- Aaliyah, Queen of the Damned, 2001. What were they thinking? Cher was hardly going to agree to be a (26 minute) supporting act to the vampire Lestat…! Particularly in such a mish-mash of two Anne Rice novels. rushed into action before Warner Bros’ rights ran out. She would have been great, of course. However, director Michael Rymer decided Queen Akasha should be black. He saw all the inevitables: Halle Berry, Rosario Dawson, Vivica A Fox, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vanessa Williams, plus newcomers Jenna Dewan and Samanatha Mumba… But Aaliyah was at her short-lived zenith. Having survived the notorious R Kelly (they wed when she was 15 – it said 18 on the certificate), she tragically Having survived the odious R Kelly (she wed him at 156, although the certification said 18), she tragically died in a Bahamas plane crash soon after shooting wrapped. She was just 22.
- Elizabeth Banks, Zack and Miri Make A Porno, 2008. “Miri was written for Rosario,” said New Jersey autuer Kevin Smith. “We were going to be shooting in the Fall but then when we moved into January-March, she was committed to Eagle Eye. I couldn’t blame her, it’s a fucking Spielberg movie…” Co-star Seth Rogen suggested Banks. “She’s fucking hilarious. No one has every put her in the big role in a big comedy, you know?’ And I thought it’d be perfect for her. We’ve known each other for years, and there’s a lot of very awkward situations in the movie, and that’s very helpful when you really know the people. I know her husband; that helps.” And Smith said: “She’s hands down the best actress I’ve ever worked with.”
- Jessica Biel, Total Recall, 2011. Scarlett Johansson had to pass because of Marvelverse duties with The Avengers.. That left a battle between Biel and Eva Green for Melina, the Resistance fighter and “love interest:” for our new, non-Schwarzi hero, Colin Farrell… in excellent 007-testing mode. Director Len Wiseman wanted Biel for either female lead (and his wife, Kater Beckinsale, would play the other) but failed in any retread’s #1 rule. Build a better movie.
- Rachel McAdams, True Detective, 2014. The second season could never match the impact and huge viewership – averaging 11.9m – of the first HBO season. They were both written by exec producer Nic Pizzolatti and even if the second show was better, no one would say so as the first had long since entered the pantheon alongside The Sopranos, Oz, The Wire, Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Last time, two cop guys; this time, guy and gal. They were considered a flop. The locale changed from Southern to West Coast noir, still owing everything to Elmore Leonard. Dawson, Malin Akerman, Jaime Alexander, Jessica Biel, Cate Blanchett, Oona Chaplin, Jessica Chastain, Brit Marling, Elisabeth Moss, Kelly Reilly, Abigail Spencer were all up for the role of Detective Ani Bezzerides…. opposite Colin Farrell. So, on to Season 3 – second sequels being usually better than the first.
- Alicia Vikander, Tomb Raider, 2017. Lara Croft is the girls’ James Bond. Many tried to succeed Angelina Jolie from her 2000 version – she won it from 20 candidates. Two dozen lost to the Swedish Vikander, on a roll with her 2016 Danish Girl Oscar and Ex Machinarobot…The Franchise Brigade was represented by two from the Percy Jackson flicks (Alexandra Daddario, Rosario Dawson), two Terminators (Emilia Clarke, Summer Glau), two Underworlders (Kate Beckinsale, Rhona Mitra) and three Twilighters (Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed and Kristen Stewart who simply refused). Plus 007’s Gemma Arterton, Harry Potter’s Emma Watson, Marvel’s Wanda Maximioff (Elizabeth Olsen), Star Wars’Daisy Ridley, Transformers’ Megan Fox, TRON’s Olivia Wilde, X- Men’s Jennifer Lawrence, Other also-rans were: Jessica Biel (as perfect as Dawson), Emily Blunt, Emily Browning, Cara Delevingne (Vikander’s co-star in Tulip Fever,2017), Nina Dobrev, Anne Hathaway, Sienna Miller (too mild, surely), Saoirse Ronan and Moon’s Kaya Scodelario.
- Alice Braga, The New Mutants, 2017. Rosario, aka Claire Temple in various Marvel TV series, passed on also being the mutants’ mentor, Dr Cecilia Reyes, in the Fox plans for a kind of X-Boys & Girls super-horror franchise – John Hughes Meets Stephen King! Headed by Maisie Williams (fifth Game of Thrones star in the franchise) as Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane, a Scottsish mutant “struggling to reconcile her religious beliefs with turning into a wolf.” Then, Disney bought Fox and Mutants was in limbo before a 2020 release. Alll mention of X-Men were expunged and neither franchise continued until Marvel decided what to do with them.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 6