Here's a news flash: most movies take a long time to make. Things that seem to be indisputable elements of a final film may arise at the end of unseen hours of toil, indecision, mass layoffs and complete reboots from scratch. Casting is a notoriously malleable part of film production, and many roles that seem like perfect fits to the movie-going public are really accidents of chance that could have gone a zillion other ways. What's more, many very famous films have unknown histories in which their choice parts almost went to someone else, for better or worse. Some of these are well known: Eric Stoltz is probably as famous for not getting cast as Marty McFly as anything else, and Tom Selleck's not entirely terrible Indiana Jones is the stuff of what-if legend.
Why do we care about the road not taken when it comes to movies? Isn't it water under the bridge by the time it gets to us anyway? Well, yes, but in some cases it's absolutely heartbreaking what might have been, and keeping these missed opportunities in our hearts is the only way to acknowledge some great performances we will never see. In other cases, we hear that, say, Nicholas Cage could have been Superman, and shiver at the very thought, thanking the Gods for being merciful. But the main reason we revel in such trivia (aside from the fact that it distracts us from real problems, of course) is that it helps us remember how complicated making anything as big as a feature film really us. Also, it gives us a great excuse to dick around in Photoshop. Of course, sometimes the right actor enters the audition with a heavenly beam of light around them and that's that. Most of the time, they don't. Here's your proof.
11) Danny DeVito as Sallah, Raiders of the Lost Ark
We were robbed, brothers and sisters: the large and boisterous Egyptian excavator could have been played by a tiny foul-mouthed New Yorker in what is one of the most hilariously bits of alternate casting to imagine ever. In fact, DeVito was Spielberg's first choice, and I'm guessing the character was originally conceived in a mold suitable for his...uh...style. This also would have allowed us the chance to own Mr. DeV in action figure form years before his childhood-destroying turn as the Penguin. Still waiting on that fully articulated Frank Reynolds, by the way.
10) Sissy Spacek as Princess Leia, Star Wars
The word is that Carrie was casting at the same time, and Spacek and Carrie Fisher auditioned for each other's roles. While I can see Fisher as Carrie, not just because it's her name, I can't really see Spacek working as Leia. She would have been too warm, and lost that toughness that Leia had even when forced to sing weird songs about Wookie Life Day. For a long time there was a rumor that Fisher turned down Carrie because of the nudity, but that's not actually true (supposedly she said that she loves to be naked and would have done it even then, although that certainly doesn't jive with what I've heard about her experience with the metal bikini). She probably just wasn't cast, pure and simple, just as Spacek wasn't.
9) Will Smith as Neo, The Matrix
As tired as you may be of seeing Will Smith's giant, front-facing head on billboard ads, he is actually a talented actor as well as a Hollywood favorite. Although he might not seem tonally right for the bleakness of the Wachowskis, this could have been good, provided he made an actual effort to be convincing as a morose hacker/messiah and dialed it down a little bit. Had he been cast, this movie would have had not one but two badass black guys in major roles and could have inspired a whole wave of grad school papers about African-Americans in post-apocalyptic/dystopian science fiction. But to Smith's credit, he turned it down because he felt he would have "messed it up" and wasn't ready for a movie this serious. Against Smith's credit, he opted to make Wild Wild West instead, although I guess that just proves his point. The only major disappointment here is that we didn't get a chart-topping summer hip-hop hit called "Bullet Time (Black Suits Comin')" or something to play over the end credits, which of course would have improved the film immensely.
8) Alan Rickman and Alfred Molina as Lister and Rimmer, Red Dwarf
So these both seem like pretty strange choices now, but remember that in the early late '80s these actors were a few rungs lower on the British acting ladder and less solidified in the public mind. Molina could have worked: despite his dramatic background, he can do comedy and would have made a decent (though somewhat flavorless) Lister. He was apparently cast as Rimmer, which also seems acceptable, maybe a better fit for him. I can see him as dry and stuffy while also being prattish and neurotic. But Rickman? Hard to imagine him fully at home in either role. His Rimmer wouldn't have been elastic or fallible enough and his Lister would definitely have been too depressing. Maybe it could have succeeded as something, but it wouldn't have been the show we now know and love. Plus, Rickman got his big cross-continental break as the bad guy in Die Hard around the same time, so it's not like anyone in this equation missed out.
7) Dustin Hoffman as Deckard, Blade Runner
I'm a little ambivalent about this one: while this obviously is not a role that plays to Hoffman's strengths, I'm not convinced it wouldn't have at least been interesting to watch Rain Man as a jaded Replicant hunter. Apparently his Deckard would have been darker than even Ford's final version, "a mean and embittered little man", as producer Michael Deeley says in his memoir. However, it seems Hoffman made one too many demands for re-writes, insisting that his character be put in less physically demanding situations, and the studio gave up and decided they wanted "a real leading man" for the part. Ouch. But you can't say they didn't have a point, and again, it's not as if this really hurt his career.
6) Eddie Murphy as Winston Zeddemore, John Candy as Louis Tully and John Belushi as Peter Venkman, Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters began life as a completely different project involving time travel and wands and Paul Reubens in a business suit as Gozer. Eddie Murphy's pass for the Zeddemore character is well-known and was probably not a huge loss as he was poised to become a megastar at the time anyway with Beverly Hills Cop; plus, his absence allowed poor Ernie Hudson a juicy franchise to latch onto. Candy missing out on Tully is a bit of a shame but also probably a good thing, since apparently he really wanted his version of the character to have a thick German accent and several dogs for some reason (probably a Canadian thing). Belushi is perhaps the biggest lost opportunity, but his casting comes from an earlier vision of the film as one of many proposed Aykroyd/Belushi buddy flicks rather than the ensemble comedy it became. Plus, I think we can all agree that Ghostbusters minus Bill Murray = infinite sadness. Speak of the devil...
5) Bill Murray as Han Solo, Star Wars
In the early casting stages of Star Wars, a whole bunch of now-improbable names were thrown around for the role of the now-iconic intergalactic rogue, and I'm almost positive none of them would have had the tremendous swaggering impact of Harrison Ford. Christopher Walken would have been too sneery and removed, Jack Nicholson too unhinged. Al Pacino would have been... interesting. Out of all of these, though, Murray seems to me the strangest choice, especially at that point in his career. Sure, he proved he can handle the wisecracking/action star combo of something like the Ghostbusters series but even in those films he wasn't exactly a swashbuckler, nor was he ever meant to be. As much as he may regret the enormous residuals, it's probably for the best that they kept Murray out of the cockpit, although if he had been cast he might have finally got his lounge lyrics into the theme tune. If you're really torn up about this, there's always that fantastic Bill Solo shirt, available at Pop Chart Lab along with a few other alternate Bill Murray shirts. The internet is truly an astounding place.
4) Pamela Anderson as Dana Scully, The X-Files
Dear God. This is almost too horrible to contemplate, but whatever Pam Anderson has that keeps getting mistaken for sex appeal (I think the technical term is "humongous tits") almost won her one of the key lead female roles in '90s television ("You mean ASIDE from Baywatch?" Fuck you). Supposedly one of producers' key complaints with Chris Carter's choice of Scully, mousy little Gillian Anderson, was that she wasn't sexy enough, which is ridiculous considering Gillian became a premier TV sex symbol as a result of her role. In this hot-blooded reporter's opinion, it's no contest. Casting the future Mrs. Anderson-Lee would have turned a seminal science fiction program into something odd and incongruous, suitable only for the most masochistic of cult audiences. Either that or it would have been incredibly stupid and formulaic and thus become a hit (we call this the Two and a Half Men route). Fortunately Fox stopped dicking around and picked the right Anderson, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief that just this once, breasts the size of mutant eggplants did not win the day.
3) Dan Akyroyd as Ford Prefect, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
If this seems completely outlandish, remember that Hitchhiker's had a long and weary history of development decades before the meh-inducing final product. In the early '80s Ivan Reitman was actually originally attached to this project before being wooed away to Ghostbusters by Aykroyd, who was more interested in his own script than whatever they had to go on at the time (years later, something similar would happen with Men in Black, causing much understandable animosity between Douglas Adams and Hollywood). It's unclear what that original Hitchhiker's movie would have been but it almost certainly would have sucked, even in the '80s, and Aykroyd doesn't quite seem quirky and otherworldly enough to pull off Ford unless he was planning on doing him as a Conehead, so we can definitely file this under "for the best" with a lot of these. Including...
2) Robin Williams as Hagrid, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
I for one am heartily glad that this never came to pass, and I'm not even a huge Potter-buff. Williams was reportedly interested in "a couple of parts" in the first film and Warner Bros. certainly pushed for him to be Hagrid, probably giddy with excitement imagining the crinkly-faced comedian adorned in long hair reminiscent of his glory days in Jumanji. Fortunately for most sane human beings, J.K. Rowling declared that the production would use only British actors, singlehandedly saving/revitalizing the careers of anyone even remotely famous and British within a 500 km radius. This included good ol' Robbie Coltrane, who, prior to this had starred in such mega-hits as Nuns on the Run and was probably looking for half-eaten kebabs at the bottom of a dumpster when they cast him (I keed, of course: he had appeared in two of the Brosnan Bond films and a well-received crime drama, Cracker).
1) Sean Connery as Gandalf, Lord of the Rings
The universe is a cruel and arbitrary place, and there is stauncher proof of this cruelty than the fact that history will probably record the shitty League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie as Sean Connery's last live-action performance (I don't even want to think about Delgo). Hell, if I had been in charge, I would have jumped through whatever hoops necessary just to get the man on board. I'm not arguing that Ian McKellen shouldn't have played his signature role, but this would have been a fuck of a way for Connery to go out, and also would have apparently netted him six figures and a 10-15 % cut of the entire worldwide box office, allowing him to launch himself into space in a capsule made entirely of diamonds or whatever for the rest of his life (not that he can't do that already, of course). It also might have drawn in more Boomer-aged audience members less familiar with McKellen and other daunting aspects of Tolkien. However, Connery reportedly didn't "get" the script and also wasn't too keen on hanging out in New Zealand with Peter Jackson for 18 months, which is understandable. I just hope it was worth depriving humanity of a Bond vs. Dracula wizard duel.
Hugh Laurie almost played Rimmer but they decided he was "too sympathetic".
Sean Connery looks Beautiful with his Long luscious Locks
Patton Oswalt has a classic bit about the fact that Nick Nolte was also in the running for Han Solo.
"Bond vs. Dracula wizard duel"............now that is something i would pay good money to see.
I want to disagree with this statement, but I can't. Even now, it seems like Will Smith still has to fight with the fact he was the Fresh Prince. Damn his mom for getting scared and sending him to live with his aunt and uncle in Bel Air! But returning to the present, he always gets noticed because people think, "what, the Fresh Prince can act? Amazing." Even if he proved himself quite a while back with that film where he played a scamming young man at an ivy league school.
As for Keanu Reeves, honestly, he seems like the real world cipher of the videogame cipher that is in almost every videogame, the one who has the clean shaven head, neutral skin tone, and features that seem to vacillitate between, hmm, Vin Diesal and Chris Connelly. Thus, it's actually an achievement that Keanu Reeves is the film version of that because of his vaguely ethnic Jason Lee like features, which must say a lot for how bland his personality is.
Yeah, he was fin in I-Robot, but the biggest problem with it was the name and the fact it was slapped on there as a marketing gimmick. The actual film had nothing to do with the books, and that was a given when it was made.
The real question that needs to be answered is "what is a good actor?" Popular obviously isn't it, since the people who usually get labeled as bad are the biggest names out there. Will Smith has done some fine acting before (Six Degrees of Seperation, Ali, The Pursuit of Happiness), but also understands when there is a formula or action film that doesn't require it.
I don't think he would have done a bad job in The Matrix, to be fair, but I'm not sure he would have been the best sell for the character. Keanu worked because you could relate to him being the publicly faceless cubical junkie, worn down and washed up, and looking for a bigger escape. I don't know if Will Smith could sell it (though he did a believable turn as a loser in Hancock, even if the movie itself mostly sucked).
Equillibrium is basically Matrix with Christian Bale.
I still wouldn't have cared...but I probably would have stopped and said, "Hmmm..."
(hypothetical Saru-onnery replies) AYE half become SHARUMAN of MENNY COLURS!!!
"Adam West as James Bond"
"Gary Oldman as the voice of Grievous"
I want both of these. Yesterday.
This is an awesome list - really well-researched and written :)
This isn't over!
Stormtroopers!
Well, obviously - he started with Han's clothes.
I would of gone with Bill just for when the Luke destroys the Death Star, he could yell, "It's in the hole!"
He forgot one... Anthony Hopkins was considered for the role of Morpheus in The Matrix before Fishburne.
The Lord Of The Rings movies are perfect just as they are!! (And Sean Connery's not so good!)
Sean Connery in any role in LOTR would have ruined the entire series.
(Speaking to hypothetical Connery Saruman) And I see the clouds of Scotch vapors surrounding your head.
That's the only Bond film with Roger Moore that I like.
True, good point: I think that was even officially confirmed somewhere.
The like button broke and refuses to click anymore. {sigh}
I SHEE that the halflingsh WEED hazh clouded yur MYND.
Needed more cowbell. But good, good.
He sort of relented with that when setting up ESB: he wasn't sure Ford would even return for the film, much less that Ford would return for Episode 3 {cough}{g}, so he created Lando Calrissian to replace Han Solo in case that was necessary. (This is confirmably detailed, btw, although I'd have to hunt up Kaminsky's book to cite references.)
Those double-breasted ensembles Scully used to wear would have taken on whole new dimensions.
Agreed. I thought he did just fine in iLegend and iRobot. {g} A little Big Willieness when it seemed appropriate, but typically it was turned off for dramatic purposes.
I would have been really curious to see Smith up against, um, Agent Smith. {g!} The role doesn't really need a burned-out slacker-hacker dude, and Smith could have used it as an opportunity to grow dramatically as an actor (with a bit of BigWillieness where appropriate for attitude or comedy's sake.)
Answer: mindblowingly awesome.
Did that really almost happen, though, or is that just wishful thinking?
Given that I've heard Bill Murray pretty much pulled all the best lines from Ghostbusters out of his ass, I honestly can't see John Belushi improving the movie.
I love Belushi, and he might have made a great Ghostbusters movie.... but it would not be the GBs we know and love
Because League of Extraordinary Gentleman was such a nightmare to film and a dud at the box office, he said "enough".
I heard he turned down Harry Potter and LotR, and some dummy convinced him that League of Extraordinary Gentleman was going to be the next big franchise movie.
Most of these don't surprise me cause I've already heard about them. Though I haven't heard about the Scully, Ghostbusters, and Robin Williams one. Interesting and great list.
I have another shocker almost happened casting decision. And it's dealing with Star Wars. Robert Englund(YES! Freddy Krueger himself!) almost became Luke Skywalker!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm serious!!!!!!!!! He audtioned but didn't get the part yet, his roomate Mark Hamill got it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Incredible, ain't it?!
If you guys don't believe me, go look it up.
Now THAT makes me shudder. I'm sick of Bale already.
Still, I think people are Keanu's case too damn much and it's tiring. >:(
ICED dat guy, to CONE a phrase...
More he retired.
I think it would have worked fantastically if they'd made it a real X-Men movie instead of "Woverine and Some Other Guys No One Really Cares About."
Just let Danzig growl and go apeshit on some people. Let real actors play the real leads = rocking movie.
Bond vs. Dracula already happened: The Man with the Golden Gun.
Nobody's saying that Will Smith can't act, it's just that he´s almost always cast to be Will Smith. And don´t mess with Keanu, he´s save the world so many times and is sad because we don´t apreciate what he´s done for us. XD
Aside from the "horrible real-life event" contests, this is the most depressing comment on this site that I've ever read.
He never said that it would have been a <i>good</i> thing.
Watching the Hitchhiker's movie, ANYONE could play Ford Prefect, the character seemed to only exist as exposition device. I never read the book, though.
That, too.
You know who else was almost Wolverine?
Glenn Danzig.
I know it would have been terrible, but the me from twenty years ago that loves The Misfits, Samhain, and all things Marvel really wants to see it.
He has types that he does pretty well, his southern lawyer in Devil's Advocate, and his southern news reporter in Tune In Tomorrow. Also, that creep-ass killer he was in The Watcher.
I could imagine Dustin Hoffman, Sissy Spacek, Dan Akyroyd and even Will Smith working well in those roles.
Dustin Hoffman is a damn fine choice for almost any role, and the movie would still be great.
I could see Sissy Spacek as Leia, but it would make for a very different Star Wars.
Dan Akyroyd could easily play Ford Prefect. It just works.
And Will Smith could have brought something to The Matrix, but it would have been a VERY different movie.
I thought they shelved The Lone Ranger because it was going to cost $250 million or something ridiculous like that.
To be fair, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen came out in the same year as The Matrix Reloaded (which was the first appearance of the Architect). The Matrix would already have been a big hit.
Hoffman lacks Ford's rugged good-looks that soemhow contrast with the decayed surroundings.
I must however defend Pamela Anderson. Whatever she looks now, when she was young she was very attractive, and not just for her boobs. She had a really sweet face and hot body.
But "Blade Runner" as it is today doesn't have much action anyhow.
Still good point.
I choose to believe that the Roger Moore Bond isn't really Bond. Except for in For Your Eyes Only. (I think it says a lot that Moore objected to what I consider to be the most Bond-ish moment in the film, i.e., when Bond kicks the guy's car off the cliff.)
And Lee is related to Fleming by marriage.
Wowwuh!
I understand why Murray was considered, Han Solo's a wise ass, and Bill Murray made a career out of being king wise ass. Murray also was, and still is, a much better actor than Ford.
Though at least Ford wasn't completely terrible at the time, and he got better as time went on, if Lucas had cast someone of, say, Hayden Christensen's ability as Han Solo, <i>Star Wars</i> would've been DOA.
Heap good medicine.
Too bad Marshall Teague was too old, he looked like Logan when he was in Road House
Most/all of these are truly horrific and I am incredibly glad that they didn't come to pass.
and yet Green lantern was still bad.
Adam West as James Bond
Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones (everyone knows that one)
Gary Oldman as voice of General Grievous
Johnny Depp as Tonto (ha! They shelved the whole Lone Ranger movie because westerns are box office duds.)
IIRC, another was Annette Benning as Catwoman....glad that didn't happen. Annette Benning aged horribly.
And Marlon Wayans was cast and almost made it into Batman Returns as Robin.
Your witticisms have felt me COLD.
My dad is the reason Jack Black wasn't cast as the Green Lantern.
...Seriously, he made the petition for a more serious casting.
Yup. Dan Akroyd said so himself.
Holy shit, I would have watched the HELL out of that.
Harry Potter and the MINDFUCK.
They can't even be called boobies, really. More like giant medicine balls.
Oh my God, "Bullet Time (Black Suits Comin')" had me laughing so hard I fell out of my chair. Ah, the days when Will Smith recorded a song to go with every movie he starred in.
Because Neo is...Neo. You know, sort of a machine. (I failed to understand much of the link between Neo and the Machine World in the later films, so am not fully clear on Neo's..."state".) Anyway, yes, he can portray that state of...tranquility/tranquil-fury, not getting too visibly overwhelmed by emotions...et cetera.
IMHO, he is not a bad actor...he acts...differently, from most/other actors.
Gillian Anderson is a lot more feminine. Pamela Anderson is just Hollywood's idea of what a woman should look like (i.e. Totally Fake.)
You just HOTH to go there, didn't you.
(Yes I know it's weak, and the wrong universe, but I'm all out of ice puns. The fountain of wit FROZE over.)
It could be worse. According to this article:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a344115/joel-schumacher-was-asked-to-make-batman--robin-sequel.html
Schumacher was asked to make Batman and Robin 2, but he turned them down.
"I was supposed to do a fifth one. I was talking to Nic Cage about playing the Scarecrow.I had begged the studio for [the Frank Miller comic] 'The Dark Knight [Returns]', but they wanted a family-friendly, toyetic thing."
Bond Vs. Dracula.
Also known as "The Man With the Golden Gun."
What about Patrick McGoohan as Dumbledore? How awesome would that have been to see Number Six/Edward the Longshanks/John Drake as the head of Hogwarts? (Again, no disrespect to Michael Gambon or Richard Harris.)
Yeah, that woulda been turrible: imagine no tiny prancy dancy man as Wolverine. Tragic.
No, Christian Bale.
*gravelly voice* I AM THE OOOOONNNNNEEEEE...."
I always wanted Leonard Nimoy to play Gandalf. Not that I'm unhappy with McKellen. He did a great job. I just thought Nimoy would have brought a lot more grit to the role.
Really? Did you not see Ali, or any of the other megahit films that Smith did? You seriously are saying that Keanu Reeves is an actor? That's utter nonsense!
ICE to see someone with perspective!
There's definitely enough of these almost-casts to make another list, which I would like to see. For instance, Daniel Day-Lewis as Aragorn (he turned it down to make Gangs of New York instead) or Martin Landau as Spock (doubly interesting since Leonard Nimoy ended up replacing Landau again on Mission: Impossible some years later).
I could see Akyroyd as Ford, if he gave his best acting for it. In some ways, if he acted it more straight role (a middle between the knowledgeable Friday in, "Dragnet", and his parts in, "Driving Miss Daisy" and, "My Girl" I could see a good Ford.
Galadriel would have never been the same. If you know what I mean.
Not to mention the fact that his wife was in the later movies and you know damn well if he was the lead roll we would have been seeing Jada Pinkett as Trinity. I guess your mileage may vary on that one, but personally I'm more thankful for that then Agent Neo-J
Yeah Lee would have been perfect
that would have been awesome, but probably not as accessible for kids
And hey, don't forget about Dougray Scott being cast as Wolverine for the first "X-Men" film before scheduling conflicts forced him out. Had that not happened, not only a different take on Wolvie but no stardom for Hugh Jackman.
Now I was thinking the same thing. It would have definitely would have had him played a little differently then in the movie, but I totally could see the Saruman/Connery thing easily.
Also, Sean Young was originally cast as Vicki Vale but broke her arm during shooting (ironically on a scene cut from the film) and had to be replaced by Kim Basinger.
The best "could have been" for Star Wars is Obi-Wan. If Lucas had his way, instead of Alec Guiness, Obi-Wan would have been played by the greatest star in the history of Japanese cinema, Toshiro Mifune. The logic is that Mifune starred in several films by Lucas idol, Akira Kurosawa, including "The Hidden Fortress" which Lucas has long ackowledged as one of "Wars"' key influences. But the studio wanted someone with more name recognition (not to mention able to speak fluent English). Too bad, no disrespect to Sir Alec but Mifune as Obi-Wan would have made the movie ten times cooler.
Bill Murray as Han Solo? Weird.
At one point, someone suggested a black guy for Han Solo. Lucas said "I'm not making Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." But no, George isn't racist at all.
I could see it too, but in all honesty had he been cast, he would have been a lone island of excellence in a large sea of Schumacher crap...
As my friend Vlad is fond of saying: "Not even Robot Testicles could save that movie..."
what about when one of the Wayans brothers was almost Dick Grayson in Batman Forever. I'm pretty sure there were suit fittings and he was paid.
I'm just upset that Bob Hoskins got left out of the movies entirely.
OH!...I'M!!... sorry. You haven't heardofthe Mi-Lenni-Um FalCON? Kiiiiid...it made the Kessel Run in TWWWEEEEEELVE par-secs.
Truly, humanity was robbed.
I remember Will Smith saying something about his role in "The Legend of Bagger Vance" being one of his hardest roles (at the time) because, and I may be paraphrasing here.
"I usually just show up, do my "Will Smith Thing" and get paid, this time they actually wanted me to act."
As for Robin Williams as Hagrid...yeah that woulda been just awful. Remember that scene in Thor where Volstagg screams "FOUND YOU!"...well imagine that for 120 minutes or so.
Speaking of alternate castings I'm still put off that the role of Prof. Slughorn didn't go to Bob Hoskins.
Robin Williams was used as leverage, but I don't think he ever had a chance for the role.
Terry Gilliam would be perfect to direct a Doctor Strange movie with Johnny Depp in the lead.
It just goes to show you.......you can't teach tits
I'm still sad that Christopher Walken didn't get picked
And the littlest one can say, "Aw hell no!" and then Will Smith rolls his eyes
Time to send a letter to the Fringe writers
But John Belushi WAS in Ghostbusters. Slimer is his ghost.
"Flaoui you foosh!!"
TotalComments: 100
Nerd news, humor and self-loathing.Edited by Rob Bricken
