Movie Casting & Ideas: What Could Have Been

[thekingsguard]

Stallone turned down the role of Cates in 48hrs, Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction, as well as roles in Jackie Brown, Grindhouse and Se7en.

Most interesting though, John Woo wanted him to be in Face/Off... opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger.

 

[Laqueesha]

Apparently both Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton were both supposed to get one more Bond film than they ended up getting.

 

[jb3]

Apparently both Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton were both supposed to get one more Bond film than they ended up getting.

Somewhat true with Brosnan (the studio was willing to go with the massive salary he was asking for one more but the Broccoli Family already intended to reboot with "Casino Royale" without him) and very true with Dalton (if not for MGM's troubles at the time, he would have gotten a third film and maybe even a fourth since "Goldeneye" was written with him in mind). I've thought about starting a WI thread about both cases.

Here's another though - Brosnan was already picked and announced as Roger Moore's successor and was going to do "The Living Daylights" when NBC screwed up Brosnan's career by renewing "Remington Steele" for another season based on the notoriety of having Bond (after it had been cancelled). Cubby Broccoli then cut ties to Brosnan and moved on to Dalton, since he wasn't going to have the new Bond be in a weekly TV series. In the end, the final season of "Remington Steele" only lasted a few (bad) episodes before being cancelled again - so Brosnan lost on Bond eight full years before "Goldeneye".

And of course, Dalton was originally offered the role way back in 1969 (before Lazenby) but refused because he thought he was too young and didn't want to be tied to the role. If Dalton had accepted back then you could legitimately see him as Bond from 1969 all the way to 1989.

 

[AltSptHst]

Stallone turned down the role of Cates in 48hrs, Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction, as well as roles in Jackie Brown, Grindhouse and Se7en.

Also, Beverly Hills Cop was written originally for him (it was going to be a drama exclusively, if I'm not mistaken).

 

[Aloha]

Bill Murray auditioned for the role of Sulley in Monsters, Inc., but the director, Pete Docter, said that when they decided to offer it to Murray, they were unable track him down because he had replaced his team of agents with a toll free 1-800 number. They took that to mean "no".

I think they made a smart choice by choosing John Goodman instead. I think Bill Murray would make a better Mike Wazowski.

 

[mudhead]

Gods & Generals.

This whole situation made me sad when it happened and I'm still sad about it to this day. Certainly, Duvall was a convincing Lee--if somewhat less gentle in character than Sheen's portrayal (incidentally, Duvall is distantly related to Lee on his mother's side) and Lang was good as Jackson, even though the about face from Pickett was difficult. The biggest trouble with the film was the time between Gettysburg and it and that, as with the book, it felt entirely too hurried.

Oh wow that would have been...well I dunno. My only enjoyment of that film is Lang's over-the-top portrayal of Stonewall, I wonder if Crowe could even come close to that scenery chewing glory.

I think the casting changes upset the balance of the film - we saw nothing of the relationship between Jackson and Longstreet, which surely would have been developed if Berenger had been available.

Also, the flowery dialogue has been criticised. But I think the speeches were a deliberate attempt to show how this nonsense was knocked out of them by the war - compare the dialogue in Gods & Generals with that in Gettysburg.

 

[unclepatrick]

My favorite obscure James Bond casting.
American Actor John Payne got the rights to the novel Moonraker back in the late 50's.
He wanted to play Bond but he could not raise the funding.

 

[Unknown]

As for the Terminator...where to even begin (this is from the tvtropes.org page on The Terminator)...

OK, first, OJ Simpson (of all people) was supposed to play the Terminator (the Terminator was envisioned as someone who would blend in with the population). However, either the execs vetoed it because they couldn't see a guy as nice as OJ playing a killer (boy, talk about Harsher in Hindsight) or, according to James Cameron, Cameron himself turned it down because he feared what might happen if the LAPD saw a black man chasing a white woman with murderous intent (and, given what's been in the news recently, he might have had something of a point). Another actor considered was Lance Henriksen, back when the original idea for the Terminator was still in effect; he would play a police detective in the movie itself. Tom Selleck was considered, but turned it down (like he did Raiders of the Lost Ark) because he still had his Magnum, P.I. commitments. Others considered were the following: Michael Douglas, Richard Gere, Harrison Ford, Kevin Kline, Jürgen Prochnow, and Sylvester Stallone (which all would have been interesting; Prochnow would play the actor (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who played the Terminator in a made-for-TV-movie, funnily enough)…

Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered for Kyle Reese--that would not have worked, IMO; Cameron was not going to offer it to him, as he was interviewing Arnold to make his producers happy and, when James Cameron met with him to talk about it, Cameron felt that he was in the presence of a "living machine" and offered the Terminator role to him (rewriting the script to fit Arnold). That worked and it's Arnold's best and scariest role, IMO (to be fair, I also liked him in Kindergarten Cop and True Lies); he's terrifying as the Terminator...

Michael Biehn nearly didn't get the role of Kyle Reese because, when he first auditioned for the role, he was speaking in a Southern accent because he'd auditioned for a stage version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and hadn't reverted to his normal accent; however, his agent called and explained what happened, so he got the part after a second reading. Others considered were Mel Gibson, Mickey Rourke, Sting (the singer, not the wrestler of the same name), and Bruce Willis (who's appeared in two of the films mentioned on this thread).

As for Sarah Connor, if you believe tvtropes.org, the following actresses were considered for the role of Sarah Connor: Rosanna Arquette, Kim Basinger, Glenn Close, Jamie Lee Curtis, Geena Davis, Mia Farrow, Carrie Fisher, Jodie Foster, Teri Garr, Jennifer Grey, Melanie Griffith, Goldie Hawn, Anjelica Huston, Amy Irving, Diane Keaton, Margot Kidder, Diane Lane, Jessica Lange, Madonna, Liza Minnelli, Michelle Pfeiffer, Gilda Radner, Miranda Richardson, Meg Ryan, Susan Sarandon, Jane Seymour, Brooke Shields, Sissy Spacek, Sharon Stone and Sigourney Weaver were all considered for the role of Sarah Connor. It was offered to Daryl Hannah (who turned it down in favor of Splash), Kate Capshaw (who turned it down in favor of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), Kathleen Turner (who turned it down to do Romancing the Stone, which she starred in with Michael Douglas, who was considered for the Terminator role), Julia Louis Dreyfus (which would have been interesting--she turned it down for Saturday Night Live), and Debra Winger (who turned it down before filming began)…

One idea was to end the movie with the tanker explosion; James Cameron wanted it to end on the chase through the factory and in Kyle's death, and won out...

 

[arrowiv]

OJ Simpson as the Terminator.....now that would have been veeery interesting and ironic!

My own personal casting choices are these:

1. My choice to replace Connery for On Her Majesty's Secret Service is..... Ray Danton. Danton is perhaps better known for his gangster roles in The George Raft Story and The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond in the late 1950s and by the late Sixties appearing in classic Eurospy flicks such as Secret Agent Super Dragon (made famous on MST3K). Danton would have been perfect to be 007 as he was suave, smooth,handsome, debonair, and had that distinctive suave baritone voice. He could have made a fabulous Bond in the late 60s and 70s. Also, Adam "Batman" West was actually considered to replace Connery but West personally declined it on the grounds he was not British and he felt Bond should always be played by a Briton.

2. James Keach as the lead in The Legend of the Lone Ranger. Even to this day, I am still amazed that a nobody named Klinton Spilsbury could do only one film and then completely disappear, never again to work in Hollywood. I am sure he really got a lot of flack and was raked over the coals, considering he had his entire dialogue overdubbed by Keach. Keach already had considerable experience working in some Westerns and already knew how to shoot and ride a horse and had that authoritative voice as required for the Ranger. So Keach ends up playing the Ranger and Spilsbury could have a career of his own, either as a male model (his actual profession) or having a modestly successful career in Hollywood.

 

[Unknown]

Yeah, James Keach would have worked better, but he'd still have the problem that dogged The Legend of the Lone Ranger's production: namely, the head of the studio that was making it deciding to sue Clayton Moore, who was the Lone Ranger to many fans, to get him to stop making appearances (the idea was that Klinton would be the new Lone Ranger, and it would have no connection with the old Lone Ranger; that backfired badly). I don't think I need to tell you why that went badly wrong (it pissed off many potential viewers of Legend, and even some of the cast thought it was unnecessary)…

 

[Transparent Blue]

Neo from The Matrix was almost played by Will Smith. He turned it down in favour of Wild Wild West.

 

[James Ricker]

John Goodman as Herman Goring

 

[UCB79]

Tom Cruise as Tony Stark
John Krasinski as Steve Rodgers
Emily Blunt as Natasha Romanoff
Tom Hiddleston as Thor
Charlie Cox as Loki
Mel Gibson as Odin
Jessica Biel as Sif

Or to put some of these another way:

Hugh Jackman as Tony Stark
Sebastian Stan as Steve Rodgers
Natalie Portman as Natasha Romanoff
Daniel Craig as Thor
BRIAN BLESSED as Odin

I’m definitely a Natalie Portman fan but her
playing a ruthless assassin/Russian spy/superhero? No way(remember Padme
is supposed to be a nice girl!)

 

[rick007]

I’m definitely a Natalie Portman fan but her
playing a ruthless assassin/Russian spy/superhero? No way(remember Padme
is supposed to be a nice girl!)

That's what I heard. Also heard that Jessica Biel, Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba and Gemma Arterton were up for Natasha Romanoff (Arterton and Blunt were also up for Peggy Carter).

 

[UCB79]

That's what I heard. Also heard that Jessica Biel, Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba and Gemma Arterton were up for Natasha Romanoff (Arterton and Blunt were also up for Peggy Carter).

I VERY much like the thought of Ms Jolie
playing the Black Widow.

 

[Deerwrecker2015]

Also, Beverly Hills Cop was written originally for him (it was going to be a drama exclusively, if I'm not mistaken).

That is pretty much true regarding Stallone being originally selected to do Beverly Hills Cop but the film would have ended up being a straight action film due to the dramatic rewrite of the script by Stallone. The ideas that Stallone came up with was deemed by Paramount as being "Too expensive" to produce and two weeks before filming was to begin Stallone pulled out from the film entirely. Stallone eventually used many of his ideas for Beverly Hills Cop when he wrote the screenplay for the 1986 film Cobra which he also did star in.

Somewhat true with Brosnan (the studio was willing to go with the massive salary he was asking for one more but the Broccoli Family already intended to reboot with "Casino Royale" without him) and very true with Dalton (if not for MGM's troubles at the time, he would have gotten a third film and maybe even a fourth since "Goldeneye" was written with him in mind). I've thought about starting a WI thread about both cases.

Here's another though - Brosnan was already picked and announced as Roger Moore's successor and was going to do "The Living Daylights" when NBC screwed up Brosnan's career by renewing "Remington Steele" for another season based on the notoriety of having Bond (after it had been cancelled). Cubby Broccoli then cut ties to Brosnan and moved on to Dalton, since he wasn't going to have the new Bond be in a weekly TV series. In the end, the final season of "Remington Steele" only lasted a few (bad) episodes before being cancelled again - so Brosnan lost on Bond eight full years before "Goldeneye".

The actual factors that lead Dalton to not do a third James Bond film was primarily due to a legal dispute between MGM and Danjaq (Which had also owned Eon Productions) over the rights. The troubles that MGM had ran into had also contributed as well. Those troubles was mainly when MGM was sold to Pathé Communications (Not related to the French Pathé Studio) which was owned by Giancarlo Paretti who then merged them to form MGM-Pathé Communications (An planned sale of MGM/UA to Qintex in 1989 had fell through when Qintex had failed to produce a $50 Million dollar line of credit that was required for the sale) and the company had become plagued by disputes between Paretti and Crédit Lyonnais (Which through it Dutch based CLBN subsidary provided the financing to buy MGM), Alan Ladd Jr. (Over control), Lawyer Steven Chrystie over money (Totaling $18,000,000) that was owed to many MGM Clients (Which MGM had refused to pay) and Crédit Lyonnais did take all of MGM's voting stock around the same time (In exchange for a additional $145,000,000 loan which had also allowed the clients of Chrystie to be paid off). The rumors Paretti threatening to murder anyone who threatened his position (Or that of his daughter who had replaced all of the MGM accountants when Paretti gained control of MGM) also complicated matters too (Fortunately it never happened). Eventually Paretti was forcefully removed from MGM (Its also safe to say that his daughter was forced out as well) on June 17, 1991 when Crédit Lyonnais had finally seized control of MGM (They eventually foreclosed on the studio the following year). The disputes over the rights to the Bond film series we're settled in December of 1992 after the MGM foreclosure but Dalton had decided to walk away anyway when his contract to portray Bond had expired in 1993 (Dalton stated that the delays of the third Bond film he was to star in had effectively ended the contract in 1990).

NBC's handling of Remington Steele did not only hamper Pierce Brosnan's career but it did also hamper the career of his costar from the show Stephanie Zimbalist and all of the details will be laid out here.

1. - Brandon Tartikoff had deciding to give an early pick-up for Hunter which according to Michael Gleason (The co-creator of Remington Steele) had lead to the cancellation of Remington Steele after season 4 had ended (NBC was given a 60 day deadline to reverse the decision).
2. - In addition to Brosnan being selected to portray James Bond in The Living Daylights co-star Stephanie Zimbalist had signed on to do RoboCop (The role of RoboCop's partner Lewis).
3. - The publicity of Brosnan being selected to portray Bond and the outpouring of support from the Remington Steele fans had lead to a real noticeable uptick in the ratings.
4. - As a result of the the circumstances leading to the rise in ratings a mere hours before the 60 day deadline was to expire Warren Littlefield in a surprise move reverses the decision to cancel Remington Steele and instead renew it for a fifth season.
5. - The surprise renewal causes Brosnan to be replaced with Timothy Dalton (Even though NBC had tried unsuccessfully to make a deal that would allowed Brosnan to do both Remington Steele and The Living Daylights Albert R. Broccoli had refused by famously telling NBC "James Bond will not be Remington Steele and Remington Steele will not be James Bond.") and it forces Zimbalist to pull out of doing RoboCop (Nancy Allen ended up replacing Zimbalist in the role of RoboCop's partner).
6. - The end result was that NBC had ended up making a mistake by renewing Remington Steele as only 6 episodes of the show got produced before the network canceled it for good.

It would be a real good WI if Remington Steele was never given a surprise renewal by NBC deciding to let the 60 day deadline expire without taking any action or if Littlefield was never able to reverse the cancellation decision due to either Brandon Tartikoff or the board of directors at NBC forcibly overriding the decision.

 

[jb3]

That is pretty much true regarding Stallone being originally selected to do Beverly Hills Cop but the film would have ended up being a straight action film due to the dramatic rewrite of the script by Stallone. The ideas that Stallone came up with was deemed by Paramount as being "Too expensive" to produce and two weeks before filming was to begin Stallone pulled out from the film entirely. Stallone eventually used many of his ideas for Beverly Hills Cop when he wrote the screenplay for the 1986 film Cobra which he also did star in.



The actual factors that lead Dalton to not do a third James Bond film was primarily due to a legal dispute between MGM and Danjaq (Which had also owned Eon Productions) over the rights. The troubles that MGM had ran into had also contributed as well. Those troubles was mainly when MGM was sold to Pathé Communications (Not related to the French Pathé Studio) which was owned by Giancarlo Paretti who then merged them to form MGM-Pathé Communications (An planned sale of MGM/UA to Qintex in 1989 had fell through when Qintex had failed to produce a $50 Million dollar line of credit that was required for the sale) and the company had become plagued by disputes between Paretti and Crédit Lyonnais (Which through it Dutch based CLBN subsidary provided the financing to buy MGM), Alan Ladd Jr. (Over control), Lawyer Steven Chrystie over money (Totaling $18,000,000) that was owed to many MGM Clients (Which MGM had refused to pay) and Crédit Lyonnais did take all of MGM's voting stock around the same time (In exchange for a additional $145,000,000 loan which had also allowed the clients of Chrystie to be paid off). The rumors Paretti threatening to murder anyone who threatened his position (Or that of his daughter who had replaced all of the MGM accountants when Paretti gained control of MGM) also complicated matters too (Fortunately it never happened). Eventually Paretti was forcefully removed from MGM (Its also safe to say that his daughter was forced out as well) on June 17, 1991 when Crédit Lyonnais had finally seized control of MGM (They eventually foreclosed on the studio the following year). The disputes over the rights to the Bond film series we're settled in December of 1992 after the MGM foreclosure but Dalton had decided to walk away anyway when his contract to portray Bond had expired in 1993 (Dalton stated that the delays of the third Bond film he was to star in had effectively ended the contract in 1990).

NBC's handling of Remington Steele did not only hamper Pierce Brosnan's career but it did also hamper the career of his costar from the show Stephanie Zimbalist and all of the details will be laid out here.

1. - Brandon Tartikoff had deciding to give an early pick-up for Hunter which according to Michael Gleason (The co-creator of Remington Steele) had lead to the cancellation of Remington Steele after season 4 had ended (NBC was given a 60 day deadline to reverse the decision).
2. - In addition to Brosnan being selected to portray James Bond in The Living Daylights co-star Stephanie Zimbalist had signed on to do RoboCop (The role of RoboCop's partner Lewis).
3. - The publicity of Brosnan being selected to portray Bond and the outpouring of support from the Remington Steele fans had lead to a real noticeable uptick in the ratings.
4. - As a result of the the circumstances leading to the rise in ratings a mere hours before the 60 day deadline was to expire Warren Littlefield in a surprise move reverses the decision to cancel Remington Steele and instead renew it for a fifth season.
5. - The surprise renewal causes Brosnan to be replaced with Timothy Dalton (Even though NBC had tried unsuccessfully to make a deal that would allowed Brosnan to do both Remington Steele and The Living Daylights Albert R. Broccoli had refused by famously telling NBC "James Bond will not be Remington Steele and Remington Steele will not be James Bond.") and it forces Zimbalist to pull out of doing RoboCop (Nancy Allen ended up replacing Zimbalist in the role of RoboCop's partner).
6. - The end result was that NBC had ended up making a mistake by renewing Remington Steele as only 6 episodes of the show got produced before the network canceled it for good.

It would be a real good WI if Remington Steele was never given a surprise renewal by NBC deciding to let the 60 day deadline expire without taking any action or if Littlefield was never able to reverse the cancellation decision due to either Brandon Tartikoff or the board of directors at NBC forcibly overriding the decision.

Yeah, Brosnan was screwed over, but if he had been Bond instead of Dalton and the same MGM situation happens (which it almost certainly would) we could see Brosnan bailing out and a different actor replacing HIM in Goldeneye.

Did not know about SZ - which is a shame. She's a good actress and deserved a chance at big-screen success. Remington Steele (before it was un-cancelled) was given a good definitive ending with Laura and Remington living happily ever after (in TV terms) and few episodes after that in the next year really ruined it (introducing a romance triangle out of nowhere). I pretend that "season" does not exist. If I was Brosnan I would never even have appeared on NBC after that (even to do promotions).

 

[WanderingWanderer]

Yeah, Brosnan was screwed over, but if he had been Bond instead of Dalton and the same MGM situation happens (which it almost certainly would) we could see Brosnan bailing out and a different actor replacing HIM in Goldeneye.

I read somewhere that Sean "Walking spoiler" Bean (yeah, the one who got the 006/Alec role) was one of the alternate choices for Bond in 'Goldeneye'. Wonder how that would have impacted his "Sean Bean always dies" reputation, and if he got the Bond role, would he still be cast as Boromir in LOTR. I wish Dalton had more chances as Bond, I really like his performance, a shame he got so little chance in the role.

Speaking of 'Goldeneye', the role of 006 was originally supposed to be a mentor-figure for Bond, with Alan Rickman as a possible contender for the role. Imagine an alternate 'Goldeneye', to have Sean Bean as Bond, Rickman as the Bond villain (and possibly still have Judi Dench as M?). Though if Brosnan didn't get the Bond role, where would his career had gone to?

 

[jb3]

I read somewhere that Sean "Walking spoiler" Bean (yeah, the one who got the 006/Alec role) was one of the alternate choices for Bond in 'Goldeneye'. Wonder how that would have impacted his "Sean Bean always dies" reputation, and if he got the Bond role, would he still be cast as Boromir in LOTR. I wish Dalton had more chances as Bond, I really like his performance, a shame he got so little chance in the role.

Speaking of 'Goldeneye', the role of 006 was originally supposed to be a mentor-figure for Bond, with Alan Rickman as a possible contender for the role. Imagine an alternate 'Goldeneye', to have Sean Bean as Bond, Rickman as the Bond villain (and possibly still have Judi Dench as M?). Though if Brosnan didn't get the Bond role, where would his career had gone to?

Brosnan probably would have turned back to serialized TV. He wouldn't have been a big (bankable) movie star, but still a legitimate TV star.

I have heard Bean was one of the finalists for Goldeneye too, though I don't doubt it was always Brosnan if he was available. Bean as Bond is both very believable (the guy sells everything, even bad scripts) but would have been the Craig Bond before Craig. Bean exudes more of a working-class, tough persona than Brosnan's Bond which was a throwback of sorts to Moore.

 

[unclepatrick]

The Great Japanese Actor Toshiro Mifune, was George Lucas first choice for Obi Wan Kombi.
If nothing else, the fight between Darth Vader and Obi Wan on the Death Star would have been very different. And we may have seen an more action pack fight against the Sand People earlier in the film.

Also Mifune was the first choice for mister Miyagi in the movie "The Karate Kid" .