Biggest casting changes/mistakes.
 

Post away on movies that wouldv'e been much better or worse if the actor who was originally offered or rumored to have the gig did it. The biggest one I can think of is how Brad Pitt was the original choice to play Neo in the Matrix. Although Pitt IMO is a better actor, Keanu fits this role perfectly (I cant see Pitt being as naive as Reeves)

http://www.fanzing.com/images/imgs05/supern.jpg
"who, what, where?"

Godfather III instantly pops to mind, but in my mind Winona Ryder is just as crappy an actress as Sofia Coppola.

Agreed re: Pitt and The Matrix. Keanu was perfect in the role, only because he's so horrible in pretty much everything else.

There's also Stuart Townsend, who was Aragorn for all of half-a-week. I can't imagine Viggo not playing that part...

And I like Nicole Kidman, but Jodie Foster was so good in Panic Room I can't imagine anyone else in the role.

Madonna, Goldie Hawn, Kathy Bates, Rosie O'Donnel, Nicole Kidman Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz and Britney Spears were all considered for roles.
Chicago, that movie could have been a disaster. Also Harvey wanted to bring Britney in to appear to the "younger" crowd and even to appear in a music video that has nothing to do with Chicago. (except maybe the theme.)

Both of these actors were held up due to M:I2 being behind schedule. Kinda thankful they were...

Dougray Scott instead of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine (X-Men).
Hugh nailed the role.. not that I don't think Dougray could've done a better job.

Thandie Newton instead of Lucy Liu as Alex Munday (Charlie's Angels).
Why on earth would Thandie do Charlie's Angles? Then again, she did do The Truth About Charlie

Jean Reno as Agent Smith and Chow Yun Fat as Morpheus

Robert De Niro playing Josh Baskin would have been...different.

I heard Eric Stoltz was supposed to play MCfly and he even filmed some scenes but they later went with Michael j. Fox. Check out this months FHM magazine for a picture of Stoltz with Doc.

Steve Stiffler in any action movie

i think the current actors did their jobs very well, though i would have liked to see it done with these 2 as well. too bad that can't be a special feature. :)

Thinking about it, how cool would Chow Yun Fat have been as an agent.

Granted, Hugo Weaving was absolutely perfect as Agent Smith. But think of the fight scenes with Chow Yun Fat. Especially the subway fight. I think it would have been as cool, if not even cooler.

How about Kevin Smith doing the Randal role in Clerks? He always said that the reason Randal got the best lines was because Kevin was going to play Randal.

Hard to imagine anybody other than Jeff Anderson in that role.

Who's Josh Baskin? What film was that? Who wound up playing him?

It was Tom Hanks' character in Big.

DOHH!

How about Sam Neill as James Bond instead of Timothy Dalton in "The Living Daylight"? Didn't he audition for the part?

:yack: i never knew she was in the "running" oh, that would have just ruined the whole thing for me! would never have seen it. -ohbfrank-

Wasn't Richard Gere originally offered the role of John MacLaine in Die Hard? Somehow I can't picture anyone but Bruce Willis as MacLaine.

The creaters of the show said "you can do what ever you want to the soundtrack but you will not put this in the movie" when Harvey wanted to put that rap version of "cell block tengo" in the credits. (found out on htf btw)

James Caan turned down the role of R.P. McMurphy in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest."

The mere act of turning down this role (which would have been perfect for him because he's a big guy with big hands like the character in the novel) proved he was nuts, hence ideal for the role.

We'd have heard: "winner of best actor of 1975...JAMES CAAN!!"

Umm do you mean Sean William Scott?

Nick Nolte turned down Superman. That would have been... interesting.

Also, Christopher Walken would have been great as Han Solo, if you know what I mean. :)

Some of the all-time classics include:

Ronald Reagan and George Raft were suggested for the role that Humphrey Bogart eventually got in Casablanca. Hedy Lamarr was put forward for the Ingrid Bergman role, and the part of Sam the piano player was originally angled for a woman; Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald were briefly considered.

(George Raft was also offered Bogart's roles in High Sierra and The Maltese Falcoln and turned both down.)

Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and Dustin Hoffman were all offered the part of Michael Corleone in The Godfather, but all refused. Robert Redford and Ryan O'Neal were also considered.

Tom Selleck was originally cast as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Kurt Russell and Nick Nolte were candidates for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars. Dustin Hoffman was the original lead for Blade Runner.

(and my all-time favorite...)

Before shooting began, Robert Redford suggested that he swap characters with Paul Newman -- and thus Redford portrayed Sundance and Newman portrayed Butch in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

(could any of these have worked in any other way?)

Also -- not only would Brad Pitt have been brilliant in The Matrix, so would virtually any other Hollywood star. I will argue with my last dying breath that Keanu Reeves brought nothing, yes, nothing, to that role.

Wasn't Tom Selleck the first choice to play Indiana Jones?

It boggles my mind why anyone would hire Keanu Reeves for any film. Why bottom-feed?

He should have disappeared off the radar after "Parenthood" and "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey"

actually I heard on tv that will smith was also up for the role of neo in the matrix

Will "Willenium, Big Willy Style, Parents Just Don't Understand, Agent J" Smith (If I wasn't so tired right now I'd laugh)

James Caan is a big guy with big hands? I've never noticed...

I guess I can see a younger Caan playing the role, but I also don't have any complaints about Jack's performance. Still, it'd be interesting...

That reminds me, when I got the Glengarry GlenRoss DVD, I was so excited when I read about the "audition tape" easter egg. I thought I was gonna see other, real, actors trying out for Alec Baldwin's role. Turns out it was just a bunch of idiots, probably the technical people who helped author the DVD. How great would it be to see different actors you recognized trying out for that part?

Well, I just checked imdb, and according to them, Caan is 6 feet even. That makes him tall for his generation (hell, still taller than the average for my generation). It also makes him like 6 inches taller than Nicholson. But was he ever a "big" guy with broad shoulders? The book makes McMurphy out to be a monster, but then again, he is described by the Chief... who is supposed to be pushing 7 feet, right? I always thought the idea was that the Chief (in the book) *percieves* McMurphy as being HUGE, and that the effect Kesey was going for was that McMurphy was such an imposing/intimidating presence that the poor old meek Chief would feel dwarfed by him. I've always considered the book a classicly unreliable narrative for several reasons. Nevertheless, in the film McMurphy's (and Nicholson's) true physical size is never an issue.

When I first read of Caan turning down the role, I couldn't pisture it because I think of Caan as a scrawny old creature with liver spots and a truly silly tuft of frizzy hair that always puffs up from the top of his head. I have seen him in his younger form, it's just that I'm more aquainted with his current shriveled state. And though I think he is a great actor, I haven't seen him do much that gels with my mental image of McMurphy. The more I think about it though, the more I see that it might have worked great. Still, as I posted above, nothing is wrong with Nicholson's portrayal.

True, there isn't anything bad you can say about Nicholson's "McMurphy," but don't you remember James Caan in "The Godfather" as Sonny Corleone? His broad shoulders are practically busting out of the tuxedo he's wearing at his sister's wedding.

Remember, there is no spoon. If an actor HAD brought something, the movie would not have been as good. Keanu brings that whole "blank slate" look; he really is confused about the matrix. Brad Pitt would have acted confused, but he would have really understood. I don't think Keanu knew what was going on. Which is great, cus Neo doesnt really know what to think either.

Not true.
http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/reagan.htm

http://charliegoose.homestead.com/files/goose.jpg Honk!

It's a good thing Hugo brought his bizarre 'Canadian' accent tic to Agent Smith, as it made his character memorable and strangely intimidating. Weaving himself is way too goofy-looking otherwise with his scrawny frame and huge ears & lips. It looked like Neo was fighting an angry homunculus.

Sure, I remember him as Sonny Corleone, but he didn't strike me as being particularly massive or broad. Besides, costuming is responsible for how an actor fits his clothing, not the actor's build. I normally wear a size 45 or 46 jacket. If I squeezed into a 42, I'd be busting out the seams too. And standing next to Al Pacino, I'd look like The Incredible Hulk.


btw, just for *********** and giggles, here's something that this thread reminded me of:

Mod note: Do not post pictures from ************** here. They put in gross pictures when they see that you've done that! And one letter substitutions of prohibited words is NOT allowed!

Oh, and about Keanu and Hugo in The Matrix: I really don't buy that Neo is supposed to be a confused buffoon with a blank look on his face all the time. The guy is what, a hacker or something, right? And he's s'posed to be "the one" (cue oohs and aahhs), right? So the character surely wasn't written as a retard. I think an actor like Pitt (who I think is probably one of the most intelligent guys in Hollywood) would have made the character a thousand times more interesting. On to Hugo: the dude sucks. At least, in The Matrix he sucks. And I can *barely* tolerate him in LOTR, which is a movie I love (if you can't tell, I don't really have any affection for The Matrix). In fact, all of the acting in The Matrix is SO rotten that even though the movie has a lot going for it, I really can't imagine ever seeing it again. All of the leads are either taking the "less is more" approach to its extreme, or they are hamming it up worse than Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

what the hell was that?

Wow that scarred me for life.

Anyway back on topic, Sylvester Stallone as Axel Foley.
Murphy made that role

In the movie and TV show "Kung Fu", David Carradine as Caine instead of Bruce Lee (who was the show's co-creater). What I heard was that the TV network considered Bruce Lee "too Asian looking".

Carradine was OK, but if Bruce Lee was the lead actor then it would have been a real action show.

I thought Scott Foley almost single handedly destroyed the Scream franchise with his atrocious performance.

He did have help though.

rotfl

MODS: The pic that I put in the [img] tags was a photoshop job where someone had mocked up a Deerhunter poster with a picture of Rodney Dangerfield holding a gun to his head... I linked to an "open this image in a separate window" address at another site, obviously, and they caught me and replaced it with that heinous other image. D'oh!

I came in here to see if the Dangerfield pic had gotten any laughs and saw that one of you had converted it to a link, so I checked the link. My eyes started bleeding as a result. :lol: So then I thought I'd edit the post, take out the link, and make an apology. When I tried that, all I saw was a warning from you guys saying that I shouldn't ever post a nasty pic like the one that the other site substituted, or I'd be facing administrative action.

Well, I'm sorry. Maybe I'm a fool- I didn't expect them (the other site) to catch me and switch the graphic. I apologize. Would one of you Mods please edit the link out of my post? I'd appreciate it.