Second choice actors.

bonerm

Have you ever watched several movies by a particular director. As well as getting a feel for that directors style you also start to note his has a has favourite actos (in particular supporting actors) and seems to enjoy creating roles so that these people can get involved in the project. The role exists but then for whatever reason the favourite cannot participate so the director goes for a "second choice" or substitute who can often do the job just as well and sometimes even better.

I'll give you some examples
Paul Verhoven:
1.Total Recall : Michael Ironside
2.Starship Troopers : Michael Ironside
3.Robocop : Kurtwood Smith
(now I think Smith did a great job in Robocop but I could easily have seen Michael Ironside doing a good attempt at is as well. Interestingly enough I believe Ironside had been in negotiations to play the Robocop character as well!)

William Friedkin
1.French Connection: Roy Schieder
2.Sorcerer: Roy Schieder
3.The Exorcist : Jason Miller
(I could easily have seen Schieder playing the Karras role in this movie.)

Anyway I thought it'd be fun if we made a list of actors films where you guess the director really wanted someone else but had to make do with their "second choice".

Kess73

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones was a second or third choice actor. Tom Selleck was offered the role but ended up turning it down as he could not get the time off from filming Magnum PI.



Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry was way down the list of choices with Frank Sinatra and Charles Bronson ahead of him.


Robert Shaw got the role of Quint in Jaws only after Lee Marvin turned it down. Just as well because Lee Marvin would have killed the shark and the film would have ended early.

Duggy747

Keanu Reeves was saved from having a bargain basement DVD future when he was cast for The Matrix, he was like the 7th choice behind Brad Pitt and Will Smith!

Hugh Jackman, Adrian Brody & Robin Williams were interesting in playing The Joker in The Dark Knight but good thing Heath was on-board since day one.

Clint Eastwood could've been Superman had he not been busy. James Caan was offered but thought he'd look stupid........he was right!

Stallone was to be the lead in Beverly Hills Cop

Van Damme was the original Predator before he quit early on. *pictures Predator performing a roundhouse kick on Arnie* The costume also looked very different to one we love now, almost like a giant mantis.

A Commando 2 script was written but Arnie wasn't interested so it was tweaked, turned into Die Hard, and Bruce Willis got his big break! Same thing happened to Total Recall 2 which was turned into Minority Report :pac:

Mark Hamill

Duggy747 wrote: »

Same thing happened to Total Recall 2 which was turned into Minority Report :pac:

Eh, Minority Report is based on the book of the same name by Philip K Dick.

spank_inferno

Hard to think of one along what the OP is refering to.

Tarantino seems to be loyal to a few actors so parhaps he has written roles for them that had to be fulfilled by someone else.

In terms of a role in general going to the 2nd choice:
Peter Jackson originally cast Stuart Townsend to play the part of Aragorn.
Seeing that townsend was too young, they quickly brought in Viggo Mortensen (thankfully)

uncleoswald

Wasn't Christopher Walken meant to be Han Solo?

And Timothy Dalton was 2nd choice for Bond because Brosnon couldn't get out of his Remington Steel contract.

Skerries

which i think worked out better for Brosnan as he got the better films and he was the right age by then

tricky D

Mark Hamill wrote: »

Eh, Minority Report is based on the book of the same name by Philip K Dick.

Total Recall was based on 'We Can Remember It for You Wholesale' also by Philip K Dick.

mike65

Duggy747 wrote: »

James Caan was offered but thought he'd look stupid........he was right!

Fail! It was Robert Redford who said he'd look silly. Caan was considered its true.

My favourite second choice is Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, a certain Ronald Reagan was first choice.

Oh didn't Eastwood turn down/miss Apocalypse Now (as Willard I'm guessing)

pickarooney

Along the lines of the OP, Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York was clearly scripted with Robert de Niro in mind but instead we got Day Lewis pretending to be de Niro for three excrutiating hours.

podgemonster

Kevin Costner was gunning for the lead in Michael Collins! I think they told him to f off coz he couldn't get the accent right!

norrie rugger

podgemonster wrote: »

Kevin Costner was gunning for the lead in Michael Collins! I think they told him to f off coz he couldn't get the accent right!

Yet they let Julia Roberts in it????

Dozen Wicked Words

podgemonster wrote: »

Kevin Costner was gunning for the lead in Michael Collins! I think they told him to f off coz he couldn't get the accent right!

You clearly haven't heard his mastery of the UK East Midlands accent in Prince of Thieves, he can totally nail accents.

bonerm

dooferoaks wrote: »

You clearly haven't heard his mastery of the UK East Midlands accent in Prince of Thieves, he can totally nail accents.

This line in particular always makes me cringe :

"Did I wrong you in another life, Will Scarlett? Where does this intolerable hatred for me come from? "

he sounds like he's either bored or drugged up to the eyeballs or something when he delivers it.

irishh_bob

uncleoswald wrote: »

Wasn't Christopher Walken meant to be Han Solo?

And Timothy Dalton was 2nd choice for Bond because Brosnon couldn't get out of his Remington Steel contract.

believe it or not , timothy dalton was considered for the role of 007 after sean connery stepped down but was deemed too young , enter mr raised eyebrow

irishh_bob

dooferoaks wrote: »

You clearly haven't heard his mastery of the UK East Midlands accent in Prince of Thieves, he can totally nail accents.

abit like sean connery only a lame accent in place of a cool one

PeterIanStaker

The character of Dirty Harry was supposed to be 57 and on the verge of retirement in the script for the first movie.
Eastwood was 41 and initially deemed "too young" to play the character (funnily, for Eastwoods last appearance as Harry, he was 57).

Giselle

Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones? Not with that 'tache! And Ronald Reagan in Casablanca? It could never have worked.

The only one I know is that John Travolta turned down the lead in An Officer And A Gentleman, giving Richard Gere his biggest break.

I hate that movie!

Duggy747

mike65 wrote: »

Fail! It was Robert Redford who said he'd look silly. Caan was considered its true.

Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood and James Caan were all offered the movie's title role. All three turned it down: Redford wanted too much money; Eastwood said he was too busy; Caan said, "There's no way I'm getting into that silly suit."

Fail

Mark Hamill wrote:

Eh, Minority Report is based on the book of the same name by Philip K Dick.

They twisted the book around to create a sequel to Total Recall, the only thing that was kept from the 1st script was the scene where Tom Cruise has the car built around him in the factory:

The story by Philip K. Dick was originally adapted as a sequel to Total Recall (1990) by writers Ronald Shusett and Gary Goldman (later joined by Robert Goethals). The setting was changed to Mars with the Precogs being people mutated by the Martian atmosphere, as established in the first film. The main character was also changed to Douglas Quaid, the man played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The project eventually fell apart but the writers, who still owned the rights to the original story, rewrote the script, removing the elements from "Total Recall". This script was eventually tossed out when writer Jon Cohen was hired in 1997 to start the project over from scratch. The only original element from the early script which made it to the final film is the sequence in the car factory, an idea that Steven Spielberg loved.

Mackman

Duggy747 wrote: »

A Commando 2 script was written but Arnie wasn't interested so it was tweaked, turned into Die Hard, and Bruce Willis got his big break!

Bruce Willis was actually way down the line for that role, ahead of him were: Arnie, Sylverster Stallone, Burt Reynolds, Richard Gere (:eek:), Harrison Ford, and Mel Gibson

Mark Hamill

Duggy747 wrote: »

They twisted the book around to create a sequel to Total Recall, the only thing that was kept from the 1st script was the scene where Tom Cruise has the car built around him in the factory:

The story by Philip K. Dick was originally adapted as a sequel to Total Recall (1990) by writers Ronald Shusett and Gary Goldman (later joined by Robert Goethals). The setting was changed to Mars with the Precogs being people mutated by the Martian atmosphere, as established in the first film. The main character was also changed to Douglas Quaid, the man played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The project eventually fell apart but the writers, who still owned the rights to the original story, rewrote the script, removing the elements from "Total Recall". This script was eventually tossed out when writer Jon Cohen was hired in 1997 to start the project over from scratch. The only original element from the early script which made it to the final film is the sequence in the car factory, an idea that Steven Spielberg loved.

Oh, so they tried to make Total Recall 2 from the Minority Report story, but abondoned it and started from scratch to make Minority Report into its own movie. Interesting

Duggy747 wrote:

A Commando 2 script was written but Arnie wasn't interested so it was tweaked, turned into Die Hard, and Bruce Willis got his big break!

Now that I think of it, Die Hard With a Vengeance originally a Brandon Lee starring vehicle and then a Lethal Weapon project:

The film is based on a script written by Jonathan Hensleigh originally titled Simon Says, which was originally conceived as a Brandon Lee action film, then later considered for use as the fourth installment of the Lethal Weapon series. The first 45 minutes, until immediately after the Wall Street bombing, of Die Hard with a Vengeance is almost identical to Simon Says; the robbery was added to bring the story in line with other Die Hard films.

ziedth

pickarooney wrote: »

Along the lines of the OP, Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York was clearly scripted with Robert de Niro in mind but instead we got Day Lewis pretending to be de Niro for three excrutiating hours.

I thought DDL was pretty good in it TBH.

The other actor who I can think of was the squad leader leader in Dog Soldiers, he think he has poped up in a few other of marshalls films since

jeffreylebowski

Kess73 wrote: »

Robert Shaw got the role of Quint in Jaws only after Lee Marvin turned it down. Just as well because Lee Marvin would have killed the shark and the film would have ended early.

I agree with this so strongly I almost had to play air guitar on top of my desk at work to express it.