# Could-have-beens movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [November 30, 2024, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992 "2024-11-30T21:56:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Loggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Loggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loggins)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/1 "2024-11-30T21:56:20Z")
I beleive Tom Cruise could do a great Western movie. Jack Nicholson as Dracula. In other words, an actor/actress that would be cast as something completely different successfully. Not Helen Mirren as Frankenstein, no, rather Robert Redford as a villain. Perhaps some Jane Fonda as Batman. Oprah Winfrey as Tom Sawyer. Anything, use your imagination ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/2 "2024-11-30T21:58:47Z")
Humphrey Bogart and Gary Cooper in _Some Like It Hot_. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/3 "2024-11-30T22:19:25Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Humphrey Bogart and Gary Cooper in _Some Like It Hot_. I would pay good money to see that movie! ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/4 "2024-11-30T22:25:20Z")
> [@Loggins](#): > > Not Helen Mirren as Frankenstein, no, rather Robert Redford as a villain. _Frankenstein, Breasts Unbound_ Robert Redford did play a villain in one of the Marvel movies. _The Maltese Falcon_ (I am picturing the actors circa mid- to late 1980s.) Michael Clark Duncan as Casper Gutman. Gregory Hines as Joel Cairo. Jaleel White as Wilmer Cook. Denzel Washington as detective Sam Cracker. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/5 "2024-11-30T22:29:36Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Robert Redford did play a villain in one of the Marvel movies. _Captain America: The Winter Soldier_. One of the best MCU movies (IMO), in part because it’s an espionage film at its heart. And Redford was really good as the unexpected villain. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/6 "2024-11-30T22:37:01Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > And Redford was really good as the unexpected villain. Yes, it was a lot better for people who were not familiar with the comics, who got a cool surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Loggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Loggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loggins)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/7 "2024-11-30T22:38:17Z")
What a great start, how about Dame Edna as Spiderman ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/8 "2024-11-30T23:22:04Z")
> [@Loggins](#): > > Jack Nicholson as Dracula. I’ve always kind of wanted to see a Dracula who — after a couple of close calls over the years — has wisely concluded that his best shot at surviving the modern world involves amiably putting people at ease with polite warmth. Heck, just to keep from getting sloppy he maybe doesn’t even drop the act when alone with a single _under-his-spell_ thrall; he’s going to get what he wants _anyway,_ so why not keep polishing up that ‘likable and low-key guy’ persona? So, yeah: Bakula as Dracula. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/9 "2024-12-01T00:14:20Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > _Captain America: The Winter Soldier_. And _Endgame_, briefly ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/10 "2024-12-01T00:40:49Z")
A live action Count Chocula, with guest star Bakula as Dracula. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/11 "2024-12-01T00:46:02Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > > [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > > > Humphrey Bogart and Gary Cooper in _Some Like It Hot_. > > I would pay good money to see that movie! Which one would play the Marilyn role? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/12 "2024-12-01T00:49:58Z")
Boris Karloff played Peter Cauchon, in charge of the trial of Joan of Arc, in the Broadway run of Jean Anhouilh’s _The Lark_. I would’ve loved to have seen him play the same role in George Bernard Shaw’s **Saint Joan** , either on stage or in a film. Karloff as Cauchon in The Lark > **[St. Joan vs. Boris Karloff](https://thomaslmcdonald.wordpress.com/2014/10/30/st-joan-vs-boris-karloff/)** > > I’ve loved the classic Universal monster movies since I was a kid in the 1970s. That was the decade of the “Monster Kids,” who became fans thanks to a combination of TV showings o… Ray Harryhausen produced several sketches and even some test footage for a version of H.G. Wells’ _War of the Worlds_ that he wanted to do. But George Pal beat him to it with his 1953 film. But Harryhausen’s would have had tripods, unlike George Pal’s version. And in stop-motion, with that "strobing " effect, they would have looked appropriately mechanical, just as the AT-ATs in **The Empire Strikes Back** did. Harryhausen’s version wouldn’t have been completely faithful, judging from the sketches, but it still would’ve been closer than Pal’s version was > **[Ray Harryhausen's The War of the Worlds](https://waroftheworlds.fandom.com/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen%27s_The_War_of_the_Worlds)** > > Ray Harryhausen's The War of the Worlds was a proposed film adaptation of H.G. Wells' 1898 novel. In the early 1950s Harryhausen created a model Martian based on Wells' description for a demo reel showing it emerging from the unscrewed cylinder.\[1\]... > [@](#): > > [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Y7ywAaIsgOA](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Y7ywAaIsgOA) ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/13 "2024-12-01T01:03:11Z")
I would have liked to see Philip Seymour Hoffman as Kingpin in a Spiderman movie. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/14 "2024-12-01T02:05:50Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Which one would play the Marilyn role? Robert Mitchum ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/15 "2024-12-01T02:59:38Z")
William H Macy would have been a perfect Dagwood Bumstead. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/16 "2024-12-01T03:03:48Z")
A real life could-have-been: we could have had a _Matrix_ with Wil Smith as Neo, but he turned it down (he didn’t want to be in another sci-fi movie at the time) in favor of _Wild Wild West_. He reportedly wasn’t too proud of that decision in retrospect as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/17 "2024-12-01T03:22:39Z")
Jonathan Harris as Dave Bowman and the Lost in Space Robot as HAL 9000 in **2001: A Space Odyssey**. _Danger, Dave Bowman! Danger!_ _Never fear, Bowman is here._ _Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I’m half crazy all for the love of you._ _Silence, you ninny!_ And the monolith would be a giant carrot. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/18 "2024-12-01T03:35:11Z")
Obviously, Anthony Hopkins crushed it, but I always thought Jeremy Irons would’ve made a great Lecter. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/19 "2024-12-01T03:38:50Z")
Jude Law as James Bond. A chilling saga of [The Dyatlov Pass incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident) Nobody knows what really happened, but a really good storyteller could come up a very good movie. Eschew the Hollywood crap. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992/20 "2024-12-01T03:43:51Z")
There’s a great movie to be made about the Kent State incident - he’s a new National Guard member, she’s a Kent State coed. They are about to collide with destiny! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-have-beens-movies/1010992.md?page=2)