Main Menu

A work in progress...
© Tony Crawley 2021
Maintenance by:

TC by GM - back in the day when this fetish started.

Who's Online

CHAMPIONS' LEAGUE

Just Jack Nicholson

There are more than 8,000 actors detailed on this site. Some have passed on a single movie. 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 done it…!
He was always second to Brando’s total of 164 bypassed films. Until I unearthed five new passes for Jack - but only four for Marlon. But as I devour more books, columns and mails (thank you, fans!) etc, the count goes on.

1. Nicholson by-passed 169 films
2. Brando - 168
3. Cary Grant -147
3. Paul Newman - 147
5. Tom Cruise - 110

Highest Brit Sir Sean at 114.
Highest lady is Bette Davis, 90 items; Jodie Foster, 80; Michelle Pfeiffer, 72; Meryl Streep, 70; Nicole Kidman, 69; Julie Christie and Liz Taylor 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)

He said title

“I don’t need to be in the MCU, I’m Nic Cage.” – Nic Cage, who played Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider.

“Every time he does one of these new stunts, it does feel like an ad for Scientology.” – Judd Apatow on Tom Cruise. (Adding: “You’re 60. Slow down.”)

“I think I have like over 300 references in this movie. From Barry Lyndon to David Lean to Tarantino to Spielberg to Zatoichi to Kurosawa with Yojimbo, Seven Samurai. Pick a Leone movie - Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More with the watch.” – John Wick 4 (and, maybe 5) director, ex-stuntman (it shows) Chad Stahelski.

“Raquel Welch was the best advert for for the movies that the movies ever had.” – The Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin.

“The man who invented mornings was no Christian.” – Peter O’Toole.

“When he first told me he wanted to do West Side Story, I came home and told my husband, ‘I think he’s lost his mind.” – Tony Kushner on the third of four scripts for Steven Spielberg. .

“Chrisitan [Bale] is a little bit like Jeff Bridges, who was in my first film, They find every reason not to go to work.“ – writer-director Scott Cooper.

“It’s just crazy, crazy… Love it or hate it, but it’s rare to experience something like this as an actor.” – Alexander Skarsgård on Infinity Pool which has a naked Skarsgård being breastfed by horror queen Mia Goth.

“I retire all the time and then a script arrives and tempts me out of retirement.’ – MIchael Caine, 89, on The Great Escape.

“When I was with other kids I cussed, all right. Their cussing was just tied to their parents’ cussing. But my cussing could be tied to Buddusky [Jack Nicholson] in The Last Detail….to Popeye Doyle [Gene Hackman] in The French Connection. After I saw The Outfit, after hearing that line that Joe Don Baker has, I was constantly saying, “I don’t give a rat’s ass.” - Quentin Tarantino

“It’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy meets The Office.” – Gary Oldman on Slow Horses.

“He’s so cool that he just makes everyone around him cool. You acclimate to s.

his frequency… He doesn’t project like he’s Harrison Ford. He’s just a sweet guy, so it’s pretty easy to be around him.” – Brandon Sklenar. On his TV uncle in 1923.

“Before I did my first American film, Pierce Brosnan got me in a bear hug, picked me up and said, “Keep being bold.” I don’t know that he knew that I was bold, but it was a lovely thing to hear.” – Colin Farrell.

“As directors, we ae constantly in search of those who are willing to be moree fearless than we are. We sit behind our monitors while they do all the brave work…and there’s no one braver than Charlize.” – director Jason Reitman on Ms Theron.

“Jen’s ability to improvise and be so in the moment at all times was amazing to witness.” – Leonardo DiCaprio on Jennifer Lawrence, “one of the most talented actors working today.”

“Acting is mostly about being a puppet, it’s not interesting or mentally challenging. I feel completely empty when I am acting… like I am wasting my life.” – French director-actor Mathieu Kassovitz

“It’s unbelievable that I still have a career.” – George Clooney.

CCC CLIPS

>> “I’m not going to be ignored, Dan.” Alex Forrest is back in town. But she’s the victim this time in the series format of Fatal Attraction. With Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan as Michael Douglas and Glenn Close. Oh, so a B-movie version.

>> Another day, another re-hash. Robert Downey Jr is apparently gong to mess with the 1957 Hitchcock classic, Vertigo. Downey is 58. And Hitch blamed the 1957 flop on his star, James Stewart, looking tool old at … 45.

>> Bollywood is prepping “the biggest film that India has ever produced.” Tiger vs Pathaan is the latest chapter of the Spy Universe created by Yash Raj Films. It’s the first yes-we-Khan summit meeting of superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan since a 1995 gig. They play agents of RAW, India’s CIA. (Think James Bond and Jason Bourne! Except they’re both 57). In his comeback after a four year lay-off, SRK (Bolly’s Tom Cruise) has just had the hugest hit of his career as the spy called, like the film, Pathaan. Khan (Bolly’s Steven Seagal) actually started this Spyverse as an operative known as Tiger in Ek Tha Tige - turned down by SRK in 2011 - shot all over Cuba, Iraq and Ireland. In a teaser at the end of Pathaan, the two heroes check out their possible successors and decide to work together because India’s safety can’t be left to children!

WANTED for gangsters >>>Johnny Depp: Lucky Luciano, Mobsters. Robert Downey Jr, Al Pacino and Sylvester Stallone: Gotti. Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper as The Krays. Robert Mitchum: Dillinger. Bob Hoskins: Al Capone, The Untouchables. Frank Sinatra: Baby Face Nelson. Orson Welles: Al Capone, The St Valentine’s Day Massacre. Oh and Ray Liotta, Michael Rispoli and “Little Stevie” Van Zandt for… Tony Soprano. <<<

AT LAST A BBIOPIC

… And God Created… a Brigitte Bardot series. Indeed a full (actually, rather empty) six episode series of the BB saga from ages 15 to 25, as she set the planet aflame as the most famous French movie star of all time. With also a huge impact on music, fashion and, for the last 37 years, animal protection.
Paris-born to Franco-Argentine parents, Julia de Nunez was unknown when answering the social media search for “an actress between 18 and 22 years old, with a temperament.” She proved to be a staggering BB clone. “I‘ve always resembled her - but we didn't try to imitate her.” Danièle Thompson, who wrote the script with her scenarist son, Christopher, explained all to Bardot. “She replied very kindly that she trusted us.” They insist it’s no biopic but a slice of her life. The credits say it’s a fiction based on real facts, except many of them are totally bogus.

The most beautiful woman in the world

“Brigitte” and Bardot

As usual in such bios, the biggest names are on the wrong side of the cast list, as actors portray Roger Vadim (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo’s grandson, Victor), Raoul Levy, Christian Marquand, Jean-Louis Trintignant (the team from the BBreakthrough, ...And God Created Woman) and her early lovers, singers Gilbert Becaud, Sacha Distel, actors Jacques Charrier, Sami Frey. Unfortunately, apart from BB, Vadim and her agent “Mama” Olga, none of the other real people resemble the real people they are supposed to be, making it difficult to know who’s who.
My second book, Bébé: The Films of Brigitte Bardot, had a moment of glory in 1975 when US producer Linda Yellen took out an option on the rights. Alas, she found Hollywood had as much interest in BB as she had in Hollywood. She quit one comedy, The Art of Love, on learning the Paris scenes would be shot in LA and only made Dear Brigitte when Fox agreed to shoot in Paris.
Brigitte retired 50 years ago at 39. She remains untouched in our memories. The essence of youth. Ageless youth. Her youth; our youth. A hank of hair, lank of leg, a dream mouth, an androgynous figure of unbridled and suggestively ambiguous sensuality. Her 48 films alternated between lightweight comedies, stripteasing with a distinct pleasure of her own torso – and heavy, often turgid dramas, as the sexual catalyst of tragedy, offering her indolent, almost documentary challenge to the forever double-standard forces of respectable morality. She succeeded in both strata as, clearly, herself.

Old Nick is Furyous.

SAM THE WHAM

Nick Fury, “the most wanted man on the planet,” returns in June. In today’s Marvelverse. “For one last fight.” With an invasion of Skrull shapeshifters. But without his eye-patch. “That was part of who the strong Nick Fury was,” Sam Jackson told Vanity Fair. “It’s part of his vulnerability now.” Ali Selim directs the Secret Invasion series and joins Sam among the dozen exec producers. We’ll see it in June. With Don Cheadle, Emilia Clarke… and Olivia Colman as Helen Mirren, as it were. Well, no, she MI6’s Sonya Falsworth (and Miss Havisham in the same year!). “It’s somebody you’ve never seen her play before,” says Sam. “She’s cold-blooded and just relishes being that person.” So she tells him: “You’re in no shape for this fight that lies before us, old friend.” Hah. “This war is one I have to fight,” insists Fury. “Alone:”

MEN ON FIRE

Brando, De Niro, Scott Glenn, Denzel,
Cruise, Ford, Bachchan, Arnie.

Also pumped up to series action is A J Quinnell’s Man on Fire – the ex-CIA and US Marine Force Recon hero turned mercenary John W Creasy. No actor has been signed, as yet. But hey, we know this guy. From two movies. Sergio Leone chose Robert De Niro for the first in 1986 and Marlon Brando nearly played him (certainly helped rewrite him) but Scott Glenn won the role. Tony Scott had felt he was not quite ready for such an actioner – he’d wanted Robert Duvall. Flash forward 17 years and Scott is helping Denzel Washington retrieve his lost taste for acting in the 2003 version. The new scriptwriter was Brian Helgeland, who recalled going into the LA Video Archives store in the 80s and asking the clerk: “What’s good?” The clerk said: Man on Fire. The clerk was Quentin Tarantino.
In both films our hero is trying to rescue a kidnapped girl, almost a daughter, he was bodyguarding. Yeah, rather like a matrix for Liam Neeson’s Takens. So no surprise to find Liam was among some 25 actors up for Scott’s Creasy. From Crowe, Cruise, Ford, Gibson and Oldman to Keanu, Schwarzi, Sly, Willis… even our dear old Bob Hoskins. Creasy has since been Bollywooded by the inimitable Amitabh Bachchan (at 63!). There were three songs, of course. Paradoxically, Man on Fire was the title of a Bing Crosby flick in 1956 but with just the one song. Over the credits.


NOT FOR ME James Garner refused The Night of the Iguana. “it’s just too Tennessee Williams for me!”	HALE HALLE Halle Berry lost the Tina Turner biopic, but won Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. (And James Bond).	THE PRINCESS Jessica Chastain passed Diana to Naomi Watts. Then, they also nearly played Marilyn.	CAPTAIN CARY First idea for Pirates of the Caribbean - a TVersion - was Cary Elwes. Second? Rik Mayall.

ON A ROLE - OR FOUR

JLD. Busy, busy, busy.

“There are 1,000 layers to Julia,” says her sit-coms’ writer-producer David Mandell, “At any given time, she’s playing 30 or 40 things in a scene, which allows her to be likeable and unlikeable, incompetent and very skilled.” That’s why Julia Louis-Dreyfus is one of my favourite ladies. She is now reversing the current trend – by moving from series (Seinfeld, Veep) to movies. Four of them. As Jonah Hill’s Mom in the You People romcom, a struggling author in You Hurt My Feelings… followed by Tuesday, from the very in A24 combine, described as a “trippy, adult-skewing fairy tale.” And then – wow! – JLD is the wicked Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, seen as wallpaper in a few other Marvels, but never like this– heading up an anti-hero squad in Thunderbolts. Best of the bunch is Feelings a reunion with the writer-director Nicole Holofcener. They fit together like Scorsese and De Niro, Frears and Dench. In 2013, they made the sublime love story, Enough Said, co-starring with what is missing in Feelings, a leading man worthy of her range. In 2013 that was the late, great James Gandolfini. Perfection! If you’ve never seen it, go get it. Immediately.
Incidentally, playing Julia’s agent is LaTanya Richardson Jackson. Yes, Mrs Sam The Wham.

THIS IS GETTING TO BE A HABIT

Paul Rudd on his ant farm.

In the beginning, there was a great poster for Being John Malkovich. Then came, a multitudinous Adam Driver advertising Squarespace And now, not wanting to be left out of nifty trends, Paul Rudd as Ant Men. And next…?

Who should be Enzo Ferrari, the Italian driver-creator of the famous sports and indeed Formula One racing cars, in Ferrari? The answer is the same guy who played Italian fashion king Maurizio Gucci in House of Gucci. And that is… Adam Driver. Ok, certo, sì, but which one…?

THE NAME GAME

In a 1938 movie called Rulers of the Sea, Alan Ladd played… Colin Farrell. Two years later in Meet The Missus, Ladd was... John Williams. And in four other films, Alan Ladd played… Alan Ladd.

IN GOOD COMPANY

Presumably because none of its young staff has heard of the Sam Peckinpah Western, the French film sales company Wild Bunch has changed its name to Goodfellas. Could have been worse… W, Z, Peter Pan, Planet of the Apes, Deep Throat…
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon call their new outfit Artists Equity. Reese Witherspoon’s is Hello Sunshine. Elizabeth Banks on Brownstone Prods, George Clooney has Smokehouse Pictures and Jonathan Majors walks Tall Street… as opposed to a Short Road?

Stars losing colours >>> Robert Redford: Blue. Jodie Foster, Anjelica Huston, Diane Keaton: Blue Velvet. And who let the Reservoir Dogs out: Steve Buscemi for Mr White; Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Mr Pink; Matt Dillon, Michael Madsen, Tom Sizemore, Quentin Tarantino or James Woods - Stuck in the Middle With Mr Blonde<<<

Roll ©redits:

All The President's Men montage: Reg Oliver; Amitabh Bachchan: GHS Entertainment, 2005; Halle Berry: Eon-Danjaq-MGM, 2002; Jessica Chastain: Freckle Films/Vintage Pictures, 2018; Robert De Niro: Universal/Légende, 1994; Julia de Nunez and Brigitte Bardot: France TV/Miselana, 2023; Adam Driver: Squarespace, 2023; Cary Elwes; Paramount, 1996; Harrison Ford: Lionsgate/Millenium, 2013; James Garner: NBC/Universal, 1979; Scott Glenn: ABC Signature, 2015; Julia Louis-Dreyfus, A24 Films, 2021; John Malkovich: Gramercy Pictures, 1998; Daisy Ridley, Lucasfilm, 2018; Paul Rudd, Marvel Studios, 2022; Arnold Schwarzenegger: Lionsgate/Millenium, 2013; Denzel Washington: Fox 2000/New Regency/ Scott Free, 2003; Michelle Yeoh, A24 Films, 2022. TC sketch: Graham Marsh, 1976; Plus enormous thanks to The Man: Daniel Bouteiller.

Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU General Public License.

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 2,777,633 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.

YEAH, YEAH, YEOH

Give the girl a great big hand…

Ever since this site started in 2008, this spot has been reserved for actresses who lost what we called, back in the day, Bond Girls. That reservation still stands. Last time for the passing of Raquel Welch (once due in Thunderball), this time to offer heartiest congratulations to Michelle Yeoh (Wai Lin in Tomorrow Never Dies) for becoming not only the first Asian to win a Best Actress Oscar (for the A24’s gloriously absurd Everything Everywhere All At Once), but the third Bond Woman to do so. After Kim Basinger (Domino in Never Say Never Again) for LA Confidential in 1997 and Halle Berry (Jinx in Die Another Day) for Monster’s Ball in 2002.

NO, NO, SEVEN

Aaron Taylor Johnson - not quite a Bond boy

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is somewhat shooting down my tip that he’s the next 007. “I’m not here to play the same character twice. I, as a person, am naturally changing and evolving. New things inspire me and you grow as a person. So I can only move forward and play things I haven’t done before. I like a challenge, and I like to step outside of my comfort zone, often.” ‘Nuff said!

She said title

“I’ve flown on wires and surfed in the ocean, rode on horses, in wagons, trains and fast cars. I had multiple personalities. I worked in a textile mill, picked cotton. I’ve been Mrs. Doubtfire’s employer, Forrest Gump’s mother, Lincoln’s wife and Spider-Man’s aunt. I’ve done scenes wearing 50 pounds of period dresses. I’ve been fully clothed, semi clothed and totally naked.”– Sally Field accepting her SAG Screen Actors Guild lifetime achievement award

“I don’t care about the money. I live to make good films. It’s my religion.”– Eva Green

“I haven’t done a sex scene in a couple years. I’m at that age where they don’t ask you to do them so much anymore. I mean, I don’t really enjoy them.”– Christina Ricci at 43.

“I didn’t know that I was auditioning for the role of Uhura until after I booked it. She was described as a bright, young prodigy who is deciding whether or not the place that she’s in is where she wants to be right now.., A lot of her story and a lot of her mentality mirrored mine - in a different industry.” – Celia Rose Gooding, on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

“He was he most formal formalist I’ve ever known.”– Molly Ringwald on Jean-Luc Godard.

“Friends taught me the importance of camaraderie and really sticking together. These friendships were at the most important time in my life, and we went through so many things together. And it just taught me about being there for each other - I know, that’s the song: I’ll Be There For You. But it’s true. It was so nice to work with people that could bounce ideas off each other. Everybody wanted the best for everybody. There was no jealousy, it was only: Let’s make the best show we can, and let’s support each other in this.”- Courteney Cox.

“Friendships are very important to me. In fact, friendships are very important to human beings. We are an animal that needs relationships. We need to be touched and hugged and loved and not feel alone.” - Jane Fonda.

“When I saw the [Tár] anagrams, I was thinking, I can’t play Rat …I said to my husband, ‘We’ve got to change the name.’ And he - my husband - just very simply said: It’s also an anagram of Art.” – Cate Blanchett

“I love gore. I grew up on Evil Dead. The gore is part of the fun of the ride.” But... Cocaine Bear is a ginormous risk. This could be a career ender for me.” – Elizabeth Banks.

“I had to be in the bed with him, you know. I’m dressed up to here [her neck]. But I’m lying there and I’m thinking: “I’m in bed with Harrison Ford! I was so excited, I can’t tell you. I had to pretend to be cool.” – Helen Mirren on 1923. “Don’t tell him. Promise me.”

“I got Stuart Little and then Stuart Little 2. Other than that the work just dried up. Incredibly painful. I said my agent: Can we find out what Liam Neeson is turning down and go for those parts?” - Geena Davis, awating a Geenaissance.

“I feel that for the last ten years of my life, I’ve been just stuck… doing these franchises I’m very grateful for . But I felt artistically stuck in my craft of not being able to expand or grow or challenge myself by playing different sorts of genres and different roles.” - Zoe Saldaña, Avatar’s Neytri.

Everyone's so much smaller than they seem. - Daisy Ridley on meeting stars.

HIP HIP HOORAY

Prettiest Jedi ever

Disney/Marvel/Luscasfilm/Earth has finally understood that while series are OK, movies are far better and has greenlighted at least four new Star Wars movies. The first, with Daisy Ridley, continues Rey’s story from 2018’s The Rise of Skywalker, as she starts building a new Jedi Order. Steven Knight, Mr Peaky Blinders, wrote it. Pakistan’s double documentary-Oscar winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is the first woman director allowed into the Star Wars planet. More tales are due from Indy 5’s James Mangold, Mandalorian producer Dave Filoni, Deadpoool’s Shawn Levy - and Thor: Ragnarok’s Taika Waititi will be the first director to also star in a Star Wars chapter.

All of which is really great news but when do we get what we really want – the return of Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso in… well, what would you call it… Rogue Two?

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.