Christian Bale as Anakin Skywalker? Nicolas Cage as 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 dramedy "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' early auteur status still got actors interested in working with him.
One of the roles that got the most attention was the smug, devil-may-care space smuggler,
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 those actors could've pulled off a good Han, we're lucky that Harrison Ford — who
had also worked on George Lucas' "American Graffiti" — got the gig in the end. Who knows
if "Star Wars" would've 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 a 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 a lengthy audition phase, including offers to then-heavy hitters like
Claire Danes and Gwyneth Paltrow. 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 and rough and irritating and 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 reigned supreme at
the box office. "Star Wars Episode II — 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,
pre-Darth Vader Anakin Skywalker. According to an insider source at the time, Lucasfilm
wanted everyone to have a chance at the role. The Anakin hopefuls included Chris Klein,
Ryan Phillippe, Christian Bale, Heath 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 role. The casting choice was initially met with cautious optimism,
but the fans quickly soured on his portrayal upon the film's release in 2002. Luckily,
fans seemed to have warmed up on Christensen 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-fu 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 Hong Kong-American actor Robin Shou,
who was a great center of the film — bringing the role a sense of strength, integrity,
and true leadership. But it wasn't easy.
Shou 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."
Shou 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 Haim Saban,
who bought the rights to the Japanese tokusatsu show "Super Sentai," which
depicted a group of heroes in colorful helmets and 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 a 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 'tude.
Despite the ultimate critical and commercial disappointment 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, Stefanie Scott, and Ross Butler.
Ultimately, Ludi Lin, Naomi Scott, Dacre Montgomery, Becky G,
and RJ Cyler were cast as the new Power Rangers.
"I see dead people."
M. Night Shyamalan's critically-acclaimed breakthrough horror film "The Sixth Sense"
made Haley Joel Osment a star and landed him a best supporting actor Oscar nomination at the
ripe old age of 11. Cole Sear, the little boy who can communicate with the dead, was a plum role,
and lots of Hollywood's youngest actors were eager to see dead people in the 1999 flick.
Liam Aiken, the star of "Stepmom" and later "A Series of Unfortunate Events," auditioned
for Shyamalan. He wanted the role badly, but his mother declined due to his age and the
dark subject matter. While he's mostly now known as a comedic actor, Michael
Cera also auditioned to play the sensitive, troubled Cole. In an interview with Esquire,
Cera 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 Bros., and GK Films decided to reboot the "Tomb Raider" film franchise
nearly 15 years after Angelina Jolie last donned the popular video game heroine's
infamous hot pants. When asked about the film, director Roar Uthaug told GQ,
"This movie will introduce Lara 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 part, 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.
Nicolas 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 - to the very fires of Mordor."
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 Frodo,
a character who had to embody so many different attributes in one person,
most notably a real sense of kindness and purity of heart.
In an interview with Charlie Rose, Jackson said he'd seen over 200 would-be Frodos 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 year journey to film the epic trilogy.
It's hard to imagine anyone but Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman as the ill-fated lovers
in Baz Luhrmann's hypnotic movie musical "Moulin Rouge!," but the visionary Aussie
director saw tons of actors during a lengthy audition process. Luhrmann 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" costar Heath Ledger, who was also being considered.
Ledger even went so far as to read scenes with Nicole Kidman, but Luhrmann went with McGregor
when they changed Christian's age, making Ledger too young. Though Kidman wound up as Satine,
"Hole" frontwoman Courtney Love also auditioned for the consumptive courtesan. Luhrmann found
her intriguing, and though she wasn't cast, Love helped him obtain the rights
to her late husband Kurt Cobain's 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,
he 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. Salkind 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 Julliard-trained actor
Christopher Reeve, who turned into the ideal Superman — even to this day.
"You're that spider guy on YouTube, right?" "Call me Spider-man!"
"Ok, Spider-man! Do a 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 scripts
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 15-25 came in to read for the MCU version of Spider-Man,
including Timothée Chalamet, Asa Butterfield, and "Ms. Marvel" co-star Matt Lintz. 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 Crommett — 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 Mena
Massoud 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.