- James Marsden, X-Men quartet, 1999-2013. “Mutation: it is the key to our evolution.” Producer James Cameron and his then wife, director Kathryn Bigelow, chose Michael Biehn for Scott Summers/Cyclops in the early 90s – and never made the film! James Caviezel won this version before prefering to be Dennis Quaid’s son in Frequency. (Nobody’s perfect). To be free for Cyclops, Marsden shut the door on Soul Survivors and slipped the key toCasey Affleck – after director Bryan Singer looked at pals Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Ethan Hawke, Thomas Jane (who became Marvel’s The Punisher, in 2003, and opposite Rebecca Romijn, X-Men’sMystique), Edward Norton (already turned down as Logan/Wolverine), DB Sweeney (he cameoed as a Statue of Liberty guard), Luke Wilson… and Edward Burns, except the last thing a young and opinionated director like Singer wanted on his set was another young and opinionated director.
- Scott Caan, Ocean’s Eleven, 2001. An impending actors’ strike had Hollywood rushing films before cameras, causing fast exits (to other suddenly go movies) from this star-packed re-make of the Sinatra Clan’s heist movie. After the Coens, Polish and Wilson brothers had to refuse, Turk and Virgil became decidedly non-sibling: Ben Affleck’s brother, Casey, and James Caan’s son, Scott.
- Patrick Duffy, Dallas, TV, 2011. Efforts were made since 2002 to reboot the iconic 1978-92 series (and tele-films) for the cinema. Result? This pilot for a 2012 series… about JR and Bobby’s rival sons (Josh Henderson, Jesse Metcalfe)… “Impossible to do Dallas as a film,” Duffy told me on the phone from his 600 acre Oregon ranch in 2011.. “A ten hour plot in 120 minutes! I read those movie scripts and they were atrocious Then, I read this – oh my God, this is Dallas as I remember it. It was frightening how easy it was to slide back into Bobby. It’s all about the sons… Larry Hagman, Linda Gray and I agreed we’d rather have somebody else do the heavy lifting.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 3