- Jamie Bell, Fantastic Four, 2014. Good Gad was the first Fox choice for Ben Grimm. Yet Bell became the first British Thing – after Michael Chiklis and Michael Bailey Smith in the previous flops. Two other firsts. CGI was used in place of prosthetics and The Thing was not booted or suited – no boots or pants. Film flopped. (Only ever made to save the rights). Hollywood Reporter critic Todd McCarthy called it “a 100-minute trailer for a movie that never happens.” Marvel icon Stan Lee saw it coming and refused his seal-of-approval cameo.
- Scott Adsit, Big Hero 6, 2014. “We didn’t set out to be superheroes. But sometimes life doesn’t go the way you planned.” Jason Bateman, Josh Gad, Dennis Leary, John Leguizamo, Danny McBride, Ray Romano and Jason Sudeikis were seen (and heard!) for voicing Baymax 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 behind the titular collective name… that nobody ever uses. “I wanted a robot that we had never seen before,” ordered co-director Don Hall “Something wholly original.” He sure got it. Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers said the film “would be a ton less fun without this irresistible blob of roly-poly, robot charisma.”
- Dan Fogler, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, 2015. Michael Cera, Josh Gad, Zack Pearlman and Steve Zissis were knocked out of the new JK Rowling park by Brookynite Fogler – as as Jacob Kowalski, aNo-Maj cannery worker and baker wannabe who accidentally enters the 1926 New York’s magic community after accidentally swopping suitcases with Rowling’s new hero: Eddie Redmayne as wizard-magizoologist Newton Artemis Fido ‘Newt’ Scamander… in the first of a trilogy (in five parts… and and 54 years before Harry Potter was born. Newt and Jacob resembled Laurel and Hardy.
- Bill Hader, It Chapter Two, 2018. Josh Gad, Ed Helms,and Sam Rockwell were suggested for Richie TozierKaspbrak – 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).
- Ben Schwartz, Sonic the Hedgehog, 2019. For the new movie version of the video game, 11 actors tested for the voice of the Blue Blur: Charlie Day, Dane Dehaan, Adam Devine, Will Forte, Josh Gad, Bill Hader, Freddie Highmore, Dylan O’Brien, Adam Pally, Jim Parsons, Andy Samberg, Playing Sonic was an insane honour, said Schwartz. As was co-starring with his hero, Jim Carrey, as the evil Dr Robotnik.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 5