- Lea Thompson, Howard The Duck, 1985. In the mix for rocker Beverly Switzler were Abdul, singer Tori Amos, Kim Basinger, Jodi Benson, Phoebe Cates, Sarah Jessica Parker and the well-named Lori Singer. Thompson nailed it! “And I got to be a rock star. Everybody wants to be a rock star, right? So, I got to sing and wear really crazy hair. It’s unfortunate that it was such a bomb. But, whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Not sure producer George Lucas agreed. Short of funds to complete his Skywalker Ranch, Lucas sold to Steve Jobs what became… Pixar!
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Talisa Soto, Vampirella, 1996. The super vampire heroine was born to parents Forrest J Ackerman and artist Trina Robbins in 1969. Hollywood didn’t care. UK’s Hammer Films did with 70s plans for Barbara Leigh. Peter Guber and Jon Peters were keen until finding something bigger: the 1988 Batman. Roger Corman took over. His director, Jim Wynorski, wanted choreographer Paula Abdul (who refused a red swimsuited babe in Baywatch) or the very tall Julie Strain. Corman voted for the Licence To Kill Bond girl Talisa Sota. ”It’s a mess,” Jim declared in 2017. “It’s a film I cannot watch. Everything went wrong. Everything! I like Talisa Sota as a human being. She’s very pretty… very sexy, but she’s not Vampirella. They forced me to use her. She just didn’t have the body for the costume. Roger Daltry was great [as rebel vampire Vlad]. But, yeah, it was in Vegas. There was embezzlement on the set. It was really a nasty, nasty picture to work on. And it came out badly, too… I should have had Julie Strain. But they didn’t think [she] meant anything. So they put somebody wrong in the role. I should have stopped and said: Let’s just not do this. But, I was going to lose the rights in six months, so I did what I had to do. At least, I got the film made. But I should have said no.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 1