List the movie roles that would’ve likely been better had the filmmakers gone with their original choices. My two?
Johnny Carson would’ve been great in the Jerry Lewis role in The King Of Comedy. Lewis wasn’t bad. In fact, he was really good. But I think if they’d have been able to convince Carson to play the part he might very well have won an Oscar. And maybe the movie would be today considered Classic Scorsese as opposed to Forgotten Gem.
And I’d have loved to have seen John Lennon play the scientist role in Wargames.
What are your picks for great casting choices that might have been?
I just love Eric Stoltz, who was the original Marty McFly in Back to the Future. Michael J. Fox was cute in the role, but I kinda wish Eric hadn’t gotten the heave-ho.
Obviously, Anthony Hopkins was superb in the role, but I’ve heard that Gene Hackman was set, at one point to direct and star in “Silence of the Lambs.” I think he’d have made a very interesting Hannibal Lecter.
Marilyn Monroe should have played Holly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This doesn’t quite fit the OP because, AFAIK, she wasn’t considered for the role. But she should have been, and she and the role were made for each other. Hepburn was good, but Marilyn would have been truer to the character in the novel.
I’d have gone with Jackie Gleason. Carson wasn’t an actor, and he might have been perfect but he also might have been a mess. Not everyone can act, even playing themselves. Also, Carson’s great gift to television was his willingness to let others shine, even at his expense. Great for the Tonight Show, not so good for movie roles, particularly this one. But I’d certainly watch your version, just to see if the gamble paid off.
I’d have taken Alec Guiness over Peter Sellers in just about everything the latter did that didn’t involve a cartoon cat, particularly Being There and Dr. Strangelove. You’d get an even more gifted actor (comic or dramatic) and lose the irritating affected mannered crap Sellers scattered all over even his best work.
Tallulah Bankhead was supposed to star in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, but she was already too much of a mess to have been reliable.
I don’t know if she was considered, but I always thought Far From Heaven would have been much better with the brittle glamour of Sharon Stone in Julianne Moore’s role.
And these are a little esoteric: but John Gilbert was supposed to have played the crook opposite Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper in Desire; and Jean Harlow was to have been the ghost in Topper, but they both died before filming. Huge casting losses to the films!
Boris Karloff was considered in the role of Mortimer in Arsenic and Old Lace but was unavailable for filming (he was playing the role on Broadway). Since the role was written for him, it would have been nice to have him in the movie.
The Mormon twins in Ocean’s 11 and Ocean’s 12 were written for Luke and Owen Wilson. Casey Affleck and Scott Caan did a great job, but I can’t help but wonder what the Wilson’s would have done with those parts.
Constantine would have become a cult classic horror-noir film instead of a forgettable adaptation of a very good comic book series (Hellblazer) if Keanu Reeves had been replaced by either Daniel Craig, James Marsters, Paul Bettany, Ewan McGregor, Gary Oldman, or Kiefer Sutherland for the title role.
I saw The Ladykillers excited to see Peter Sellers, but Alec Guiness surprised me and completely stole the show. I didn’t even pay any attention to Peter Sellers. So I guess I would agree with you, because Alec Guiness is surprisingly awesome in a comedy role.
Contact would have been a hell of a lot better if they’d jettisoned Matthew MacConahey (spelling probably wrong) and rotated the cast around. Tom Skerrit as religious dude, the guy who played the father (whose name escapes me) as the lead astronaut and Michael Douglas as the father.
anyone other than Will Smith in I, Robot.
Personally I would have paid to see Samuel L. Jackson as* Nell*
To be fair, Sellers did The Ladykillers early in his career before he had broken through as a leading comic actor in films. He was a newcomer so it would be expected for his role to be secondary to Guiness who was an established star in British cinema.
While we’re on the subject, I don’t know if it would’ve significantly improved the remake of The Ladykillers, but I think either Christopher Walken or Kevin Spacey would’ve been a better choice than Tom Hanks to play the Alec Guiness role.