This is an interesting list of roles that actors/actresses have turned down. I always find these types of lists interesting. Of course, you can rarely be sure that everything in them is completely accurate, but it’s still humorous to picture some of these. Imagining John Travolta in the role the list claims he turned down is most amusing…and slightly horrifying.
When reading lists such as this one is reminded of how obviously important casting is to the success of a character and the movie as a whole. At no time is casting more important than in movies based on pre-existing stories (books, popular stories, historical events, movie-remakes, etc.) Any time a character has already been established in some way, that character’s casting becomes paramount to its success.
I’ve heard of actors being cast in a certain role and thought, “Wow, that’s a horrible choice,” many times. For instance, I thought Hugh Jackman was a horrible choice for the role of Wolverine in the X-Men films. I was quite wrong about that one. I’m currently feeling that way about a movie set to come out at the end of 2008. It is a remake of one of my favorite science fiction movies of all time, The Day the Earth Stood Still.
In the original 1951 movie, the leading man (alien, really) is played by Michael Rennie, who plays the role perfectly (in my opinion, of course). I had often thought that this movie would be a great movie to remake, as long as it was done properly and as long as Klaatu was properly cast. It has been announced that the remake scheduled to be released in December of 2008 will cast Keanu Reeves in the role of Klaatu. I hope I’m wrong about this, but I this news makes me want to lay in a bed of Mongolian Death Worms.
Filed under: entertainment, movies
I wasn’t wrong, by the way.