Face/Off

Taking the same concept from my other post, it is interesting to think about the actors that were thought of for or offered movie roles that never came to be, and how the movies would've been different had these actors been offered, accepted or not pulled out of the roles. I'll just list the ones that I personally know of off hand, and everyone else can add their own, repeating what they posted in the prior thread if they want to.

AMERICAN GIGILO: John Travolta instead of Richard Gere

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT: Robert Redford and Meryl Streep instead of Michael Douglas and Annette Bening

AMERICAN PSYCHO: Leonardo DiCaprio instead of Christian Bale

ANY GIVEN SUNDAY: Chris Tucker or Puff Daddy instead of Jamie Foxx; Ving Rhames instead of LL Cool J; David Duchovny instead of Matthew Modine

APOCALYPSE NOW: Harvey Keitel instead of Martin Sheen

APOLLO 13: Kevin Costner and Val Kilmer instead of Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Eric Stoltz instead of Michael J. Fox

BACKDRAFT: Tom Cruise instead of William Baldwin

BAD BOYS: Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz instead of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence

BATMAN: Sean Young instead of Kim Basinger

BATMAN FOREVER: Robin Williams or John Malkovich instead of Jim Carrey; Rene Russo instead of Nicole Kidman

BATMAN RETURNS: Annette Bening instead of Michelle Pfeiffer

BATMAN & ROBIN: David Duchovny instead of George Clooney

BEVERLY HILLS COP: Sylvester Stallone instead of Eddie Murphy

BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY: Charlie Sheen instead of Tom Cruise

CHARLIE'S ANGELS: Thandie Newton instead of Lucy Liu

THE COWBOY WAY: Charlie Sheen instead of Woody Harrelson

CRIMSON TIDE: Al Pacino and Brad Pitt instead of Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington

THE CROW: River Phoenix or Christian Slater instead of Brandon Lee

CUTTHROAT ISLAND: Michael Douglas or Gabriel Byrne instead of Matthew Modine

DARKMAN: Bruce Campbell instead of Liam Neeson

DAVE: Emma Thompson instead of Sigourney Weaver

DEMOLITION MAN: Lori Petty instead of Sandra Bullock

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS: Tom Cruise instead of Johnny Depp

GHOSTBUSTERS: John Belushi and Eddie Murphy in two of the roles

GOLDENEYE: Sean Bean instead of Pierce Brosnan

THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER: Kevin Costner instead of Alec Baldwin

INDECENT PROPOSAL: Charlie Sheen instead of Woody Harrelson

THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU: Val Kilmer as the lead

JUMPING JACK FLASH: Bruce Willis instead of Whoopi Goldberg

THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE: George Clooney or Nicolas Cage instead of Kevin Spacey

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS: Pierce Brosnan instead of Timothy Dalton

LOLITA: Jennifer Love Hewitt instead of Dominique Swain

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: Stuart Townsend instead of Viggo Mortensen

THE MATRIX: Val Kilmer instead of Lawrence Fishburne

MEN IN BLACK: David Schwimmer instead of Will Smith

MINORITY REPORT: Matt Damon instead of Colin Farrell

OCEAN'S ELEVEN: I know Ewan McGregor was offered a role, but I don't know which one... Matt Damon's?

AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN: John Travolta instead of Richard Gere

PANIC ROOM: Nicole Kidman instead of Jodie Foster

PEARL HARBOR: Charlize Theron instead of Kate Beckinsale

PLATOON: Kevin Costner instead of Tom Berenger; Emilio Estevez or Kyle MacLachlan instead of Charlie Sheen

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: Tom Selleck instead of Harrison Ford

ROCKY: Burt Reynolds instead of Sylvester Stallone

RUSH: Tom Cruise instead of Jason Patric

SPEED: Halle Berry instead of Sandra Bullock

SPIDER-MAN: Nicolas Cage or John Malkovich instead of Willem Dafoe

STAR TREK III: Edward James Olmos instead of Christopher Lloyd

STAR TREK IV: Eddie Murphy instead of Katherine Hicks

THE SUM OF ALL FEARS: Dennis Quaid instead of Ben Affleck

A TIME TO KILL: Kevin Costner, Bill Paxton or Val Kilmer instead of Matthew McConaughey

THE TERMINATOR: OJ Simpson or Lance Henriksen instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger; Schwarzenegger instead of Michael Biehn

TIN CUP: Pierce Brosnan instead of Don Johnson

TITANIC: Matthew McConaughey instead of Leonardo DiCaprio

TRAFFIC: Harrison Ford instead of Michael Douglas

TRUE ROMANCE: Brad Pitt instead of Christian Slater

UNDER SIEGE 2: Jeff Goldblum instead of Eric Bogosian; Gary Busey instead of Everett McGill

THE UNTOUCHABLES: Don Johnson instead of Kevin Costner

WALL STREET: Jack Lemmon instead of Martin Sheen

WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP: Charlie Sheen instead of Woody Harrelson

WILD WILD WEST: George Clooney instead of Kevin Kline

X-MEN: Dougray Scott instead of Hugh Jackman; I read somewhere that Keanu Reeves auditioned for Wolverine, but I don't know if that was true

The Nature Boy

What about Burt Reynolds as Michael Corleone?

But I seriously can't imagine that Burt was up for Rocky, given that Stallone wrote this?

Face/Off

When Stallone wrote it, he was a nobody and Reynolds was the king of the hill. But Stallone refused to sell his script unless he got to play Rocky.

Burnt Alive

CARRIE: Carrie Fisher or Melanie Griffith instead of Sissy Spacek

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: Nick Nolte instead of Harrison Ford

STAR WARS: Christopher Walken, Nick Nolte or Kurt Russell instead of Harrison Ford. Orson Welles instead of James Earl Jones. Toshiro Mifune instead of Alec Guinness. Sissy Spacek, Jodie Foster or Amy Irving instead of Carrie Fisher. William Katt instead of Mark Hamill

hgar78

wow! charlie sheen was considered for quite a few on that list.

Rypro 525

Madonna and Britney Spears were both up for Renne's part in Chicago.

marty888

CASABLANCA - Ronald Reagan for the Humphrey Bogart role .... makes you wonder..... if Reagan had a superhit like Casablanca, his career might have gone into high gear and perhaps he never would have gone into politics.... of course, maybe it wouldn't have been a superhit if he had been cast ....

Kal-El

Wasn't Tom Selleck more in the running for this role?

darth bird

Yeah, the entire cast of Ocean's 11 was different when originally set up:

Mark Wahlberg was in Damon's role. Owen and Luke Wilson were supposed to play the brothers (Casey Affleck and Scott Caan's parts). That would have changed the entire dynamic of the movie. I would have liked owen and luke, but I can't stand Marky-Mark.

Kal-El

Matthew Perry was approached for Harry Connick Jr.'s role in Independence Day.

Mondo Kane

SPEED: Johnny Depp instead of Reeves.

BATMAN RETURNS: Robin was originally planned to appear here and one of the Wayans Bros was supposed to play him. There was also a huge lineup for Catwoman. Annette Bening was considered (Broke her leg on an accident, I think) and Sean Young even appeared on a daytime show in costume.

STAR WARS: Glynn Turman for Han Solo.

Great topic. I wish I knew more.

Rocky_Stallone

:lol If Burt Reynolds played Rocky instead of Sly, then that movie wouldn't win for Best Picture that year

Anyway my choices:

JACKIE BROWN: Sylvester Stallone instead of Robert Forster as "Max Cherry"
(as I said in another thread, Tarantino tried to get Sly to play Max Cherry but Sly didn't want the role)

IN THE BEDROOM: Susan Sarandon instead of Sissy Spacek.
(I think Sarandon would've done a much better job than Sissy. "In the Bedroom" was an amazing movie but the only thing I didn't like about it was Sissy Spacek's performance, it would have been a better movie if they had Susan Sarandon in it instead)

THE SHINING (the Kubrick version): Steven Webber instead of Jack Nicholson.
(Webber did a much better job playing the Jack Torrance character in the TV mini series version, Webber was much more intense than Nicholson was. I wished they had Webber in the theatrical version instead of Nicholson)

Venom

"BAD BOYS: Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz instead of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence"


man, that went 180.

Rypro 525

THE SHINING (the Kubrick version): Steven Webber instead of Jack Nicholson.
(Webber did a much better job playing the Jack Torrance character in the TV mini series version, Webber was much more intense than Nicholson was. I wished they had Webber in the theatrical version instead of Nicholson)

I don't think webber was even known in the early 80's. .

fumanstan

Robin was going to be black?!?! And a Wayans Brother?!?!?!

/me imagines Marlon in red and green tights

William Fuld

Stephen King wanted Michael Moriarty, instead of Nicholson, for The Shining.

eXcentris

Jodie Foster and Michelle Pfeiffer for Thelma and Louise.

Alien Redrum

Stephen King's The Stand - Jeff Goldbloom was going to play Randall Flagg.

Face/Off

Bening got pregnant.

As for Young, in addition to being a natural nutcase, felt entitled to the role because she had to back out of the first movie after already being cast.

Wouldn't Weber have been to young?

hmurchison

Keanu Reeves tried out for this movie too. After Wesely Snipes had secured the role he and Reeves had a read through and according to the article I read Snipes was really "dry". Of course he and Harrelson have been buddies since before their "Wildcats" days.

Face/Off

Well, he WAS a hot commidity at the time. Turning down blockbusters like White Men Can't Jump and Indecent Proposal, and getting the rug pulled out from under him for Born on the Fourth of July, probably didn't help things any as his choices got worse and worse along the way.

When he was still a big (but falling) name and Nicolas Cage was still an off-beat weirdo, they tried to fight to read for The Shawshank Redemption but were ignored.

C Roberts

After seeing that Shining one (Steven Weber maybe could have played the little kid, but not Jack's part) I have to doubt the validity of more of these.

Alien Redrum

Weber was 19 when the movie came out, so he was probably about 18 when it was filmed.

I too doubt he was up for the role.

Michael Corvin

Worst mistake ever: Casting Jim Carey over Robin Williams in the role of the Riddler in Batman Forever. B'ah. Look! It is Ace Ventura in tights! Way to play a one dimensional character that you play in all your movies Jim.

fumanstan

I just watched the Who Framed Roger Rabbit trivia track and they mentioned Harrison Ford, Robert Redford, and even Kurt Russell as other possible Eddie Valients.