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When I watch a really great flick, there are many times that I feel the character and the actor who played him are synonomous...I could not imagine anyone else doing it.  I remeber once that they offered Jodie Foster's role in Silence of the Lambs to Michelle Pfiefer...the whole movie takes on a different feel if I try to even imagine her in that role!  No way!

Does anyone have any cool trivia of any actors/actresses originally offered a part in the movie that would have changed the whole feel and dynamic of the film?  Or how about taking a good film and ruin it by planning a whole new cast!!  Who would you have played  opposite Michelle Pfiefer as Hannibal Lecter???

Hannibal lector was originally offered to Gene Hackman
Hackman was also the first choice to play Mike Brady in the tv series
Sean Connery turned down the role of Morpheus in The Matrix...which is probably why we had to endure the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen


Often what happens is there's the first choice actor, the studio has to see if they are available..etc. Then they have a list and just keep trying to get, often, the more marketable choices. not always necessarily who was "envisioned" for the role by the writer.  lots of actors don't like admitting what movie roles they turned down that were big hits.

Here are a few that I know of:

* Jack Palance turned down the role of Scaramanga in MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN

* James Caan was considered for the starring role in ROCKY

* Frank Sinatra and John Marley were on the list of potential actors to play Don Corleone in THE GODFATHER

* Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra were considered for DIRTY HARRY

* Jack Benny auditioned for the part that Walter Matthau ended up playing in THE SUNSHINE BOYS

* Eric Stoltz was the original star of BACK TO THE FUTURE, but he was replaced by Michael J. Fox during filming

* Robert Redford and Ryan O'Neal were considered for the part of Michael Corleone in THE GODFATHER

* Michael Sarrazin almost got the lead role in MIDNIGHT COWBOY, but he wanted too much money, so Jon Voight got the part

* Burt Reynolds, Adam West and John Gavin were all candidates to play James Bond (as I mentioned in a recent thread)

Dennis Hopper is crazy enough to pull off the Hannibal Lecter thing... but it would give it a much cheesier feel.   Maybe stick in Angelina Jolie instead of Michelle Pfeiffer and you could give her character a little tougher feel.  

I heard that Jake Gyllenhall almost ended up replacing Tobey McGuire as Spider Man in the 2nd movie.  That would have been horrible!  Anybody but Bubble Boy!  

The one that gets me is that the part of Indiana Jones almost went to TOM SELLECK!  First of all, I couldn't imagine anybody other than Harrison Ford playing the role.  Secondly, Tom Selleck wouldn't even make 10th on my list of people to play the role!  I firmly believe that, if Tom would've made the movies, they wouldn't have been nearly as successful or good.

This goes without saying, but NOBODY could be Ash except for Bruce Campbell.  There is absolutely no possible good replacement for him.

Here's a the new cast I came up with for silence of the Lambs

Agent Starling: Ana Paquin (in a few years)
Hannibal Lector:  Christopher Walkin (Can you just imagine!! lol)
Buffalo Bill:  Brad Douriff (was in Exorcist III, Body Parts among many others,..)
Great at the creepy insane roles!

I stand corrected... Christopher Walken would be PERFECT for the role!

Yeah I can see his line delivery all ready...

LECTOR: You..flyaway NOW...lit...tle Starling. Fly...fly, FLY

or

LECTOR: So tell ME...what did Miggs..MULTIPLE Miggs say to YOU...in the next cell?

STARLING: He said: I can smell your c**t

LECTOR: yeah, well...I MYSELF canNOT....

Oh man, I want to see a remake now...lol

I'm with you- I'll sign the petition to be sent to the film company!

the only problem with walken is he's made fun of his movies so often (snl) that it's hard to see him in a role like that without just laughing.  I could see Malkovich in the role, he has a refrained way about him in that he could play a man of polite society that i could totally believe was a psychopath.

Buffalo bob, hard to say about current actors. Bill was weak, insecure...I LIKE the actor they chose becase he was nobody famous. But malkovich could easily pull off this role as well, he's a little effeminate

"it rubs the lotion on it's skin! Yes, that's right precious"



Post Edited (07-21-04 22:02)

I agree with you on your reasons stated, but Ithe reason for my casting was just for the reason that it would be TOTALLY different from the original...and just to see Christopher Walkin try to pull it off..I would go see it...and most likely change the whole film into a dark comedy (which is what I was going for)  Want to cast certain actors that would change the feel of the film almost entirely.

Just doing for fun really...what other movies would you recast?

A Clockwork Orange was originally slated as a vehicle for the Rolling Stones (!), with Ken Russel set to direct (to imagine how Russel might have done it, watch Kubrick's version in fast forward).

Sam Raimi's Crimewave was written as a double role for Bruce Campbell, playing the lead as well as the character he ultimately played. The studio said no, which is too bad, because it would have made the movie a LOT better.

I also just read that the nightclub scene in Antonioni's Blow Up was originally supposed to feature the Velvet Underground instead of the Yardbirds, but for some reason Andy Warhol didn't want them leaving the country.

James Caan named off in an interview, Larry King IIRC, so many films that he passed on that became hits or won awards for other people once that he joked that he thought of going into the reverse film forcasting business. I he turned down the film, then the producers should go ahead because it was sure to be a hit.

Burt Reynolds turned down "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Terms of Endearment" and Jack Nicholson won Oscars for both roles that Reynolds passed on.

The 70s Musketeers films directed by Richard Lester were originally meant to be another film for the Beatles, but that fell apart when the Beatles did. Considering how the final versions turned out, I'm glad the original idea couldn't work.

I've heard that Michael Biehn was originally slated to play the Terminator and that Arnold Schwartzenegger was supposed to play Kyle Reese!  Fortunately for us all, Schwartzenegger realized that the Terminator role suited him much better. Can't you just imagine what the reviews for that movie would've been if they'd kept the casting as they'd planned it originally?

"All in all, it was a nice flick for the boys, but not very well made. Watching shrimpy Michael Biehn's attempts to frighten Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and her muscular playmate Kyle Reese (Arnold Schwartzenegger) provided entertainment only as unintentional humor. All through the film, I half-expected at any moment to see Kyle Reese pick up that wimpy android and toss him into the garbage, which is definitely where the casting director belongs. When Kyle turned up in a straight-jacket in one scene, half the audience started yelling 'Tear off that shirt!' Moreover, if James Cameron's film is supposed to be any prediction of our future, apparently the only survivors of the upcoming apocalypse will be former barbarians with heavy German accents who will somehow manage to build a lot of muscles while starving in the ruins..."

Burt as James Bond?  Ugh, no.

Burt Reynolds as Han Solo.  
-Ed

What else was Buffalo Bob in? I remember being really surprised watching a movie one time when whoever I was with told me that the guy in it  was Buffalo Bob.

Isn't he Monk's boss now?

Yeah- that's him alright.  He's good in both roles, but it is weird seeing him play a straight-arrow police commander after playing Buffalo Bob...

Buffalo Bob was played by Ted Levine.

(http://us.ent4.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/mgm/the_silence_of_the_lambs/ted_levine/silence.jpg)

He also did the voice of Rusty Nail in "Joyride".
Not only does he look creepy, but he sounds creepy as well.



Post Edited (07-22-04 20:13)

According to the info blurps during the letterboxed films on AMC's "Much More Movie" or whatever the title is, OJ Simpson was an early candidate for the Terminator role. Guess they were onto something there and just didn't realize it.

Elvis was supposed to play the Kris Kristofferson role of the aging rock star in the 1970s version of "A Star is Born". But he was talked out of it by Colonel Parker, who was convinced the producers wanted to mock Elvis by putting him in a role playing someone similar to his reallife self. While he would have had to put up with Barbra Streisand, may think the role would have been the shot in the arm his career needed (no pun inteded), and finally given him a shot at a decent acting role, which he always wanted and never got.

The Predator was originally played by Jean Claude Van Damme. The suit they had him in looked really horrible and wasn't really scary at all. He kept passing out from the heat and they fired him.  Later on an E! bio I saw they said he had just been offered the deal with Cannon  for his first 3 cheapies for them. They were starring roles so he faked the faints on the Predator set so he would get canned and could go make his own movies.

Predator actually ran out of money and the producers convinced the studio to give them enough to finish it and get a monster that could rival Arnold. Stan Winston said he was on a plane with James Cameron and Cameron was saying he always wanted to have a creature with mandibles. This is where Stan got they idea for his creation.



Post Edited (07-23-04 08:05)

>What else was Buffalo Bob in? I remember being really surprised watching a
>movie one time when whoever I was with told me that the guy in it was Buffalo
>Bob.

Ted Levine (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0505971/) has been in quite a few movies. Among others, he played the main cop in The Mangler and General "Bloodbath" McGrath in Wild Wild West.

I heard that Gandalf was first offered to Sean Connery and he turned it down. When he discovered that he had missed an opportunity, he decided to jump into the first fantasy/SF feature that came along, which, unfortunately was the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Another actor who has a poor choice in B movies, must be Terence Stamp. After Superman and Star Wars, now he is in Elektra as Stick! BTW he was Antonioni's first choice for the lead in Blow Up. However, he got too interested in Antonioni's wife, so David Hemmings got the part instead.

I think Jack Benny was supposed to do the George Burns role, not the Matthau in Sunshine Boys.
Ronald Reagan was the original choice for Casablanca!!
peter johnson/denny crane