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© Tony Crawley 2020
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TC by GM - back in the day when this fetish started.

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CHAMPIONS' LEAGUE

Brando and Nicholson

There are more than 8,000 actors detailed on this site. Some have bypassed a single film. Others, many more. Then, there are the champs… Since launching CCC in 2008, Marlon Brando always topped this list. And year by year, discovery by discovery, Jack Nicholson, has been catching up. Well, he’s now about as close as he’s going to get: 162 to Marlon’s 164. (Exciting, huh?). They will probably stay that way unless I have a new revelation from a Hollywood book or interview about Jack having been up for Dracula, Wolverine and Larry in the terrible Three Stooges!
They were Mulholland Drive neighbours and tried to work together in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Deliverance (Brando agreed, even said “I’ll take whatever you pay Jack” - but that added up half the budget! ). They chose The Missouri Breaks (above) and the less said about that the better. Both were up for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Name of the Rose, Coppola’s Great Gatsby and Fellini wanted either one as his 1976 Casanova.

1. Brando - missed 164 movies
2. Nicholson - 162
3. Cary Grant -147
4. Paul Newman - 147
5. Tom Cruise - 110

Highest Brit Sir Sean at 108.
Highest lady is Bette Davis, 90 items; Jodie Foster, 80; Michelle Pfeiffer, 72; Meryl Streep, 70; Nicole Kidman, 69; Julie Christie and Liz Taylor, 67; Nicole Kidman and are level at 67; Katharine Hepburn, 66; Debra Winger, 65.
Newer Brigade: Brad, 107; Johnny, 99; Julia, 64; Leo, 64; Jim Carrey, 62; Madonna, 61; Jennifer Aniston, 27; Jennifer Lawrence, 23.

(You'll find the full list at Champions in the Main Menu)

DEAR DIARY

Bondo

Daniel Craig finally attends the No Time To Die premiere in 2033 - after picking up his pension at the Post Office.

Covid 19 (soon to be 20, no?) has forced new openings for more than just Commander Bond (now due April 2, 2021 (March 31 in France)… Wonder Woman 1984, opens on December 25 and Monster Hunter, five days later. Tiny Tom’s Top Gun: Maverick lands on July 2, 2021. Matrix 4 won’t take blue or red pills until December 22, 2021. Robert Pattinson’s Batman is booked for March 2, 2022, Ezra Miller will Flash on November 4… and Shazam! Fury of the Gods is as late as June 2, 2023. What? Oh, the continuums… Well, the new Star Wars trilogy explodes in 2023, 2025 and 2027 - cleverly avoiding messing with the Avatars in December 2022, 2024, 2026, and 2028.

He said title

When buttoning a three-button jacket, it’s sometimes the top one, always for the middle, and never for the bottom. If you meet a man with the bottom button done up, call a cab. He’s not currently functioning - you shouldn’t be breathing the same air.” - Bill Nighy

I steal from everything. Great artists steal. They don’t do hommages. - Quentin Tarantino

God is silent. Now if only man would shut up. - Woody Allen.

Acting can’t be all that complicated when you consider one of the biggest stars who ever lived was Rin Tin Tin. - Robert Mitchum.

Getting older is like being steadily, increasingly punished for a crime I didn’t commit. - Terence Stamp

Will there be a third film? I didn’t think there’d be a second! - Bjorn Ulvaeus on Mamma Mia films.

Being in love is the nearest most people get to going insane. I’m fascinated by that - Julian Fellowes, writer of Gosford Park and all its children: Downton Abbey. The English Game, Belgravia.

You could talk to him, for hours and never get the slightest indication that he was an actor. - David Lean on why he loved William Holden

I love monologues. - Sam Jackson

“Hello, I’m the Doctor.” Doc Who candidates have included >>> Rowan Atkinson, James Corden, Harrison Ford, Hugh Grant, Rupert Grint, Dennis Hopper, Ben Kingsley, Ian McKellen, Bill Nighy (twice), Peter O’Toole, Daniel Radcliffe, Peter Ustinov, Jason Connery and Eddie Izzard. Pythons Eric Idle, Michael Palin. Bonds: Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan. And… and…Catherine Zeta-Jones <<<

WANTED: WRIGGLY NOSES

For inexplicable reasons, Hollywood kept trying to make a movie out of Bewitched, the 1968-1972 ABC sitcom about a good-looking witch and a Dagwood husband. In 1993, Penny Marshall was going to direct Meryl Streep as Samantha. Then, a Richard Curtis script was planned as Melanie Griffiths’ comeback. Nora Ephron co-wrote and directed the lumbering 2004 version with poor Nicole Kidman, except it was more about an ego-driven actor trying to save his career with a Bewitched re-hash, with the emphasis on him as Darrin, rather than the unknown he chose for Samantha because she could wriggle her nose… (You didn’t need a nose to know it stank).
Over the years, 37 other ladies were on the Samantha wish-list. Take a deep breath… Kate Beckinsale, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Connelly, Cameron Diaz, Heather Graham, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, Julianne Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Brooke Shields, Charlize Theron, Naomi Watts, Renee Zellweger. Plus seven Oscar-winners: Kim Basinger, Tatum O’Neal, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon… two Friends: Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow… eleven other TV stars: Christina Applegate, Patricia Arquette, Kristin Davis, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Helen Hunt, Jenny McCarthy, Alyssa Milano, Brittany Murphy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alicia Silverstone… even Drew Barrymore and Uma Thurman, who had already re-kindled Charlie’s Angels and The Avengers.

IT'S COVIDIOUS

No, not from your streets yesterday but The Hamburg Syndrome - made 41 years ago.
Lockdown. Shockdown. Blockdown. Tik-Tokdown. Yeah, it’s been good… well, interesting. Finally able to catch a few movies I’d missed. From Contagious to Contagion, by way of Carriers and Containment - and that’s just stuff from my A-C drawer. There were more… Two called Virus (one Japanese, the other a lame tele-flck), two more called The Plague (only one from the Albert Camus novel) and three from the same Richard Mathison book, I Am Legend. Plus… Blindness, Domain, The Satan Bug, 28 Days Later, Panic in the Street… They involved such folk as Dustin Hoffman, Sophia Loren, Richard Widmark, Gwyneth Paltrow (as a spreader), even OJ Simpson… There was even a company called Epidemic Films! It produced Ever Since the World Ended… with such rotten acting that the cast must have just learnt they’d tested positive. Plus this Andromeda Strain scene. "By then, the disease could spread into a worldwide epidemic." "It’s because of rash statements like that the President doesn’t trust scientists." Hah! But the Don Trumpolino’s #1 would have to be Carriers with Chris Pine saying: “We’ve got loads of Clorox."
ANOTHER SOLO	DUNE DELAYED
I hear tell that Marvel’s Winter Soldier, Sebastian Stan, is favourite for the inevitable film about the young Luke Skywalker. Er, except what the hell did Luke do before he met George Lucas and left the farm - milked cows and had problems with bullies in high school? Anyway, Mark Hamill approves. “He’s more handsome than I am.”	You won’t see Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya in Denis Villeneuve's Dune until next October.. (Not me, I’ve never got Dune, always seemed like a bad Disney sci-fi to me). Chalamet is Paul Atreides, of course, in the re-hash of David Lynch’s 1984 version. After being asked to make it, Lynch confessed: “I thought they said June.”
ROGUE TWO

For some (like my grandson), Rogue One is the best Star Wars yarn. As in better than the entire franchise. So he’s among the many cheered by the news that Disney has ordered a series based on the film - written by the same Tony Gilroy. It’s all hung on Diego Luna as his Cassian Andor character - backed up by such stalwarts as Alan Tudyk, reprising the android C3... no, K-2350, Kyle Soller and Swedish star Stellan Skarsgård (father of Tarzan and Pennywise!), It’s a prequel (that might wind up as Cassian Andor), so l’ll greatly miss Felicity Jones. However, the Puerto Rico-born Adria Arjona (from Pacific Rim: Uprising with John Boyega, no less) is joining the party.
TWO FINGERS' WORTH
When you love movies, you’ll make 'em any way you can. For example, the celebrated nouvelle vague icon, realisateur Claude Chabrol used an inheritance to finance his first movie (Le Beau Serge, 1957). Good thinking! But nothing compared to a Mississippi movie-maker called Donald G Jackson. He produced 48 B-films (Vampire Child, Vampire Blvd, Ghost Taxi, Ghost Baby and, of course, Hell Comes To Frogtown), wrote 43 (some as Maximo T Bird!), directed 40 (who can ever forget his Lingerie Kickboxer?) and acted in 17 - including Legend of the Roller Blade Seven, Rollergator. He helped pay for his 1976 debut, The Demon Lover, with a $8,000 insurance compensation… for losing two fingers in a factory accident!
FAMILY BUSINESS

Director Rod Lurie’s excellent take on CNN reporter Jake Tapper’s book about the Afghanistan war, The Outpost, has a bunch of actors whose last names you will know better than their first. They are Scott Eastwood, son of Clint; James Jagger, son of Mick; Milo Gibson, son of Mel; Scott Alda Coffey, grandson of Alan Alda; and Will Attenborough, grandson of Richard. Scott is a chip off the old Clint - just lose the 'tash, man!
WHOO AH!
Mean Streets almost never happened. "I showed the script to everyone," recalled director Martin Scorsese. "I'd even sent it to Francis Coppola, who passed it on to Al... but I never got an answer." While Roger Corman offered $150,000 if it was made as a blaxploitation flick, Al Pacino fired his agents for losing it. (They also warned him off The Godfather). He called the William Morris agency... "I’m looking for an agent." "What’s your name?" "Al Pacino." "Are you sure?"

Stars missing classics >>> Helena Bonham Carter, Bridget Jones’ Diary… … Errol Flynn, Spartacus… Jean Harlow, King Kong… Dustin Hoffman, Chinatown… Kay Lenz, Annie Hall… Spencer Tracy, The Bridge on the River Kwai… Jean-Louis Trintignant, Last Tango in Paris… Shirley Temple, The Wizard of Oz… and Emma Watson, no less, as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad <<<
Photo ©redits: All The President's Men montage: Reg Oliver, 1976; Deborah Chow: Melinda Sue Gordon, Disney +; Scott Eastwood: Millenium Media, 2019; Effacer l'historique, Wild Bunch, 2020; The Hamburg Syndrome, Filmverlag de Autoren, 1979; Nicole Kidman, Columbia Pictures, 2004; Missouri Breaks, United Artists, 1976; TC sketch: Graham Marsh, 1976; Thunderball: Eon Productions,1965. Orson Welles, London Film Productions, 1948. Rogue One: Lucasfilm Ltd, 2015; Plus enormous thanks to The Man: Daniel Bouteiller.

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WELCOME to a unique directory of what you never saw on-screen. The films the stars did not make. The movies that never were. The most definitive collation of casting stories ... Check up on all the films - of yesterday, today and tomorrow - that your favourite stars never made... A cast of thousands - 8,063 actors - to click on... More than 40 years in the making!! And 2,502,855 words of spirited text. The ultimate in movie trivia ... Better! Exactly the kind of history that Hollywood deserves. Back to front. Upside-down. Inside out. Full of flashbacks, close-ups, tracking shots (and, alas some badly edited sequences - sorry about that!) forming a fascinating, new and often bizarre flip-side perspective on your treasured movies and stars.

This is the film that bred this site ... after Robert Redford told me he'd planned a little black-white version - with Robert De Niro, and Michael Moriarty as Woodstein.

BOND LADY

Gloria Paul, the British gift to Italian movies was among the final few testing as Thunderball's Domino in 1964. She previously auditioned for Tatiana in From Russia With Love - won in 1963 by a genuine Italian, Daniela Bianchi. Gloria retired in 1996 after a freak accident left her semi-paralysed.

WHAT THE ... ??

Driving up the Champs Elysees and listening to The Archers on BBC Radio 4 (sheer ecstasy!!), I noticed from the corner of my eye a new film poster - and thought: Good grief, the French have made a Covid comedy already! (They only seem to make comedies these days). It was another week, maybe two, before I got a closer look at the poster of Effacer l’historique (Clear History… Delete History) and found that the three stars were not wearing masks at all, but suffering from the other pandemic. Smart phones.

She said title

If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything. - Marilyn

Life is hard – after all, it kills you. - Katharine Hepburn

Redford is always the love object; he’s never the leading man. In The Way We Were, Barbra Streisand played the man, he was the love object. In Out of Africa, Meryl Streep was the man, he was the love object. In The Electric Horseman, Jane Fonda was the man, he was the love object on the horse. Jesus, even in Butch Cassidy, Paul Newman was the guy and Redford was the love object So this is what he wants to be. - Debra Winger on Robert Redford

When, I act, everybody takes care of me. When I’m directing, I’m supposed to be taking care of everybody else.” Anne Bancroft on why she only helmed one movie. Fatso, 1979.

Saying no to certain films is as important as saying yes, because it really defines you, - Juliette Binoche, who refused Spielberg’s Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List… yet made Godzilla!

When when asked by The Hollywood Reporter if she’d turned down many roles, Orange is the New Black's Natasha Lyonne replied: Several pornos, yes!

I’m dyslexic. I can act or read. But I can’t do both. - Whoopi Goldberg

One time, Isabella Rossellini said I was mysterious, and it basically made my life because I’ve always wanted to be mysterious! Truth is, I can’t keep up that act for more than four seconds. - Tenet’s Elizabeth Debicki

People probably think I’m cool and aloof, but the truth is I’m panicking and sweating. – Tenet’s Elizabeth Debicki

I'm odd looking. Sometimes I think I look like a funny muppet. - Angelina Jolie

Deborah Chow

It's not only the responsibility of trying not to screw up Star Wars, but it's also the responsibility of trying not to be the first woman or Asian who screws up Star Wars.- Deborah Chow on directing two episodes on The Mandalorian... and the Obi-Wan Kenobi series to come.

Oh, my God, there’s a review of the show. And, oh God, they’re just talking about how fat my arse was. - Emilia Clarke on reading reviews. Or, since then, not.

Fair Use Notice: This CCC site is operated under the assumption that its not-for-profit policy constitutes a "fair use" of the copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. All photos, audio/video clips and information taken from selected videos, books, magazines and internet resources are for entertainment and educational purposes only. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond the interpretation of fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Main Menu

Who's Online

WANTED: WRIGGLY NOSES

IT'S COVIDIOUS

ANOTHER SOLO

DUNE DELAYED

ROGUE TWO

TWO FINGERS' WORTH

FAMILY BUSINESS

WHOO AH!

Photo ©redits:

BOND LADY

WHAT THE ... ??