CAPTAIN MARVEL 2
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After Captain Marvel in this spot last time, welcome to ... Captain Marvel! (And just to make things clearer, Djimon Hounsou is in both). Back in the 40s, Marvel, based on Fred MacMurray, of all people, sold more comics than Superman when tackling such nasties as Captain Nazi and was also the first superhero on film, played by Tom Tyler in 1941, a decade after being a Tarzan candidate.
The fact that DC and Marvel had superheroes with the same name was solved in 2011 when DC Comics rebranded him… Shazam! He's really a kid of 14, given superpowers (and body) by an old dude called er, Shazam. When Billy Batson says Shazam!, he becomes er, Shazam. Think Superboy in Superbloke's body.
With Robert Downey/Ryan Reynolds insouciance, Zachary Levi (a better looking Ben Stiller ) heads what he labelled Superman Meets Big - his favourite films as a kid. He's surely the only actor in DC, Disney and Marvel movies. "That leaves only Harry Potter and Star Wars to go."
Zach won Shaz from wrestler John Cena, The Hulk's Lou Ferrigno Jr, Zane Holtz (TV's From Dusk To Dawn), Jake McDorman (Murphy Brown), Billy Magnussen (Maniac), Joshua Sasse (Galavant), Derek Theler (nearly Captain America in 2010), Parker Young (Alex Davies in Arrow). Plus Seinfeld's Puddy, Patrick Warburton - but that was in 2001 when he was another superfunny, The Tick ... and Shazam! had just started development.
Shaz, a cert for Justice League 2, is fun and funny, just unsure of how comic he should be. Hey, half a Deadpool is better than none, right?
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APPLE vs DISNEY ... NO CONTEST
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If you're Tim Apple, the head of Cook Inc (why couldn't Trump joke about that: "Least I didn't call him, orange. Like most people call me.") and you're organising more zillions by creating Apple TV + and you want the kudos of a deal with Spielberg - why would you settle for him producing more Amazing Stories, which were terrible last time around in the 80s Instead of, you know, something… o-ri-gin-al. Like thje great Jordan Peele's transmogrified Twilight Zone.
Anyway, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Dis, Dat - they're all gonna lose to the Disney streaming service, with all their films and the series and tele-films they can make out of all they own at Disney, Fox, Lucasfilm, Marvel How long before Columbia, Paramount and Universal?
The town is called Disneywood, these days. Holly's just for Xmas. |
INSTINCTUAL
Some 32 guys were considered for the randy cop in Basic Instinct. Plus one woman. Because the Michael Douglas role was first written as a lesbian police detective - and aimed at Kathleen Turner. Following a gender re-write, she promptly joined to the list of 82 possibles for Sharon Stone's legs. And turned down $1.5m. "If the part doesn't work for me, I turn it down." |
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DON JOHN
Among actors in and out of Terry Gilliam's Don Quixote movie was the flawless John Hurt. RIP.
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BEST
SELLARS
"What role?" "All of them!" said Stanley Kubrick. Sellers never finished this fourth ...
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LITTLE SHIRLEY
After lavish tests of Shirley Temple for 1949's Little Women, MGM chose Janet Leigh as Meg.
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GODPOP Shakespeare icon Laurence Olivier as Mafia Godfather Don Corleone – fuhgeddaboudit!
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WELCOME TO PUTINWOOD
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Wanted for lead rôle: A genius. Enter: Teodor Currentzis.
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The unknown (unhinged?) Russian auteur Ilya Khrzhanovsky felt that ten 2005 festival prizes for his debut was clout enough to rule his third film for five years inside what amounted to his own totalitarian society. He began shooting Dau in 2008 in good time for the 2010 Cannes festival. Hah! Once edited down from 700 hours, It finally opened in January! To make it, Khrzhanovsky took over the Ukrainian city of Kharkov, pushed the $3.5m budget to $10m, re-built the Russian Science Academy's Institute for Theoretical Physics on Europe's largest set (about two square miles), ordered cast, crew and visitors to dress, eat, smoke - live! - as in the Stalin-era. The film was even shot by Stalinesque hidden cameras and mikes. And no actors. "The story to be told was impossible to act out."
Therefore, Russian TV star Daniil Spivakovskiy stood no chance of winning the lead once the director insisted on a genius playing Lev Landau, Noble Prize-winning physicist - and scandalous ladykiller - and found him in Teodor Currentzis, a Russian conductor of Greek origin, However, Khrzhanovsky relented about his leading lady, dropping the better-known Elena Yakovleva, for the more pliable actress, Radmila Shchyogoleva. However - and get this, Meryl - she was not allowed to start filming until after working a full year in a chocolate factory. "To beat the actress out of her!" |
ACTION WOMEN
They say there's no women directors in LA! What about Anna Boden, Emily Carm chael, Niki Caro, Jennifer Kent, Lesli Linka, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Lorene Scafaria, Rachel Talaly, Rebecca Thomas, Elizabeth Wood. Not to mention Angelina Jolie, also on the list to helm Captain Marvel (with a Captain Charlize Theron.) Instead, she's favourite to head The Externals ... directed by Chloe Zhao. For (yawn) Marvel. |
NAME GAME
For Brando's classic On The Waterfront, Paul Newman had talks with producer Sam Spiegel, no longer calling himself SP Eagle. He advised Newman to change his name: something phonetic. "You mean it sounds Jewish?" "If you want to put it like that…" Well, said Newman, he'd had thought about changing his name. "To what?" asked Sam. "To SP Newman." That was their last conversation. |
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TOP GUNNS
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| Burning as bright as the… son. Jackson A Dunn. |
The St Louis boys are back… James Gunn, director and co-writer of the two Guardians of the Galaxy (and after a ridiculous palaver, of the third), plus Suicide Squad 2 - and his brother, Brian, and cousin Mark, writers of The Journey 2 and the Starsky and Hutch reboot. They are, respectively, producer and co-scenarists of a great what-if? movie, Brightburn. It's the flipside of the Kal-El legend, as a baby alien blasted to our planet from up yonder proves the complete opposite of Clark Kent.
And yeah, sure, I'm plugging the film as the producers include my brilliant son, Nic Crawley, of The H Collective in LA. This is his second film. With more to come ... The Beast helmed by Christine (Pimp) Crokos… and xXx 4 with Vin Diesel and Jay Chou, Kato in the 2010 Green Hornet. |
CANNES STAR POWER
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May's Cannes festival opener is a surprise item from auteur Jim Jarmusch - The Dead Don't Die. With Bill Murray and Adam Driver leading "the greatest zombie cast ever disassembled"! Steve Buscemi, Sara Driver, Danny Glover, Selena Gomez, Caleb Landry Jones, Carol Kane, Rosie Perez, Iggy Pop, RZA, Chloe Sevigny, Tilda Swinton and Tom Waites. Phew!
The Bitch Is Back! Taron Egerton does Elton.
Freddie, last year last year, Now, it’s Sir Elt'. And from the same director, Dexter Fletcher. Incredibly, Tom Hardy was due to be Rocketman (for three years). Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy were in the frame for a wee while. Finally - blissfully - Elton John is played, by Kingsman, Robin Hood and Eddie The Eagle: Taron Egerton. So ... who's going to do Mick and Bowie?
And 25 years after winning there with Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tartantino is back with Once Upon A Time In Hollywood - one of those filmland tales that has stars on both sides of the cast list. Damian Lewis, for example, is Steve McQueen, Margot Robbie is Sharon Tate. Mike Moh is Bruce Lee and Rumer Wilis (Bruce’s daughter) is Joanna Pettet. Top o’ the bill is Brad (instead of Tom Cruise) and Leonardo. Bruce Dern subbed for the late Burt Reynolds ... in what became Luke Perry’s final movie.
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Photo ©redits:
All The President's Men and The Godfather montages: Reg Oliver, 1976; Marlon Brando: Paramount Pictures, 1960; Captain Marvel: Marvel, 2018; Chewbacca, Lucasfilm, 1976.; Dau: Coproduction Office, 2008; John Hurt: Quixote Films, 2001; Nicole Kidman: Abnnapurna/Lionsgate, 2018; Brie Larson, Marvel/Disney, 2018; Yvonne Monlaur: Eon Productions, 1965; Pennyworth: Warner Horizon Television, 2019 ; Peter Sellers: Hawk Films/Columbia Pictures, 1963; Sharon Stone: Carolco, 1991; Shazam! DC/Warner Bros, 2018; Stargirl: DC/Warner Bros, 2019; Shirley Temple: Selznick International Pictures, 1946; Rocketman: Paramount, 2019; TC sketch: Graham Marsh, 1976. 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 - 7,766 actors - to click on... More than 40 years in the making!! And 2,313,666 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.
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| 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. |
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BOND BABE
Paris poppette Yvonne Monlaur was among the final few testing as Patricia, Thunderball's health club masseuse … with the mink glove. Delightful Mollie Peters won and then wed a policeman.
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| WHERE TO FIND ..? |
STREEP KONG
Meryl v Italian producer Dino de Laurentiis. Read all about it - in her first item.
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TORN APART
Why didn't Rip Torn make Easy Rider - see his blue section on his page.
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FULL METAL HALL
For the fullest story of why Anthony Michael Hall did not make Stanley Kubrick's 'Nam classic, go to Hall's page. (The blue section).
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PERFECT GRYSHENKA
How Hollywood ruined Marilyn Monroe's dream role in The Brothers Karamazov is on Marilyn's page - item #17
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QUOTES
Asked if she'd work with Woody Allen again, Frida Pinto said, "Absolutely not. I wouldn't work with him because I'm in solidarity with women who have come out with their stories, whether they are proven or not." Unbelievable!
"I don't know if I want to work for Disney." Dave Bautista. A real hero.
"This is my first priest… I'm ticking the boxes. Cowboy - check. Politician - check. Lawyer - check. I've basically spent my career working my way through The Village People."Rob Lowe on selecting roles
"Snogging Rachel Weisz is like you've won the lottery." Olivia Colman on The Favourite.
"I actually played Santa once. It was a voice for an animated film. I got fired. I don't think people bought me as Santa." John Malkovich
"What is the most important lesson life has taught me? You are never first choice." Zoe Wanamaker
"I'm nothing but compost most of the time." Bill Murray
"Breasts and bottoms look boringly alike." Lee Remick
"What Audrey Hepburn had, you couldn't teach, you couldn't even learn it. God kissed her on the cheek and there she was." Billy Wilder
"Nearly every woman I know in Hollywood has been 'Weinsteined' at some point. If not by him, then by someone else." Lisa Guerrero
Writing about Where Eagles Dare, 1968, Geoff Dyer said Clint Eastwood, "is not just squinting, he is squinting in German."
& THANKS to Eric Idle for this about Robert Downey Sr directIng Robert Downey Jr (and Eric) in Too Much Sun, 1990. Senior: "Robert, when do you learn your lines?" Junior: "Oh usually by the third take."
Alas poor Chewie, we knew him well. His alter-ego, the great Peter Mayhew, died in May at 74 ... David Prowse refused the role; he hated the suit. The London hospital porter from Yorkshire won it in ten seconds. All he did was ... stand up. He was 2.2m tall. He had depth as well as height. George Lucas called him “the closest any human being could be to a Wookiee: big heart, gentle nature.” “We were partners in film and friends in life for over 30 years and I loved him,” said Harrison Ford. Rian Johnson (director of the next trilogy) added: “To create a beloved character with warmth and humour is a testament to any actor’s spirit. To do it under a half ton of yak hair takes a true legend.”
WTF?
Some pages have muddling changes of typefaces, colours, spaces, and somewordssqueezedtogether ... Extremely sorry! As Valmont said: "Beyond my control." This follows improving security. Long story. Corrections are happening.
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