topic Re: Re-casting made movies in Community Spirit

Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 11:42:40 GMT

Are there movies you wish had been re-cast with other actors? How much of a difference do you believe switching a lead actress or supporting actor etc would make to the quality of a film?

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 11:47:18 GMT

For instance, take "Wizard of Oz." MGM badly wanted Shirley Temple, a top ten box office draw for the last six years, to play Dorothy. Fox wouldn't release her, thankfully. Much as I love Shirley and much as I'm willing to come to her defence as a singer (people erroneously claim her voice was the reason she lost the role), she simply didn't have any genuine pathos to her character. Temple was an expert at playing cheeky, optimistic kids and Dorothy needed to be able to convey a desperate sadness at trying to get home, something Garland played, expertly.

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 11:51:20 GMT

On the more modern front, take the movie, "Pretty Woman." The producers wanted John Travolta and Molly Ringwald, neither was interested. I think the movie could have worked with these two. Ringwald especially was in desperate need of a hit by 1990 and this film could have helped her bridge the gap to adult leading lady status.

Richard Gere, incidentally, built a career of taking roles Travolta had declined: "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "American Gigolo" were written for Travolta and he initially accepted, before bowing out. Gere was also second choice for "Chicago" after Travolta had refused the part.

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 11:57:33 GMT

Whitney Houston, fresh of "The Bodyguard" had accepted the role of Tina Turner in 1993 before finding out she was pregnant. That Bobby Kristina really ruined Houston's movie career IMO. If she hadn't gotten pregnant, she would have done the movie, probably gotten Oscar nominated as Angela Bassett was, and this would have given her more legitimacy as an actress and another hit only a year after "The Bodyguard". As it was, she wasn't seen on the screen for another three years and only in an ensemble role in "Waiting to Exhale" which was only a mild success. She couldn't sustain the buzz she created as Rachel Marron...

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:00:06 GMT

"Thelma and Louise" originally starred Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep. One of them got pregnant (I think Streep) and so they let it go but came back a year later for "Death Becomes Her" - a much more inferior film.

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:02:50 GMT

The queen of all turn-downs is Michelle Pfeiffer, who was second-choice for "Pretty Woman" but turned it down, along with "Silence of the Lambs", "Basic Instinct", "Thelma and Louise" and "Evita". The latter she actually signed for but when the producers wouldn't agree to film the entire movie in Los Angeles, she broke her contract.

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:04:38 GMT

"Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" was intended for Grace Kelly and James Dean. She married a prince, he bought a Porsche and the rest as they say is history...

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:09:35 GMT

Poor Nicole Kidman has lost a few really good roles. A recurring rib injury from "Moulin Rouge" prevented her from finishing "Panic Room" and she was replaced by Jodie Foster.

Several years later, Kidman had been hired for "The Reader" but found out she was pregnant and didn't want the place she had to go to as an actress with the subject matter, to effect her unborn child. Ironically the year Kate Winslet was nominated for the role, five actresses were on stage to announce the Best Actress winner (usually the Best Actor winner of the previous year did the honours) and one of those actresses was Kidman who actually placed the Oscar in Winslet's hands.

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:13:05 GMT

Bette Midler says the biggest regret of her career is turning down "Sister Act." She was angry at Disney who refused to produce her film, "For the Boys" and she didn't like the idea of being in a nun's habit for two hours. Actually, I think the film could have worked with Midler. Her brash, Jewish persona would have been as big a contrast as Whoopi Goldberg's skin colour. And by 1992, Midler really needed a hit, which she wouldn't get until "First Wives Club" four years later, and then only in an ensemble role *waves to Whitney*!

Re: Re-casting made movies

k0llectable5 — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:16:26 GMT

Thats all very interesting 🙂 The donkey in Shrek was oiginally cast for Chris Farley. He died half way through the shooting of the film (or sometime early on in the piece) so Eddie Murphy took over the role. Wonder what Chris Farley was like as Donkey... He was awesome.

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:17:35 GMT

Kathleen Turner was offered "Ghost" but turned it down at a time when she also really needed a hit. She says the reason she said no was because she "didn't play victims." Demi Moore, who won the role, later turned down "While You Were Sleeping" because they didn't offer her enough money and two years later she was offering her services at a rock bottom price ($1 million instead of $12 million) for "The Bone Collector", and still didn't get the part.

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:21:22 GMT

@secondhand-wonderland wrote:
Thats all very interesting 🙂 The donkey in Shrek was oiginally cast for Chris Farley. He died half way through the shooting of the film (or sometime early on in the piece) so Eddie Murphy took over the role. Wonder what Chris Farley was like as Donkey... He was awesome.

Was he that very large comic with blonde hair? I recall he was quite young? That's sad. I guess it's easier to replace an actor when it's voice-over than having to re-shoot half a movie. In "The Gladiator" when Oliver Reed died before end of shooting, they had his head digitally inserted in a few scenes and made him say lines he hadn't yet spoken. It looked very convincing.

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:25:20 GMT

Julia Roberts, who hasn't had a hit in over a decade, was first choice for the "Blind Side", a part you would think she would have been perfect for as she is a Southerner and a natural blonde. The part won Sandra Bullock an Oscar.

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:28:06 GMT

Michelle Pfeiffer wasn't the only actor who turned down "Silence of the Lambs". The studio, Orion, wanted "Sean Connery" for the part of Hannibal Lector. Fortunately for film history, the unsexy Scot wouldn't have a bar of it.

Get it, bars???

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:30:09 GMT

James Cameron wanted only one actress for "Titanic"... Gwyneth Paltrow. He spent six months trying to woo her for the part of Rose but she was turned off by all the physical demands the part entailed...

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:33:21 GMT

Speaking of Titanic, David Warner, who played Billy Zane's bodyguard, was originally cast as Freddy Krueger in "Nightmare On Elm St". He had another film commitment which ran into shooting delays so he had to bow out of the horror movie, leaving the door wide open for Robert Englund.

Re: Re-casting made movies

k0llectable5 — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:37:15 GMT

@bushies.girl.is.best wrote:
@secondhand-wonderland wrote:
Thats all very interesting 🙂 The donkey in Shrek was oiginally cast for Chris Farley. He died half way through the shooting of the film (or sometime early on in the piece) so Eddie Murphy took over the role. Wonder what Chris Farley was like as Donkey... He was awesome.

Was he that very large comic with blonde hair? I recall he was quite young? That's sad. I guess it's easier to replace an actor when it's voice-over than having to re-shoot half a movie. In "The Gladiator" when Oliver Reed died before end of shooting, they had his head digitally inserted in a few scenes and made him say lines he hadn't yet spoken. It looked very convincing.

Yeah thats him, he used to be on Saturday night live and did some funny skits with Adam Sandler when they were younger. He was a bit over the top, but I loved him and found him hilarious, still do when I watch his stuff. Apparently he lived a life of excess too much alcohol, too many drugs and too much bad food...

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:41:51 GMT

Scarlett O'Hara.... *sigh*... We've all heard the stories. The two front runners were actually Bette Davis and Paulette Goddard (a co-star in several Chaplin films, she also lived with him "in sin"). Bette Davis took herself out of the running when she accepted the Southern vixen role in Warners' "Jezebel" which was more or less a GWTW rip-off. Before Vivien Leigh came on the scene, Goddard had almost secured the role - in her screen tests she is quite good but she just didn't look like Leigh, nor did she possess her range.

Leigh was a unique movie star of the day - a great beauty and a great actress. She just hated doing films and had she not wrangled her way out of her seven year contract with Selznick by blaming the war and spending most of the 40's doing theatre in England, she might just have rivalled Davis as Queen of Hollywood. Such a shame as she was the only actress who had Bette Davis's intensity, but on top of this had unbelievable beauty too, making her the total package.

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:52:20 GMT

Also in GWTW, Selznick tested a little known actress called Joan Fontaine for the part of Melanie. After the audition she suggested Selznick test her sister, Olivia de Havilland...

A year later, de Havilland returned the favour, when unable to get out of her Warner's contract to play the lead in "Rebecca", she suggested Selznick and Hitchcock hire her sister, Fontaine, which made a star of her.

Two years later, Fontaine, now a firmly established star, won the Oscar for her role in Hitchcock's "Suspicion" a good four years or so before de Havilland would win. De Havilland, who was a major name by the mid 30's was enraged at being up-staged by her little sister, beginning a lifelong feud which only ended with Fontaine's death in December last year.

Incidentally, at the time, both actresses, well into their 90's were two of the oldest living female stars from the golden years of picture making. De Havilland, at 98 lives in Paris and still occasionally attends award shows and screenings.

Re: Re-casting made movies

bushies.girl.is.best — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:55:37 GMT

@secondhand-wonderland wrote:
@bushies.girl.is.best wrote:
@secondhand-wonderland wrote:
Thats all very interesting 🙂 The donkey in Shrek was oiginally cast for Chris Farley. He died half way through the shooting of the film (or sometime early on in the piece) so Eddie Murphy took over the role. Wonder what Chris Farley was like as Donkey... He was awesome.

Was he that very large comic with blonde hair? I recall he was quite young? That's sad. I guess it's easier to replace an actor when it's voice-over than having to re-shoot half a movie. In "The Gladiator" when Oliver Reed died before end of shooting, they had his head digitally inserted in a few scenes and made him say lines he hadn't yet spoken. It looked very convincing.
Yeah thats him, he used to be on Saturday night live and did some funny skits with Adam Sandler when they were younger. He was a bit over the top, but I loved him and found him hilarious, still do when I watch his stuff. Apparently he lived a life of excess too much alcohol, too many drugs and too much bad food...

I remember him but I'm surprised you know about SNL, are you American? I lived in the USA for a while that's why I know about the show but I didn't think it aired in Australia, even on cable. I always thought he looked unhealthy - not just his weight but he seemed to sweat and pant alot but I was never sure if it was just part of his act. John Belushi, another SNL member lived a similar life of excess. There's only one way to go...