So, one day this week I walked into the media studio, and was talking to Mr. T-Time (Mr. Thomas), about how I heard that Will Smith was originally the dude, that the production company had in mind to play Neo. After a few minutes of talking about how strange that would be, Mr. Teddy-P (Mr. Thomas again), said that since they gave Keanu Reeves the role it helped people realize that he was actually a legit actor, as apposed to a man who just uses his looks.
Early, today i found myself thinking about how wierd it would be if certain actors, and actresses didn't take certain movie roles, or didn't do voiceovers for certain characters, what would their careers look like now? What would the film industry look like?! What would the world look like now?!?! What would the universe look like!?!?!?! Well, it may not have that drastic of an effect, but I'm pretty certain that there would be a major shift in what we consider a great movie, and who we call great actors and actresses. 
Imagine if for Shrek, Eddie Murphy, and Mike Myers both thought Shrek was the dumbest thing they ever heard, and decided not to lend their voices to the two heros of the story. Who would be their next choices? Dane Cook as the donkey, and Will Ferell as the Shrek?! Not only is that a random combination, that would NEVER, work it would probably cause the movie to have an R-rating and then nobody would go see it making it lame, eliminating the two sequels that followed, eliminating millions for the production company, which in turn would eliminate the "spoofs" from countless movies, and television shows that have refrenced the movie. The lose in millions could cause some of the writers, and Andrew Adamson to lose theirs jobs for creating such a horrid movie, which would most likely eliminate Andrew Adamson from directing the Chronicles of Narnia Series, and thats a whoooole diffrent scenerio within itself.
The point I'm trying to make is that next time your watching a movie, television show, cartoon, or some other form of visual entertaiment, just ask yourself, "I wonder how much lamer this movie would be if Jack Black, was Austin in Austin Powers..?", then sit back,and allow your brain juices flow.
P.S
I think Matrix, would have been mega wierd with Will Smith, and I'm glad he chose Wild West West over the Matrix. ;)
Well there are a very large amount of these situations. For instance Harrison Ford got Indiana Jones after Tom Selleck left the project for Magnum P.I. The funny thing is Harrison Ford since then has turned down more famous roles then any other actor.
ReplyDeleteHere's the list just from IMDB trivia. I'm almost positive there are more-
Kevin Costner's roles in JFK (1991), The Untouchables (1987), Dragonfly (2002), the role of Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October (1990) and The Sum of All Fears (2002), Russell Crowe's role in Proof of Life (2000), Nick Nolte's roles in Cape Fear (1991) and The Thin Red Line (1998), Warren Beatty's role as Dick Tracy (1990), Liam Neeson's role in Schindler's List (1993), Mel Gibson's role in The Patriot (2000), George Clooney's roles in The Perfect Storm (2000) and Syriana (2005), Val Kilmer's role in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), a proposed sequel to The Fugitive (1993), and Tom Skerritt's role in Alien (1979) . He was considered for the leads in Jurassic Park (1993), Insomnia (2002/I) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).
The fact is roles for movies are constantly changing and you'll notice many people have to back out of roles because of other projects. The resent movie State of Play with Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck was meant to be a reuniting of Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.
Paul an even crazier one... Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson were originally the brothers for Ocean's Eleven, but turned down the role for the Royal Tennebaums.
ReplyDeleteWell on the note of The Matrix, Sean Connery was supposed to be Morpheus... Let's imagine a world in which Neo was Will Smith and Sean Connery was Morpheus... BOO!
ReplyDeletekurt russell, christopher walken, and nick nolte were up for roles as Han Solo
ReplyDeleteHere's another crazy one: The Wizard of Oz. Shirley Temple was going to have the role of Dorothy, but instead (as we all know), Judy Garland ended up with it. :P
ReplyDeleteI think that Keanu did a good job with the matrix and later alot better in Constantine, but the thing is we have seen Keanu do Neo but not Will Smith. its just weird because we are use to seeing Will do goofy roles with a BA factor, but this role would of been just totally BA. i think he could of pulled it off. I thought Sean Connery would of been an amazing Morpheus. i like seeing old guys kick butt even more. Sure younger guys can kick butt but when its an old man its even cooler!! just like yoda, extremely old and wise all of a sudden kicking but AWESOME
ReplyDeleteI partially agree with Zander. I just think that Sean Connery has an accent and since he has a career that everyone knows him for to be in a movie where the actors/actresses are really pulling through would have off-set it. I liked the idea that the first time I really saw Lawrence Fishborn was in Matrix. His first roles was in Apocalypse Now by the director of the Godfather. He was just a random boy. Fishborn was the teenage boy who joined the army.
ReplyDeleteAround Oakcrest with the places where auditions are all you have (Select Choir, Solo Auditions, O Girls/Boys, Drama, & Dance) the idea of "the director chooses and that's that" make movie hypothetical casts pretty hard to imagine.
...but that's just me.
Oh, & Sean Connery turned the Matrix down. In his interview, for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, he commented on how he was offered roles for previous films: Gandalf in Lord of the Rings (which would be awesome because he played James Bond and Christopher Lee [bad wizard in LoTR] played the man with the golden gun in James Bond film) & mention about the Wachoski(sp?) Brothers offering him Morpheus. His reasoning: he didn't quite understand the storylines.
The Dark knight played by Bradd Pitt instead of Christian Bale. Dear lord D:
ReplyDeleteMaybe the line of "Where's the drugs?" could of sounded a bit clearer. lol
ReplyDeleteYea...like what if I played Weisback and Weisback played me?
ReplyDeleteI feel that neither one of you could switch characters... You are "built" and execute your performances so perfectly, to have it any other way would be depressing...
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