- Sydney Pollack, Fauteuil d’orchestre, France, 2005. For her most polishedwork as a director, scenarist Danièle Thompson wanted Garcia as a Spanish film-maker casting a film on Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. (Cue lookalike sight gags). Butwhybother when she could make himAmerican and have him, played by the genuine article… in, alas, one of his final screen roles.
- Clovis Cornillac, Astérix aux jeux Olympiques, France-Germany-Spain-Italy-Belgium, 2007. Alas, Garcia withdrew for the same reason that the Astérix of the previous two films, ChristianClavier, had withdrawn – funny menwho were insisting on playing drama, Clavier is the only actor to haveplay both Astérix and… Napoleon.(Difficult to say which was funnier). Garcia played Couverdepus, instead.
- Kad Merad, Bienvenue chez lesCh’tis, France, 2008. Stand-up turned autuer Dany Boon’s first choice said: “Don’t bother sending me the script…” of what proved to be the comedy sensation of the year… and the #1 box-office film in French history – 20million tickets in a matter of months, easily burying the 20-year-old champ, La Grande Vadrouille. Daniel Auteuil, Jean Dujardin, Jean-Paul Rouve also hung their heads low as Will Smith bought the re-make rights. And did bugger all with ’em!
- Vincent Cassel, L’instinct de mort & L’ennemi public No 1, France, 2008. When Cassel grew wary of two films about the overly famous French gangster thug, Paris producer Thomas Langmann turned to the rest of Cassel’s generation: José, Clovis Cornillac (Langmann’s 2008 Asterix), Albert Dupontel (Cassel’s co-star in the bleak Irreversible, 2002), Vincent Elbaz, Benoit Magimel. Finally, a restructured, non-heroic script won Cassel’s d’accord.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 4