AHC: Curb George Clooney

[John Fredrick Parker]

With absolutely no PoDs prior to 1998 (and so no changes to films prior to 2000), how can George Clooney's rise to superstardom be curbed? Ideally, I'm looking to get him so desperate that he seriously rethinks his career around 2003.

CONSOLIDATE: Just to note, a big draw to the permaters is the idea that Batman and Robin might, retrospective, be considered a fatal blow to Clooney's career, while still having the experience if working with David O Rusell's, er, "difficult" phase.

 

[Trotsky]

He publicly ridicules the victims of 9/11?

 

[Romantic Nihilist]

He gets caught in a scandal like Rob Lowe?

 

[Time slip]

He acted in four films released in 2000 and 2001: The Perfect Storm, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Ocean's Eleven, and Spy Kids. All four of them appear to have been successful from a financial standpoint, and three of the four were critical successes. Maybe find a way to butterfly his involvement in a couple, if not most, of these films? Given just how successful Ocean's Eleven was, you might need to keep him from being cast as Danny Ocean.

If Spy Kids is still made I could see him still appearing there due to his role in From Dusk till Dawn.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

He acted in four films released in 2000 and 2001: The Perfect Storm, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Ocean's Eleven, and Spy Kids. All four of them appear to have been successful from a financial standpoint, and three of the four were critical successes. Maybe find a way to butterfly his involvement in a couple, if not most, of these films? Given just how successful Ocean's Eleven was, you might need to keep him from being cast as Danny Ocean.

Well, said film was originally going to be directed by Brett Ratner, who wanted Sean Penn for the role IIUC; also, it seems Bruce Willis turned down "a role in the film", which may have been Danny Ocean. AAR, the easier thing to butterfly here could well be O Brother Where Art Thou -- OTL, Joel Coen flew out to Phoenix to offer him the part, and he took it without having read the script; either of those things don't happen exactly so, some other big name could sweep up the part (Tom Hanks maybe?). Not sure how to stop The Perfect Storm, but maybe if the filming experience is bad enough (OTL or TTL), as long as it still only gets technical Academy nominations, it could work for our purposes.

 

[Time slip]

I could see Hanks wanting to avoid the lead role in O Brother, Where Art Thou? if he doesn't want to play another Southerner immediately after The Green Mile.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

I could see Hanks wanting to avoid the lead role in O Brother, Where Art Thou? if he doesn't want to play another Southerner immediately after The Green Mile.

I don't know of Hanks having any special aversion to playing southerners. AAR, he's just one possibility.

 

[Time slip]

I assume he doesn't. What I was trying to say was that he might want to do something else at that point in time. People might start to criticize him for taking roles that are superficially similar to each other in some way (see Johnny Depp in OTL). I think Clooney was a very good fit for the character in OTL, but Hanks could do well with the role too if he takes it.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

Fair enough, but the point remains someone other than Clooney could have done OBWAT; combined with Ratner keeping O-11, that means he's down two of his three good films 2000-01, and has a tougher comeback.

 

[Andrew T]

By setting the date at 1998, you're essentially asking if Clooney's superstardom can be butterflied away without changing his breakthrough role in "ER." I don't see how that's possible outside of ASB territory, even if Clooney misses out on some of the plum movie roles he got in 2000 and beyond.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

By setting the date at 1998, you're essentially asking if Clooney's superstardom can be butterflied away without changing his breakthrough role in "ER." I don't see how that's possible outside of ASB territory...

Sorry, I'm guess I'm not (strictly speaking) talking about "stopping superstardom" so much as curbing it -- like not making the A-List of film actors.