Neo too?
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post #8 of 162
2/4/08 at 9:01pm
I thought I read that Woods was wanted for Mr. Orange, which is probably the last character I could envision Woods playing.

Even though Willis is McClane, I do grin a bit whenever I hear that Burt Reynolds was offered the part. Would have been closer to the character in the book.
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post #9 of 162
2/4/08 at 9:02pm
Burt Reynolds as Brent in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, with Orson Welles as General Ursus. Prognosis: 1000 times more awesome.
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post #10 of 162
2/4/08 at 9:06pm
Michelle Pfieffer as Clarice Starling and Gene Hackman as Hannibal Lector would have been interesting. As iconic as Hopkins was, Hackman would have nailed the banality of evil with Lector a lot better, I think. Much like Brian Cox did.
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post #11 of 162
2/4/08 at 9:13pm
Oh, Lector isn't banal.

The Humphrey Bogart roles in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca were originally offered to the now-forgotten George Raft. Bad decision, Raft.
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post #12 of 162
2/4/08 at 9:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti View Post
Even though Willis is McClane, I do grin a bit whenever I hear that Burt Reynolds was offered the part. Would have been closer to the character in the book.
Norm MacDonald's gum-chewing lampoon/impression of Burt as McClane would have been even more classic.
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post #13 of 162
2/4/08 at 9:22pm
I read somewhere on these boards that Stuck on You was originally written for Woody Allen and Jim Carey. Allen was up for it as well. I would want to see that movie more than anything else in the world...
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post #14 of 162
2/4/08 at 9:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 View Post
Norm MacDonald's gum-chewing lampoon/impression of Burt as McClane would have been even more classic.
"Yeah, so um, am I gonna drive a car in this thing?"
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post #15 of 162
2/4/08 at 9:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Jim Slade View Post
Wasn't Ewan McGregor up for Neo too?
Hadn't heard that, would have been a weird choice.

The part was originally written for Johnny Depp, apparently. That was a very early version of course, I don't think Depp was ever even actually approached, so it's hard to imagine how different it might have been. The amount of dialogue that got moved from one character to another from the earliest drafts I've seen changes things as dramatically as any casting could have (I assume because of the eventual casting, in fact).

I can't really imagine it, personally.
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post #16 of 162
2/4/08 at 9:46pm
Bronson as Superman!

"What color is my underwear?"

"IT IS BLACK."

"No. Try again."

"IT IS WHITE."

"No, sorry."

"DIS AIN'T OVER."
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post #17 of 162
2/4/08 at 10:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Upgrayedd View Post
Tom Hanks was offered the role of Lester Burnham in American Beauty. As much as I love Tom Hanks I'm glad that it went to Kevin Spacey. He was terrific in it.
I don't think I could've recovered from the image of Tom Hanks jerkin off in the shower. I would've been scarred for life at 16.

Now I wonder what it would've been like had Chris Cooper been Gordon or had Brian Cox continued playing Lecter.
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post #18 of 162
2/4/08 at 10:40pm
Connery as Gandalf would've been a train wreck.
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post #19 of 162
2/4/08 at 10:42pm
I'd still have been there, front row center, on opening night of "Superman Lives," starring Nicolas Cage. It'd have been an otherwise empty theater, but fuck audiences.
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post #20 of 162
2/5/08 at 12:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Devildoubt View Post
Connery as Gandalf would've been a train wreck.
He's got Burt Reynolds syndrome: He would have made the film, told the press it was a piece of shit, and then signed up for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
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post #21 of 162
2/5/08 at 12:52am
I really enjoy Carrey in the role, but I would love to see Edward Norton's Andy Kaufman. He looked a hell of a lot more like Kaufman too, not that that matters so much.
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post #22 of 162
2/5/08 at 5:28am
Daniel Day Lewis fought for the role of Vince Vega in Pulp Fiction (only time he's actively gone after a part), but it had already been given to Travolta. I would kill to see his take on it.
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post #23 of 162
2/5/08 at 8:32am
Brandon Lee would have made an excellent Neo.
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post #24 of 162
2/5/08 at 8:39am
I swill never get over the fact that the people behind Ghost were desperate to get PAUL HOGAN as the lead.
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post #25 of 162
2/5/08 at 9:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti View Post
Stallone in WITNESS would have been interesting. Not better than Ford, but he might have been able to pull if off.
I think I read somewhere that WITNESS was originally intended for Jack Nicholson. Glad it went to Ford.

On the subject of Harrison Ford, apparently Air Force One was originally a Kevin Costner vehicle.

Moltisanti probably already knows this, but decades before Double Team was retooled for Van Damme and Rodman, it was originally written for Newman and Redford. The only concepts that survived from that original draft and made it to the screen were the basketball parachute and the nuclear blast survival via coke machine.
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post #26 of 162
2/5/08 at 10:40am

the ultimate variation

Chris Walken as Han Solo. The mind boggles.

"You’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon? Amazing … It’s the ship that made the Kessel run in less than, like, 12 parsecs.”

"Chewie, why don't you...go and get the.... ship ready...."

I can't wait for the day when there's a computer program that can remake a movie with your own cast. That's the first one I'm plugging in. I want this program more than a flying car.
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post #27 of 162
2/5/08 at 10:56am
Burt Reynolds as James Bond in Live & Let Die. What the fuck, Cubby!?!

Bob Hoskins as Capone in The Untouchables. I could see it, but thank God De Palma got De Niro instead!

Robert England as Luke Skywalker. Can't think of a casting choice any weirder than that.

Michael Ironside as Robocop.
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post #28 of 162
2/5/08 at 11:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti View Post
I thought I read that Woods was wanted for Mr. Orange, which is probably the last character I could envision Woods playing.
I could imagine Woods taking on Mr. White, which is what I assumed you meant, but Mr. Orange? No way. There's no one else I can even imagine in that role other than Tim Roth. He owned that.

I guess this is pretty well known, but in a documentary about the making of Gone With the Wind, pretty much every actress in Hollywood went after the role of Scarlett. Among them, Lucille Ball, Bette Davis, and nearly getting the part before Vivien Leigh got it in a last minute upset, Paulette Goddard. But Goddard aside, it's Lucille Ball who boggles the mind, even though back at that time, she wasn't a huge star or even known as a comedienne. At the time of GWTW, she was still pretty much "third chorus girl from the left" in the roles she'd done at that time - so in addition to not even being nearly ready to take on a role like that, she also didn't have the star power to be case opposite Clark Gable.
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post #29 of 162
2/5/08 at 11:08am
John Candy as Louis Tully would have been interesting...
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post #30 of 162
2/5/08 at 11:13am
Kurt Russell as Han Solo/William Katt as Luke.

O.J. Simpson as The Terminator. Or Lance Henricksen as the Terminator, with Schwarzenegger as Reese.

John Belushi as Peter Venkman.
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post #31 of 162
2/5/08 at 12:22pm
Terri Nunn, former lead singer of Berlin, was one of the finalists for Princess Leia. That takes my breath away.
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post #32 of 162
2/5/08 at 12:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Jim Slade View Post
John Belushi as Peter Venkman.
That would've been horrible. Murray played that role perfectly...Belushi would've been far more sleazy.
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post #33 of 162
2/5/08 at 1:46pm
Dustin Hoffman as Deckard. Only to see how it would've played out.
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post #34 of 162
2/5/08 at 1:50pm
Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Al Pacino, or Dustin Hoffman as John Rambo.
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post #35 of 162
2/5/08 at 1:56pm
Hoffman as Rambo?! That would've been some surreal shit right there.
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post #36 of 162
2/5/08 at 2:02pm
Ever hear about Clint Eastwood as Two-Face on the Adam West Batman show?

Quote:
Originally Posted by DC's wiki
Clint Eastwood was proposed to play him at one time, as a former news-anchor who became disfigured when a television exploded in his face.
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post #37 of 162
2/5/08 at 2:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Devildoubt View Post
That would've been horrible. Murray played that role perfectly...Belushi would've been far more sleazy.
To be fair Ghostbusters would have been a completly different movie had Belushi not died and Eddie Murphy and John Candy not passed on the roles. So he might have worked.

And Connery was offered Morpheus too wasn't he?
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post #38 of 162
2/5/08 at 2:36pm
Eddie Murphy as Winston Zeddemore wouldn't have worked. As hot as he was at the time, the three funny guys and a straight guy formula worked so well for that movie. It would have been like adding unneeded improvisations to a perfectly told joke.
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post #39 of 162
2/5/08 at 2:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LisaNY View Post
so in addition to not even being nearly ready to take on a role like that, she also didn't have the star power to be case opposite Clark Gable.
To be honest, there are very few in the world who can.
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post #40 of 162
2/5/08 at 2:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti View Post
Even though Willis is McClane, I do grin a bit whenever I hear that Burt Reynolds was offered the part. Would have been closer to the character in the book.
Not if Die Hard had become the sequel to Commando as originally intended.

"Hey, Haaans, remembah when I said I'd kill you laaast? Well, Yippie-kay-yay, mistah falcon!"

Also, screencredits dodged: "John Gavin is James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever", "James Brolin is James Bond in For Your Eyes Only" and "Sam Neill is James Bond in The Living Daylights".
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post #41 of 162
2/5/08 at 2:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Ever hear about Clint Eastwood as Two-Face on the Adam West Batman show?
While a young Eastwood would've certainly fit the bill to play Dent, that would've been horrendous to see.
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post #42 of 162
2/5/08 at 6:22pm
Day-Lewis as Aragorn: that would have totally rocked. I like Viggo, but frankly his voice is all wrong. Far too high pitched and nasally. And DDL would have brought even more gravitas to the role.

Speaking of Connery's role choice stupidity, he was also offered the role of Morpheus in The Matrix. Turned it down for the same reason that he turned down Gandalf: he "didn't understand it."

I suppose I could conceptually empathize with not getting The Matrix on paper; but how the fuck do you not "understand" Lord of the Rings? But I am glad he passed on both roles; he might have been a passingly good Morpheus, but Fishburne and McKellan owned the roles, not the least because they could disappear into them.
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post #43 of 162
2/5/08 at 6:36pm
Stallone as Axel Foley

Schwarzenegger as Robocop

Day-Lewis as Casey Ryback
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post #44 of 162
2/5/08 at 6:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Tom Mankiewicz wrote a script for Batman in 1981 that was supposed to star Bill Murray.
Actually, those were different projects. According to Superman vs Hollywood, Manciewicz's Batman was a straight, dark, somber affair that the studio passed on because they didn't think the audience would go for a superhero movie that wasn't fun. One of the ideas they toyed with after they passed on Manciewicz was making it a comedy with Bill Murray, and Eddie Murphy as Robin. And apparently, Stallone was bugging them to give him the project. Of course, Tim Burton and John Peters eventually proved Mankiewicz right.

One of the great things in that book, coincidentally, is the litany of actors who were being interviewed and pursued for the role of Superman. Warren Beatty actually tried wearing a Superman suit, and said that he felt too silly. They really, really wanted Robert Redford.

And on the subject of Eddie Murphy, there was a part being written into Star Trek IV for him (at his request...he's a big Trek fan), as a guy who keeps trying to tell everyone that there are people from the future wandering around San Francisco, but nobody will believe him. It didn't work out, obviously.
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post #45 of 162
2/5/08 at 6:59pm
I recall James Caan talking about being offered Superman in the 70's, and that Brando even called and tried to convince him to do it.
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post #46 of 162
2/5/08 at 7:01pm
Nick Nolte was in serious contention as well.

Stockard Channing was this close to getting Lois Lane. Her screen test is on the DVD, and personally, I thought she was great. In the end, they felt that her Lois was so strong that she'd chew up Reeve's Clark. I'd love to have seen her in that part, though.
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post #47 of 162
2/5/08 at 7:07pm
But then we wouldn't have gotten the treasure trove of Margot Kidder performances over the past thirty years.
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post #48 of 162
2/5/08 at 7:07pm
And on the subject of Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones, I think it's easy to say that he couldn't have replaced Harrison Ford, but that's because we got Harrison Ford. Like Belushi in Ghostbusters, I think that Selleck would have just made Indy a different character. If our memory of Indy were of Selleck, I think the thought of Ford in the role would be equally unthinkable. One can only imagine the divergence in career trajectories for the two of them after that.
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post #49 of 162
2/5/08 at 7:10pm
I've always thought Selleck would have made a good Indy. It has nothing to do with what Ford did with the role, Selleck just has a similar likeability to him.
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post #50 of 162
2/5/08 at 7:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Fordyce View Post
But then we wouldn't have gotten the treasure trove of Margot Kidder performances over the past thirty years.
It's interesting to note that based solely the success of The Amityville Horror, Kidder was more successful post-Superman than Reeve. Other than that, those roles didn't do much for either of them.
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