Roles Everyone In Hollywood Wanted To Play

Christian Bale is Anakin Skywalker Nicholas Cage is Aragorn it may be hard to imagine but some of your favorite movies almost featured someone else entirely in leading roles in 1977 Star Wars wasn't yet the massive cultural Juggernaut it is now but there was still a lot of Buzz around its production this was mainly due to the fact that young George Lucas the writer director of Star Wars was just coming off the success of his 1975 period teen dromedy American Graffiti although Star Wars was seen by the studio execs at the time as a bomb in the making due to the dubious failures of many recent Sci-Fi films Lucas's early auteur status still got actors interested in working with them one of the roles that got the most attention was the smug Devil May care space mugler Han Solo the actors who showed up to audition were the who's who of the era including Christopher Walken Al Pacino and probably most famously Kurt Russell while many of these actors could have pulled off a good hunt we're lucky that Harrison Ford who had also worked on George Lucas's American Graffiti got the gig in the end who knows if Star Wars would have worked as well without his patented salty but still soft at heart charm the 1997 epic romance Drama Titanic directed by action Maestro James Cameron turned out to be one of the most successful films of all time and one of the only non-franchise films in the top 10 highest grossing movies of all time even before Titanic earned historic box office rankings James Cameron was standing on top of the world due to his back to back to back Blockbuster successes the alien sequel aliens and the first two Terminator films despite skepticism about the director working outside of his comfort zone with the period romance Cameron was able to earn back his inflated budget at the box office as well as push CGI technology to its limit for the time still none of that would matter without a good human connection at the center of the spectacle without characters to care about it would end up just being empty eye candy because of that James Cameron took a long time to find the perfect couple to help anchor the lumbering epic this meant unlinked the audition phase including offers the then Heavy Hitters like Claire Danes and Gwyneth pal outro after seeing a lot of other prospective actors Kate Winslet got the part with her Talent paying off I don't like sand it's coarse rough and irritating when it gets everywhere from Toys to books to cartoons and even live action TV series Star Wars is seemingly omnipresent this was especially true in the late 90s to mid-2000s when the prequels reign supreme at the box office Star Wars Episode 2 attack of the Clones was extremely popular and profitable apparently over 700 young hopeful actors were lining up for a chance to play the hunky breed Darth Vader Anakin Skywalker according to an Insider Source at the time lucasfilm wanted everyone to have a chance at the roll the Anakin hopefuls included Chris Klein Ryan Phillippe Bridgeton Bale Keith Ledger and Leonardo DiCaprio ultimately Hayden Christensen best known at the time for his role in the 2001 drama Life as a House infamously nabbed the roll the casting Choice was initially met with kosh's optimism but the fans quickly soured on his portrayal upon the film's release in 2002. luckily fans seem to have warmed up on Christensen since since then 1995's Mortal Kombat was an early outlier of video game movies with a good box office showing and decent reviews including a thumbs up from Gene Siskel it had amazing fight scenes showing Hong Kong wire food stunts years before the Matrix it also got a fun script slick direction from Paul W S Anderson and a fun cast this includes the lead Liu Kang played by a Hong Kong American actor Robin Shu who was a great center of the film bringing the role a sense of strength integrity and true leadership but it wasn't easy Chu recalled the grueling audition experience to The Hollywood Reporter it was the toughest casting process I read seven times my agent friend had never heard of anyone who had to read seven times I had to read for the producers the director the casting director the line producer and then my final reading was with new line Shu even considered giving up luckily he didn't because Mortal Kombat wouldn't be the same without him in the lead role the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV series and its various sequels were seriously popular in the 1990s debuting in 1993 the original show was created by Heim Saban who bought the rights to the Japanese tokuzatsu show Super Sentai which depicted a group of Heroes and colorful helmets in spandex fighting off evil Kaiju Monsters Saban's crew filmed cheap English language interstitials with young American actors between fighting scenes creating a mess of style and tones that somehow still worked the show inspired two Power Rangers films in the 90s each starring the TV cast the first was released in 1995 with the sequel turbo A Power Rangers Movie released in 1997. then after over 20 Power Rangers spin-off shows Lionsgate decided to produce a gritty reboot of the initial Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in 2017. an epic big budget feature film starring an all-new cast of teens with two despite the ultimate critical and Commercial disappoint of the 2017 Power Rangers reboot the hype for the film before its release was palpable many young actors who were in their teens or early 20s gave it a shot including up-and-comers such as KJ APA Austin Butler Mitchell hope Stephanie Scott and Ross Butler ultimately Ludy Lynn Naomi Scott Baker Montgomery Becky G and RJ Kyler were cast as the new Power Rangers M Night shyamalan's critically acclaimed breakthrough horror film The Sixth Sense made Haley Joel Osmond a star and landed him a best supporting actor Oscar nomination at the ripe old age of 11. Cole Seer the little boy who can communicate with the dead was a plum roll and lots of Hollywood's youngest actors were eager to see dead people in the 1999 flick Liam Aiken the star stepmom and later A Series of Unfortunate Events auditioned for Shyamalan he wanted the role badly but his mother declined due to his age in the dark subject matter while he's mostly now known as a comedic actor Michael Sarah also auditioned to play the sensitive troubled coal in an interview with Esquire Sarah recalled not knowing the character sees dead people and instead playing a serious emotional audition scene with a lot of optimism origin stories are all the rage these days so it's not surprising that MGM Warner Brothers and GK Films decided to reboot the Tomb Raider film franchise nearly 15 years after Angelina Jolie last on the popular video game heroines Infamous hot pants when asked about the film director Rohr utag told GQ this movie will introduce Laura as a young woman who hasn't yet found her way and her place in the world not long after the project was announced a host of Hollywood's hottest young female Talent lined up to try to snag the park including Saoirse Ronan and Emilia Clarke Star Wars heroine Daisy Ridley was in serious talks with the casting team at one point But ultimately The Producers went with Oscar winner Alicia vikander the quest to find the perfect actor to play the future king of Gondor was almost as long as Frodo and Sam's journey to Mordor when Peter Jackson and his team set out to adapt J.R.R tolkien's fantasy epic the Lord of the Rings for the Silver Screen they launched an exhaustive worldwide casting search that included quite a few of Hollywood's heaviest hitters many of whom were eyed for the role of Aragorn Nicholas Cage turned it down telling Newsweek there were different things going on in my life at the time that precluded me from being able to travel and be away from home for three years three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis also famously said no citing fear of being bored Russell Crowe considered joining the fellowship but budget constraints caused him to pull out Stuart Townsend age 27 was finally cast and trained for over two months but was replaced with Viggo Mortensen just before filming began as Jackson felt Townsend was too young for the role I would have gone with you to the end the very fires Aragorn wasn't the only one sought far and wide in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings The Heart of the entire Trilogy rests on the tiny shoulders and big hairy feet of Frodo Baggins unfortunately Jackson had trouble finding the perfect photo a character who had to embody so many different attributes in one person most notably a real sense of kindness and purity of Art in an interview with Charlie Rose Jackson said he'd seen over 200 would-be photos at one point and almost none of them seemed quite right for the role this included star Jake Gyllenhaal who after his historically disastrous audition was coldly told by Jackson that he was the worst actor he'd ever seen fortunately former Child Star Elijah Wood who was a fan of The Hobbit novel and Peter Jackson's early horror work jumped at the chance to audition he even hired a dialect coach and videotaped himself on VHS to ship to Jackson himself that tape was apparently enough to convince Jackson that wood was the guy to take the more than three your journey the film The Epic Trilogy it's hard to imagine anyone but Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman as the ill-fated lovers in Boz lerman's hypnotic movie musical Moulin Rouge but the Visionary Aussie director saw tons of actors during a lengthy audition process Lerman was particularly impressed by Jake Gyllenhaal telling MTV the actor has a wonderful voice interestingly it was during these auditions when Gyllenhaal met his future Brokeback Mountain co-star Heath Ledger who was also being considered Ledger even went so far as to read scenes with Nicole Kidman but Lerman went with McGregor when they changed Christian's age making Ledger too young though Kidman wound up eseteen whole front woman Courtney Love also auditioned for the consumptive courtesan Lerman found her intriguing and though she wasn't cast love helped him attain the rights to relate husband Kurt Cobain song Smells Like Teen Spirit for the film Superman is perhaps the most iconic superhero in the history of the genre while he wasn't the first superhero to get his own film you was the first superhero to get the big budget treatment that's standard today in the late 1970s producer Alexander salkind got the rights to Superman and tapped The Omen director Richard Donner to helm the superhero epic sawkine was looking to get an a-lister to wear the iconic spandex tights and Cape among them were Nick Nolte Clint Eastwood Robert Redford Sylvester Stallone and Harrison Ford Donner on the other hand advocated for an unknown actor to play Superman so the character could shine without being bogged down by a star Persona The Producers initially disagreed but cooler heads ended up prevailing ultimately they went with the relatively unknown 24 year old Juilliard trained actor Christopher Reeve who turned into the ideal Superman even to this day [Applause] don't flip yeah despite being one of the most recognizable comic book superheroes of all time Spider-Man had a hard time getting his Hollywood debut after Scripps and projects bounced around for many years the rights to Spider-Man eventually reverted to Marvel who sold them to Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1999. Sam raimi's iconic Spider-Man trilogy later inspired the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Spider-Man 3 there was uncertainty about if Spider-Man would ever join the iconic film franchise luckily Disney and Sony reached an agreement with Spider-Man making his first MCU appearance in 2016's Captain America Civil War almost every major Young Star aged 15 to 25 came in to read for the MCU version of Spider-Man including Timothy chalamet Asa Butterfield and Miss Marvel co-star Matt Lentz the casting web was spread so wide that the actor who ended up sticking was relatively unknown theater star Tom Holland who at the time was best known for the stage musical version of Billy Elliot one of the most disappointing Cinema Trends in recent years is the dreaded Disney Live Action remake this includes director guy Ritchie's 2019 Aladdin live action remake one of the bright spots of the Aladdin film however is its casting according to Julie Ann Gromit Disney's vice president of Multicultural engagement casting took half a year and demanded travel to over a dozen countries to find just the right actors to authentically portray Aladdin and Princess Jasmine luckily they landed on the Egyptian Canadian actor Mina Masood to play Aladdin and Naomi Scott as the aforementioned Princess Jasmine they were joined by Will Smith as the genie previously voiced by late comedian Robin Williams everyone was able to take their animated counterparts and do them Justice while also adding their own Flair and personalities to them [Music]

Channel: Looper

Views: 22,814

Keywords: looper, actors, roles, characters, star wars

Id: Lm7uYeb-MWs

Length: 13min 21sec (801 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 26 2023