Actually, I would have loved to see Cage as Superman, with Tim Burton directing. Part of me is still hoping against all odds that the movie will still be made. Don’t ask me why, it just made perfect sense when I heard it.
I’ll second (third, whatever) George Clooney in Batman & Robin. Awful. Just awful.
This award has got to go to whoever cast in the role of “Arthur, the Boy King” none other than a 65 year old Sean Connery in the film, “First Knight”
I accept as someone posted above that the movie is not the book and certain liberties can be taken. But when you are dealing with a centuries old story that is familiar to everybody why age the main character by 50 years for no real reason? As far as I know Arthur was only old in this film because they were able to hire Connery. It was in no way part of the story they were trying to tell.
What were your parents thinking when they failed to use birth control?
I thought that Robert DeNiro was an awful choice for Fearless Leader.
And I’ll see your Johnny Rico, Rik and raise you the rest of the cast. These people were supposed to be from Buenos Aires for crying out loud. I counted one hispanic starship trooper. The rest of them had Malibu WASP written all over them. (FTR, in the book, Rico was Filipino–pretty much the anti-Van Dien.).
Henry Gibson and Lily Tomlin in “Nashville.”
Rebecca Pidgeon as any role. Hands down.
Well, Lisa Kudrow is 40 years old. If you could buy Billy Crystal as 45-50, it’s hardly a mismatch.
But Kudrow is a miscast anyway, because her shtick is Phoebe. Sometimes she’s a Non-Airhead Phoebe, but it’s still Phoebe. The woman cannot act.
Say What?! DeNiro was the only redeeming feature of that movie.
don cheadle in oceans eleven. what the hell kind of accent is that? i know hes mates with soderberg, but its pushing the envelope having him play a cockney explosives expert. why didnt they just get an english actor?
I’m surprised that Christian Haydensen (as Anakin Skywalker) hasn’t been mentioned yet. Hayden Christiansen? Darth Vader != brat
As another Field’s fan (“The Bank Dick” was absolute genius.), I have to agree that he would have turned the role into a W.C. Field’s comedy turn. C’mon that big, scary head wouldn’t have been the same with his pudgy puss.
But while we’re on the subject of Wizard of Oz casting, I’ve often heard the background story of how Shirley Temple was originally slated for the role of Dorothy, but for whatever reason Judy Garland took her place. Usually it’s mentioned in the vein of “wouldn’t the WOO have SUCKED if Shirley Temple got the role?” Well I for one have always thought Garland looked and sounded way too old for the role despite the attempts to make her look more flat chested than she was.
Cal: Thanks for straightening me out on this one. I was a little suspicious of the source for The Black Shield of Falworth attribution. It didn’t seem very authoritative (there were lots of misspelled words!), and the absence of any quote, from any movie, with the word “yonder” or “yonda” in the IMDB should also have been a tip-off.
I Wanda, err, wonder how the legend got started.
I don’t think I’ve found a character in a movie so unintentionally funny. I’d like to add Michael J. Fox as the lead from Bright Lights, Big City to the list- I don’t think I was the only person who had trouble visualizing Alex P. Keaton as an 80s Jayson Blair.
Keaton, schmeaton. The screwup was trying to be all serious with the franchise.
Anybody except Adam West as Batman.
Watch it, RikWriter. 'Round these parts, you can get banned for making comments like this.
Except it wouldn’t be Superman. The working script by Kevin Smith was passable but not good. Subsequent drafts, where they tried to turn Superman into the typical dark, twisted character Burton and Cage like to play with were downright rapes of the character. Totally off-base.
A bright and campy Batman was bad enough. A dark, morose Superman would be just as wrong, if not more so.
The original idea, when Cage’s name was floated, was to cast him as Brainiac, with an unknown playing Superman. That was casting that would have made good sense.
You’re probably thinking of The Black Shield of Falworth. But that line may be as apocyphal as Cary Grant’s “Judy, Judy, Judy.”
I’m shocked no one has mentioned this yet…
Rosie O’Donnell as Betty Rubble!!!
All I can say is, “damn!”
This was my first thought as well. So much so that it bears repeating:
Denise Richards as a nuclear weapons expert.
The mind boggles.
Again, I feel I should disagree… Rosie O’Donnell was a great Betty: a bit heavier and less ‘detached’ than the cartoon Betty, maybe, but she fit the role nicely. And it was great seeing her as Rick Moranis’ wife (who, for all intents and purposes, was the perfect Barney).
Robert Redford as Denys Finch-Hatton in Out of Africa.
The real Finch-Hatton was your stereotypical British white hunter, looking sort of like Basil Rathbone in his prime. All through the movie I kept wondering why there was an American hunter with an English-sounding name wandering around in colonial Kenya.
DD