Alternative Casting
Added 2022-05-17 00:50:36 +0000 UTCThis sight is sooo cool guys. Check out this page and let me know which ones of these are your favorites. Perfect for film history buffs.
Comments
Yeah, Spencer Tracy would be great in Drive. Something about that part lends itself well to actors who’ve never played villains. I can picture him projecting his gruff, paternal warmth…right before he sticks the knife in. As for Batman, I stand by my choices. Beatty’s a limited actor, and he was shrewd enough to know this. Most of his acclaimed roles (Clyde Barrow, McCabe, John Reed, Bugsy Siegel) were of a similar vein: charming, romantic idealists who met tragic ends because their heads were too much in the clouds for them to comprehend the forces that opposed them. Maybe you’re right in that if he challenged himself he could have done more, but I think he was too self-conscious to be able to do that. At any rate, Batman is not in his wheelhouse. Out of any character in the Batman universe, he would have excelled as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. He has the polish and charisma to play a crusading DA, one who could potentially be elected to higher office. But also, as evidenced in Bugsy, he can project a violent, furious dark side of himself that would be perfect for when he becomes Two-Face. You add in a younger Nicholson to play the Joker (that is, younger than he was when he played him in 1989’s Batman), and you have a great roster of actors to inhabit the Batman universe in the 1970s.
Bennett Oliver
2022-05-17 23:23:43 +0000 UTCAlso...Spencer Tracy in Drive....omg genius
Deepfocuslens
2022-05-17 20:48:26 +0000 UTCYeah it's a great page. I share many of your thoughts. Tho I do think Warren Beatty could work if he just challenged himself a bit. And yes...so many of these would have been better in these version, compared to the actual ones. The Nicholas Roeg Sixth Sense one...another brilliant idea I never considered. Yet it's spot on.
Deepfocuslens
2022-05-17 20:48:00 +0000 UTCHarvey Keitel as Jim Gordon is absolutely brilliant. I never even considered it.
Deepfocuslens
2022-05-17 20:45:37 +0000 UTCThis is quality. I'd be there in a hot minute for the Shatner Avatar. Also Harvey Keitel as Jim Gordon and Peter Cushing as Alfred in the Dark Knight Rises is perfect! A Blaxploitation version of Aliens would be something to see.
Ross Skilton
2022-05-17 09:53:56 +0000 UTCJames Dean in Spring Breakers would be fantastic. I’d be so curious to see how a director in the golden age would handle that material. Peter Weir’s gravity would be interesting, although I feel like he’d be better at making a softer sci fi movie that relies on mysterious elements. And this may be a hot take but I don’t want Godard anywhere near Trainspotting. I struggle with his films anyway and I love Trainspotting. Crucially, it relies heavily on being a British film, and I’m pretty sure Godard hates everything about British cinema lol. He’s very indulgent and borderline insufferable especially in his later work, and I just think he’d end up losing the essence of Trainspotting.
Jackson Littlewood
2022-05-17 06:22:43 +0000 UTCDamn that works! Gene Hackman's a perfect replacement and given the other two's careers I could see them in those roles.
Stephen
2022-05-17 03:39:19 +0000 UTCYeah, you’re right about the rest of the cast. But who at that time could play Batman? Here’s my idea: as great as Keitel would be for Gordon, swap him out for Gene Hackman. Have Keitel play Bane instead and De Niro play Batman. It ‘s a little out there, but I think De Niro would work. If you think about it, Bruce Wayne’s not that far off from Travis Bickle. And you have to admit, Keitel would make a great Bane.
Bennett Oliver
2022-05-17 03:20:19 +0000 UTCAlthough I did put Scorsese's TDKR among my favorites I do hear you when it comes to Beatty as Bruce Wayne. The rest of the cast just seem so perfect for their roles, especially Keitel as Jim Gordon.
Stephen
2022-05-17 02:46:40 +0000 UTCSome thoughts: —Love the idea of James Dean headlining Drive and Spring Breakers (though I do wonder what the ‘50s version of the character of Alien would be like); don’t like the idea of him headlining Rushmore (no one but Bud Cort could play Max Fischer back in the day) —Ken Russell’s Big Lebowski looks like it would be an absolute disaster (David Bowie as Walter!?), though I would love to see Klaus Kinski play one of the nihilists and threaten to cut off someone’s Johnson (hell, you just need to point a camera at him in real life to get him to say it) —Love the idea of Nicolas Roeg making The Sixth Sense with Julie Andrews. It’d make for a great companion piece to Don’t Look Now —Fuck yes to Trainspotting made by Godard with all those actors. Ian Holm would kill it as Begbie. He’s a small guy, but he could bring the menace. —Love the idea of ‘70s era Coppola doing Unbreakable. Yaphet Kotto would make a fine Mr. Glass, but I don’t think Newman’s a good choice for David Dunn. You need someone with an Everyman blue collar aura about him, not a movie star, as well as a physicality who could conceivably win a fight. No edge or neuroses either. You need to believe that there’s a superhero inside of him by the end. That rules out a lot of leading men from that era. I’d go with Jon Voight. —Fritz Lang’s Inception? Sure, why not. But everything that needed to be done with a visionary sci-fi concept he already did with Metropolis. It almost would be a redundancy. It’d still be pretty cool though. —The one movie I’d love to see the most on this list: Peter Weir’s Gravity starring Meryl Streep and Raul Julia. I assume this would have been made during his Hollywood heyday in the ‘80s. God, I miss Raul Julia. He went too soon. —Sure, I’d love to see a Taxi Driver-era Scorsese take on a Batman movie. Hell, back then, if superhero movies had the clout that they do now, he probably would have done it rather than thumb his nose at the project. But Warren Beatty as Bruce Wayne? No way would that work. He specializes in playing beautiful, cocksure fools, not tormented, brooding men. —I’d love to see a Rat Pack version of Reservoir Dogs, but I have a feeling in that movie they’d forget about the heist and just get drunk and go to a nightclub to pick up women. Give me the Three Stooges instead. They’d be more into the violence. —Dino, Jerry, and Jack Lemmon in The Hangover? That’s a more fitting concept for those guys of that era. It’d be worth it just to see Ali punch out Jerry Lewis. These posters are cool. I wish there were more.
Bennett Oliver
2022-05-17 02:32:58 +0000 UTCthought of you in particular for this one
Deepfocuslens
2022-05-17 02:15:45 +0000 UTCNo problem! The James Dean Spring Breakers one was brilliant. Love the Bernard Herrmann score choice for TDKR. Of course, there could be no one else to choose. Tom Cruise as the baby in The Hangover nice touch
Deepfocuslens
2022-05-17 02:15:19 +0000 UTCAgreed. It would've been so much better! T_T
Deepfocuslens
2022-05-17 02:14:16 +0000 UTCUnbreakable is my favorite poster but I’m most excited for the coke-fueled nightmare that is Shatner’s Avatar
Jared Angcanan
2022-05-17 02:13:34 +0000 UTCDamn that was a lot of fun, thank you for sharing! My Favorites: * Martin Scorsese's The Dark Knight Rises * Alan J. Pakula's X-Men: Days of Future Past * James Dean starring in Drive and Spring Breakers cracked me up. * Peter Sellers and John Cazale for Groundhog Day * Muhammad Ali replacing Mike Tyson for The Hangover Also instead of Paul Newman for Unbreakable, I'd have it be Steve McQueen.
Stephen
2022-05-17 01:16:13 +0000 UTCSweet! I would totally see Rushmore for my dear Audrey pairing with Stewart or Dean which sadly never happened on the screen and Peter Sellers in Groundhog Day sounds like a match made in heaven.
Wolfman Brandon
2022-05-17 01:09:43 +0000 UTC
