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Mykeltie Williamson, Forrest Gump, 1993. Stand-up Dave Cjappelle held his nose – he thought it would be a stinker. Then again, Ice Cube, David Alan Grier, Martin Lawrence, Eddie Murphy, (way too gigantic for such a support tole), Chris Rock and Tupac Shakur also passed on Gump’s pal, Bubba. . Hanks heard how Chapelle regretted refusing and asked him to be his buddy in You’ve Got Mail, 1998. And that’s all I have to say about that…
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Chris Tucker, Friday, 1994. One Chris for another in the opening installment of Ice Cube’s Friday quartet. Tucker backd off from any reprise for Friday After Next, 2001. But producer Cube made use of a few off-cuts from #1.
- Jeffrey Wright, Basquiat,1996. One painter’s view of another – artist-writer-director Julian Schnabel’s take on the short life (1960-1988) of the street artist struggling with sudden global fame, drugs and identity. Rock rejected the film not knowing who Jean-Michel Basquiat was at the time. David Bowie played Andy Warhol – in Andy’s wigs.
- Damon Wayans, Marci X, 2003.
Ze pitch: A Jewish-American Princess takes control of a hip-hop record label and tries to rein hard-core rapper DrS. Rock refused to roll. He told Entertainment Weekly: “It’s the worst script I’ve ever gotten… I’d have been happier getting an envelope full of anthrax.” Damon Wayans and Lisa Kudrow seemed to love it. No one else did. Said Mick La Salle, in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Plays like a satire made by people who don’t know the worlds they’re satirising.”
- Snoop Dogg, Starsky & Hutch, 2004. Obviously, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson did not wish to let Huggy Bear steal their movie… Pity, it could have used some genuine humour. Or, something…
- Sam Huntingdon, Superman Returns, 2006.
- Eddie Murphy, Tower Heist, 2010. Chris and Eddie were the leads before the black Ocean’s Eleven (with Martin Lawrence, Dave Chappelle, Mike Epps, Chris Tucker, Katt Williams) turned black and white. Ben Stiller took the lead for $15m… double Murphy’s pay-cheque for a lesser role.
- Kevin Hart, The Upside, 2017. Idris Elba, Jamie Foxx and the two Chrises, Rock and Tucker, were all in the frame for quadriplegic Bryan Cranston’s helper In a typically hollow-wood cre-hash of a gigantic French hit, Untouchables, 2011. The abundantly charismatic Paris star, Omar Sy, won several Hollywood films as a result of his César-winning performance. Coming nowhere close, Hart simply lacked heart.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 8