Film castings that never were.....

Status
Not open for further replies.
Burt Reynolds turned down a role in Terms of Endearment that had been more or less written for him, to do a shitey remake of a French sex comedy that flopped all over the gaff. Jack Nicholson took the role, won an Oscar and never looked back

Burt Reynolds as John McClane in Die Hard, Sylvester Stallone as Axel Foley in Beverley Hills Cop and Frank Sinatra as Dirty Harry
 


Oh and Tom Selleck passed on Indiana Jones I believe
He couldn't fit it around Magnum PI (Blunt couldn't be black widow as she was signed up to be in..... Gulliver's travels with Jack Black :lol:)

Burt Reynolds as John McClane in Die Hard, Sylvester Stallone as Axel Foley in Beverley Hills Cop and Frank Sinatra as Dirty Harry
Three parts where I think what we ended up with was better tbh.

Ton Cruise as Tony Stark/Ironman
Pretty sure Jon Favreau had RDJ at the top of his wish list.
 
Last edited:
to be fair there has been loads... some where somebody was cast and then replaced, or others where they had been cast but then couldn't take on role due to contractual obligations...

Back in the 70's Roy Scheider was cast to take lead role (as Mike) in The Deer Hunter (which then went to Robert de Niro) but couldn't do it because he had to do Jaws 2. What some may not know is that back in the 70's Scheider was at one stage the highest paid actor in the World.

With the Bond films, Pierce Brosnan was initially signed up to take on the Bond role BEFORE Timothy Dalton in the 80's, but at last minute the TV producers of Remington Steele decided to make one more season and he had to drop out (although he did get another chance years later with Goldeneye)

George Lazenby, the Bond from OHMSS had been offered a contract to do the next 6 or 7 Bond films (so up till around Spy Who Loved Me) ... his agent convinced him there was no future in Bond anymore (this was back in the late 60's) so he just did the one film and then promptly vanished from cinema screens! :eek:

I believe Tom Cruise was initial lead in Footloose, and he had to do a different film so Kevin Bacon stepped in.

And at the height of the John Hughes films in the 80's Molly Ringwald was cast as original lead in Pretty Woman... that went to Julia Roberts at last minute
 
Last edited:
Burt Reynolds as John McClane in Die Hard, Sylvester Stallone as Axel Foley in Beverley Hills Cop and Frank Sinatra as Dirty Harry

actually Frank Sinatra had the rights to have lead role in Die Hard (as it was an actual sequel to his previous film The Detective) but by time they made Die Hard he considered himself too old and stepped aside
 
Ronald Reagan was originally cast as Rick in Casablanca.


myth

Warner Bros. dropped a press release to The Hollywood Reporter stating that "Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan will co-star in Casablanca," a detail that they knew to be false, but spilled anyway in order to keep the stars' names in the papers in advance of the release of another film they were really in, Kings Row. The truth was that director Hal Wallis never considered anyone but Bogart for the role, and the studio knew Reagan was about to be called into active duty for the U.S. Army -- due to a little overseas skirmish the military was dealing with.
 
Deckard in Bladerunner, Ford was about 5th choice the screenwriter envisaged an elderly Robert Mitchum in the role, Scott wanted Hoffman
 
I'm just reading that Sean Connery was offered and turned down....wait for it.....both the role of Gandalf in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, and Morpheus in The Matrix. Imagine Connery as Morpheus man!

Any other good examples of poor decisions?

Will smith turned down the role of Neo to make Wild Wild West. Would have been quite different with him and Connery in it.
 
I love these.

If you wiki Harrison Ford he has turned down loads of major roles, many of which he later regretted.

Did I once read that Maverick in Top Gun written with Mickey Rourke in mind or did I make that up?

Cary Grant was in mind for Bond in Doctor No till they realised his going rate was a million per picture and that was the entire budget!
 
Will smith turned down the role of Neo to make Wild Wild West. Would have been quite different with him and Connery in it.

“The Matrish ish everywhere. It ish all around ush. Even now, in thish very room. You can shee it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxesh. It ish the world that hash been pulled over your eyesh to blind you from the truth.”

“YEAH, BOI!”
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top