Jack Black

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

 

  1. Donnie Wahlberg, Ransom, 1996.     Black and Philip Seymour Hoffman were on director Ron Howard’s list for Barnes. But, surely, he was named Cubby… not Chubby!

  2. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Boogie Nights, 1997.  Black wqs blue… . In  the mix for Scotty J (in love with Mark Walhberg’s porno stud Dirkl Diggler) but auteurPaul Thomas Anderson  knew all the time  it had to be PSH in his porno-“family” film. He had starred in PTA’s Hard Eight, 1966, and went on to his Magnolia, 1999, and even the awful  Punch Drunk Love, 2002.

  3. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Almost Famous, 2000.   P{SH again… For Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical look back to his Rolling Stone reporter “daze,” Black and Jon Favreau auditioned as the rock critic Lester Bangs.  PSH shot it in four days  while riddled with, er, flu. He later ODed, alas, like Bangs.

  4. Jim Carrey, Yes Man, 2007.    First choice  passed. Carrey snapped it up for some  funny scenes that might  just make people say “yes” more often.  As UK writer Danny Wallace did for a year  – and a best-selling book.
  5. Zach Galifianakis,  The Hangover, 2008.    “We can’t find Doug!” No one  knew that losing the  bridegroom after his stag night would  smash  comedy  records. And go on to a three movie franchise.   So… 1. Knowall Black passed.  2.  Thomas Haden Church, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jonah  Hill  were looked over with apparent askance. 3. Alan was retooled to suit  the exuberant Zach The Greek.
  6. Jim Carrey, Mr  Popper’s Penguins, 2010.     In order of disappeance, it was Ben Stiller, Black and Owen Wilson up for the Midas-rich Popper inheriting six penguins.
  7. Ryan Reynolds, The Green Lantern, 2010.    Three years earlier, the fans exploded on hearing Warner Bros was planning a Lantern comedy by Robert Smigel with Black as whichever manifestation (there are six) of the DC hero the studio decided on. The new producers selected test pilot Jordan, the first earthling in the Green Lantern Corps,  , and looked over Bradley Cooper, Nathan Fillion, Brian Austin Green, Emile Hirsch, Jared Leto, Eddie Murphy, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake, Sam Worthington. And two Brits: Henry Cavill, Michael Fassbender. Reynolds isalso the only actor to portray both DC and Marvel heroes: Hannibal King in Blade, 2003, and Wade Wilson/Deadpool  in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 2008. 
  8. Ryan Potter, Big Hero 6, 2014.  “We didn’t set out to be superheroes. But sometimes life doesn’t go the way you planned.”  What were they thinking? Obviously Jack Black, Will Forte, Bill Hader, Jason Lee, Justin Long, Patton Oswalt were way too old for voicing  Hiro Hamada, a robotics prodigy  of 14, in Disney’s first Marvel subject, winning  the best animation Oscar.  It unfurls 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 super-troupe behnd the titular collective name… that nobody ever uses.  Portland’s Potter, 19, continued in the Big Hero series and then voiced Keji Kon in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, 2020-2021.  
  9. Jake Johnson, Tag, 2017.  Black wantedd a change. But Johnson was less , perfect for the dead-end stoner cracking apart over rhe years – of playing surprise-surprise-tag  with  his buds  across America. Village Voice Bilge Ebiri liked it – “gloriously dumb” – but wished it was a docu about the real men-children it was based on.  
  10. Andy Bean, It Chapter Two, 2018.  Jack Black, Will Forte, Bill Hader, Jason Lee, Justin Long, Patton Oswalt were in the mix for the adult Stan Unis… in the 262nd of Stephen King’s staggering 313 screen credits … and his second biggest hit! The first?  It, 2016, of course. (King Kameo: Pawnbroker).
  11. James Marsden, Sonic the Hedgehog, 2019. For the new movie version of the video game, 15 actors jostled for Tom Wachowski, the Montana cop helping the speedy blue blur alien from another planet in his fight against Jim Carrey’s Dr Robotnik. They were:  Black, Ansel Elgort, Chris Evans, Bill Hader (also up for voicing Sonic), Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Adam Pally (also seen for Sonic, he wound up as Wade, Tom’s deputy), Chris Pratt, Paul Rudd, Jason Segal, Justin Timberlake, Milo Ventimiglia, Owen Wilson and Marsden, who was ready for “as many as they want to make. it was so much fun to see Jim enjoying himself again.”

 

 

 

 

 

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  11