Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes in A Face in The Crowd.
With Gene Wilder as Billy Bibbitt. Yeah, that must have been a great production.
For ages, Kirk Douglas tried to get a movie version made, and couldn’t do it. After 15 years or so, his son Michael said, “Give me the rights, and let me take a crack at it.”
Michael Douglas WAS able to get the financing. He then had to tell Kirk, “Dad, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is, we’re going to make a movie of Cuckoo’s Nest. The bad news is… you’re way too old to play McMurphy.”
I dunno, after that movie I could see him pulling anyone off.
:o
Really? I never watched the show, but when I heard about it, my thoughts were:
1 - What a perfect casting decision.
2 - I hope Glau gets to play some characters closer to human-normal at some point in her career.
Steppenwolf Theatre company in Chicago did Cuckoo’s Nest maybe 7-8 years ago. Gary Sinese was BRILLIANT in it.
Christian Slater recently did Cuckoo’s Nest in London’s West End, once again standing in the shadow of Jack Nicholson’s eyebrows. Didn’t see it so can’t comment on the performance.
Well, she got to play herself on “The Big Bang Theory”. That’s probably the best she can hope for right now.
I saw it and was actually pretty impressed with his performance. Slater does a great Nicholson impression but to his credit, he didn’t fall back on it in the same role.
Kiefer Sutherland as William S. Burroughs in Beat. ((YouTube trailer)
This was definitely “You’re kidding, right?” casting – but he actually did a pretty good job of it.
I (and a lot of other people) thought that Jack Black was a terrible choice to play Carl Denham in Peter Jackson’s King Kong. But I love the way Jackson re-interpreted the character and the way Black played it.
Sure, but my larger point is that it’s pretty amazing in retrospect that he’s had not just a great one-off or a couple of successful roles, but that he’s had a very successful acting career post Funky Bunch.
Nastassja Kinski as Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Tess is supposed to be… well… zaftig. Kinski did a good job with the wounded ingenue part of the role, though.
Hugh Laurie being cast as House knocked me off-kilter badly enough that I still haven’t watched a single episode. I remember snickering along with Diana Rigg when she said that he was looking for serious dramatic roles.
You are really missing some fine acting–not just House, but all the other actors in the show.
House is so un-Laurie that he is almost a different person.
The Prestige: Who’d have thought that David Bowie could play Nikola Tesla? And yet not only did he pull it off, I didn’t even recognize him as Bowie until I saw the end credits.
Reeves played John Constantine (rhymes with BEAN) - a very interesting character in a fun, exiting film. I’m still waiting for a movie about John Constantine (rhymes with WINE)
Thank you, I was afraid I was the only one.
I think physically, Oliver Reed is all wrong for Athos. He looks more like he would be suited for Porthos. He owned the role, though.
There’s only ever been one case of good casting for a live-action Batman, and that was Adam West, who was perfect as the campy, silver age Batman. The best you can say about the others is that a few of them did a pretty good Bruce Wayne.
If you include voice actors, though, nobody owns the role more than Kevin Conroy.
All this Batman talk and nothing about Nicholson? The joker is supposed to be this younger, thin crazy dude. Jack’s an older, thicker, admittedly crazy person. But he was great.
Ed Norton as a crazed skinhead? Didn’t see it. But he pulled it off in American History X.
Tom Hanks as a dying AIDS patient? I did not imagine he had the range, but he earned his Oscar in Philadelphia.
I know someone who was around Glau for a short spell, and to hear him tell it, human-normal might be a miscasting for her. <hearsay> He said she was every bit as spacey as River Tam. </hearsay>
When my wife told me I was going to a movie with Sandra Bullock in it, I thought I had better be getting laid later for having to sit through this crap.
The Blind Side actually turned out to be a pretty good movie and I thought SB did a very good job. I never would have guessed I would like anything with her in it.
Pretty Boy Leonardo DiCaprio as Arnie Grape? The kid is supposed to be an ugly total retard.
He got raves and the first realizations of his amazing acting ability.
And who’d have thought that Gordon Jump could play a child molester one time that would be remembered thirty years later?