- Harold Ramis, Ghostbusters, 1983. Who ya gonna call…? Well, not Lloyd. Dan Aykroyd’s first draft (Ghost Smashers) was more futuristic, scary and dark. Therefore, Dr Egon Spengler was aimed at Jeff Goldblum, John Lithgow and the Christophers – Lloyd and Walken. Ramis co-wrote the film but never intended being in it. And he played it his way. Without ever smiling.
- Danny De Vito, Twins, 1988. The A Listers, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny, voted Twins over Suburban Commando – going to Lloyd and Hulk Hogan in 1991.
- Jack Nicholson, Batman, 1988.
- Anthony Hopkins, The Silence of the Lambs, 1989.
- Michael Richards, UHF, 1989. “Weird Al” Yankovic could parody pop but not carry a movie. So bring in the (real) clowns). Lloyd was considered for the janitor winninghis own TV show.Except it was penned for Richards, a year away from his Seinfeld glory. The rotten comedy was not helped by opening against… Batman, Lethal Weapon 2 and Indiana Jones 3.
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Joe Pesci, Home Alone, 1990. It was so patently obvious that the kid of the hour – Macauley Culkin – was going to steal everything but the cinema seats that most of The Names avoided the burglar clown called Harry Lime, more of a fourth Stooge than Orson Welles. Those refusing to be second banana to a moppet included Rowan Atkinson, Robert De Niro, Danny De Vito, Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Jon Lovitz and two musical Brits: Phil Collins and Dudley Moore. ”Hardest thing fior Pesci,” said cinematographer Julio Macat, “was not swearing! “
- Michael Douglas, Basic Instinct, 1991.
- Jonathan Freeman, Aladdin, 1991. Disney’s voice choices for Jafar, our hero’s foe, the Sultan’s evil vizier, were Lloyd, Tim Curry, Kesley Grammer, John Hurt. Plus the future X-Men foes, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. Merging Boris Karloff with Vincent Price, Freeman remained in Jafar mode (for sequels and video games) for the next 20 years.
- Danny De Vito, Batman Returns, 1992.
- Ted Danson, Pontiac Moon, 1994. Moving around various studios for years, writer Jeff Brown tried to direct. “If you can get Christopher Lloyd, you’ll make it,” said a Paramount exec. Well, he got him – but lost the exec. He had quit..
- Eric Roberts, Doctor Who (The Movie), TV, 1996. Hollywood goes Who. Why? For the pilot of a USeries to exhume the BBC science-fiction cult, buried since since it ran out of puff after 26 seasons in 1989. As if to prove this was big deal LA in action (!), some 63 actors were listed for Doc8 and a further 71 (Dracula, Gandhi, Freddy Krueger, Magnum, Spock) for his foe, The Master. Well, some were on both lists, such as (hey, he was doctor, too, right?) the ex-Emmett Brown of Back to the Future. Universal balked. Lloyd was too pricey? No, Roberts was!
- John Goodman, The Borrowers, 1996. The delicious villain, Ocious P Potter, was not in the 1952 Marty Norton book that Peter Sellers tried to film in 1964. So he would have been Pod, the four-inch-high patriarch of the tiny Clock family living beneath the floorboards of a house owned by ”human beans”. Three versions had already been hits when this Anglo–American version was launched. The battle for Ocious was, therefore, UK v US… Martin Clunes, Bob Hoskins, Griff Rhys Jones, Alan Rickman v Tim Allen, Chevy Chase, Danny DeVito, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Ed O’Neill, Robin Williams. The fact that Pesci was also suggested signaled a ton of Home Alone physical attacks on poor Goodman, which out off both Steven Spielberg and his apprentice, Robert Zemeckis, from directing. They weren’t required! Nor were Rowan Atkinson and comic-turned-director Mel Smith – off busily making their own Bean movie for the same UK/US companies.
- William Sadler, The Battle of Shaker Heights, 2002. Behind the scenes of the second Project Greenlight film made by Miramax and HBOwas more suspenseful than the movie. Christopher McDonaldpassed on the father of the young hero’s girlfriend. Ditto from Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton. Gary Cole willingly auditioned but he had no window available. On, desperately, to an unsuitable Lloyd and he settled for anothergig (how often is therea Haunted Lighthouse movie?). Finally Sadler was seen, signed… and given a mere hour to bond with Shia LaBeouf before their most emotional scene.
- David Kelly, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, 2004. Writer Roald Dahl’s widow, Liccy, voted Lloyd fr Grandpa Joe. But director Tim Burton had many possibilities (two passed before passing: Gregory Peck, Peter Ustinov) and he gave it to the veteran Irish actor (“in three minutes”) on running into him at Pinewood studios for a costume fitting for another film. Burton had also investigated Richard Attenborough, Michael Caine, George Carlin (yes, not Carlin), Kirk Douglas, Albert Finney, Richard Griffiths, Anthony Hopkins, Ron Moody, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Paul Newman, Peter O’Toole, Max von Sydow, Eli Wallach, David Warner.
- Cary Elwes, The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure, 2009. I assure you that the title is correct….! Goobie, Zoozie and Toofie are the animation Oogieloves (an atrocious US copy of the UK’s Teletubbies, 1997-2001) Lloyd turned down Bobby Wobbly (how Teletubbie can you get) for Lero Sombrero. Just one question, Chris – why?
- Jude Law, Rise of the Guardians, 2011. Lithgopw, Jeff Goldblum and Patrick Stewart were also considered for voicing the evil spirit of the DreamWorks toon adventure: Pitch Black.
- Nicol Williamson, Oz the Great and the Powerful, 2012. “We’re going for the Frank L Baum book illustrations and nothing like that 1939 vaudeville thing,” said a Disney suit. Thanks for the warning said the fans, staying way in droves… Doc Brown was pushed aside by the tall Scot for Dr Worley/Nome King in the not-exactly-a-sequel (Dorothy’s three fellow Yellowbrickers were barely seen) but a (depressing) version of Baum’s next two books: The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz, circa 1904 and 1907. (Oh and Mr Suit, it is L Frank Baum. Explains a lot).
- Alan Tudyk, Big Hero 6, 2014. Alec Baldwin, Peter Dinklage, Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Alfred Malina, John Malkovich, Gary Oldman, Mandy Patinkin, Hugo Weaving and UK comics John Cleese and Eddie Izzard were listed for voicing Alistair Krei in Disney’s first Marvel subject – winning the best animation Oscar. It unfurled in 2023 (we all know that computer battery number, right?) in San Fransokyo (‘Frisco rebuilt by the Japanese after an earthquake) and deals with a bunch of superheroes with the titular collective name… that nobody ever uess. Krei was the arch foe of the super-nemesis played by James Cromwell. Ten years before, he had created the I, Robot called Sonny, played by… Tudyk.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 18