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Dr Billy Graham

Posted on 6 November 2023by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

1918 – 2018 – Evangelist

Dr Billy Graham

Posted on 6 November 2023by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

– – Evangelist

WELCOME

to a unique directory of what you never saw on-screen. The films the stars did not make. The movies that never were. The most definitive collation of casting stories. Check up on all the films - of yesterday, today and tomorrow - that your favourite stars never made... A cast of thousands - 8,063 actors - to click on... More than 40 years in the making! And 2,777,633 words of spirited text.

The ultimate in movie trivia ... Better! Exactly the kind of history that Hollywood deserves. Back to front. Upside-down. Inside out. Full of flashbacks, close-ups, tracking shots (and, alas some badly edited sequences - sorry about that!) forming a fascinating, new and often bizarre flip-side perspective on your treasured movies and stars

HE SAID

“Her audition was amazing. She’s like Taylor Swift meets Princess Diana there.” – White Lotus creator Mike White on Lalisa Monobal as Mook.

“All I want to do is work - and get better.” – Guy Pearce. As proved by LA Confidential, Memento, The Hurt Locker, The King’s Speech, The Brutalist. etc.

“I’m not Brad, I’m not Leonardo, I’m not a typical movie star.” – Benedict Cumberbatch.

“The scene becomes passionate, as we choreographed it. And we get into it, as it were, and we go a little further than we were meant to just because we never heard ‘cut’!” – Andrew Garfield on the We Live in Time love scene with Florence Pugh.

“For me, cinema is a blessing or a curse. I can’t think of any other way of life if it’s not writing or directing.” – Pedro Almodovar, after his first film in English, The Room Next Door.

“Stand-up is like you’re a cabinetmaker, and everybody needs a guy who’s good with wood.” – Jerry Seinfeld.

“He sent me this script about 12 years ago, and I read it, and it was one of the best scripts I ever read. It all takes place in real time. It’s 90 minutes in 1943. I said: “We got to make this movie,” And director Richard Linklater said: “No, no, yeah, cool, cool. We’re going to make it, but we need to wait a while… until you’re a little less attractive”! – Ethan Hawke on Blue Moon.

“The only time I was awake was between Action and Cut.” – Robert Downey Jr remembering(?) Natural Born Killers, in 1993.

“I didn’t leave the movie industry, it left me.” – Francis Ford Coppolis. (Followed by the public).

“My mother’s father was born Vincenzo Giovanni Gerardi, and he came from an old Sicilian town whose name, I would later learn, was Corleone” – Al Pacino, The Godfather’s Michael Corleone.

Richard Gere believes his Pretty Woman character was “criminally” underwritten. “It was basically a suit and a good haircut.”

“Showing dong is my genius.” – Mr White Lotus, Mike White.

TOLDJA

Remember me telling you (and complaining) about how, because of Barbie, a load of movies were being based on other Mattel Toys. The deluge has begun. John Cena is driving the Matchbox cars…

CCClips

Henry Cavill, ex-Superman, ex-Sherlock, ex-Napoleon Solo, ex-Witcher, ex-non-Bond, ex -way-too-often, is heading Voltron, based on the 80s Japanese series, Voltron: Defender of the Universe. (It’s a ginormous flying robot thingie). Like his Supie director Zack Snyder once stated: “I always think you could have more Henry.” And his fans (known as The Cavillry) would agree. So he’s into a second Guy Ritchie movie, In the Grey, then re-hashes Highlander… while helping to produce Warhammer 40,000…

Kristen Stewart is flying high in her TV debut as physicist Sally Ride, first US woman in space in 1983. Titled The Challenger as it also covers her work on the presidential commission investigating the horrible Challenger shuttle tragedy of 1986.

Anthony Hopkins is the financier backing a pair of Italian car-makers in Maserati: The Brothers, produced by car nut Andre Iervolino, already responsible for Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend and Ferrari.

CHAMPION'S LEAGUE

Game over! Recently, we’ve seen Marlon Brando leading Jack Nicholson by one or two movies he chose not to make – and then, almost immediately, vice-versa. The gap is much wider now. We’ve found two more titles for Jack – Wall Street, Scent of a Woman - and just one extra for Marlon (The Killer Inside Me). Result: Jack now tops the league with 179 films compared to Brando’s 173. Unless you’re telling me Marlon refused Churchill, Gandhi, Goldfinger, two Sergio Leones plus Emmanuelle and Carry On Cleo…

Jack Nicholson – 179
Marlon Brando – 176
Paul Newman – 160
Cary Grant – 150
Robert De Niro – 140
Tom Cruise – 135
Dustin Hoffman – 126
Mel Gibson – 118
Sean Connery, Al Pacino – 117

Highest Brit remains, as always, Sir Sean at 117… followed by Laurence OIivier, 93; Richard Burton, 87; Peter O’Toole, 79; Elizabeth Taylor, 73; Peter Sellers, 72; Dirk Bogarde and James Mason, 68; Olivia De Havilland, 58; Gary Oldman and Vivien Leigh, 57.

Highest lady is Bette Davis, 97; Jodie Foster, 84; Michelle Pfeiffer, 81; Katharine Hepburn, 79; Michelle Pfeiffer, 78; Julie Christie, 76; Meryl Streep, 75; Elizabeth Taylor,73; Nicole Kidman, 72; Jane Fonda, 70; Julia Roberts, 68.

Younger Brigade: Johnny Depp,108; Leo, 75; Jim Carrey, 70; Madonna, 62; Natalie Portman, 57; Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, 40; Bridget Fonda, 36; Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie and Uma Thurman, 35;, Jake Gyllenhaal, 33; Ben Affleck, 1.

(You'll find the full list at Champions in the Main Menu)

"THE HORROR ..."

Oldest title being dug up is Nosferatu, the first Dracula film, even though he was actually called Count Orlok in 1921 - a magic teaming of director FW Murnau and actor Max Shreck. German film-maker Werner Herzog (The Client in Mandalorian for today’s generation) called itthe greatest German film ever made. And promptly re-made it in 1978!! American Robert Eggers makes a better job of it, with Bill Skarsgård (ex-It, ex-Crow) as the ex-alive Orlok. Plus a staggering turn from Lily-Rose Depp

The other great horror ikon is, of course, Frankenstein - 187 films (!) since 1910. Two more open soon. That means two Frankies and two Monsters. After planning his take for years, Mexico’ Guillermo del Toro chose Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi (instead of Andrew Garfield). Meanwhile, Jake Gyllenhaal and Christian Bale occupy the same roles in The Bride!, based on 1935’s The Bride of Frankenstein, when she was the UK’s Elsa Lanchester but billed as “?”.Now she’s another Brit, Jessie Buckley Jake’s older sister, Maggie, writer-directed.

Another standard, Wolf Man, actually opens Re-Run Year on January 17. Back In 1941, ‘twas a battle between Universal’s horror royalty. Created for The Guv’nor, Boris Karloff, it was desired by Bela Lugosi and won by Lon Chaney Jr – matching his famous father’s penchant for horrible make-up. After Ryan Gosling had to quit, the fella in need of a shave went to Christopher Abbott (also in East of Eden). And Julia Garner is Julia Garner. ‘Nuff said!

"I can't believe anyone still knows who Carrie is!" That was Sissy Spacek. But we still do, Sis. That’s why Amazon MGM (the busiest re-treader) ordered a series based on the book that made a superstar of Stephen King (spelled Steven in the trailer!). The 1976 Carrie-dates had included Linda Blair, Melanie Griffith, Farrah Fawcett, Amy Irving (the first Mrs Spielberg), the inevitable Kay Lenz, even Meryl Streep (at 27) – until art director Jack Fisk suggested his missus. Sissy was 25, Carrie was 16. Instant stars, both. So was a kid called Travolta.

Elle Fanning is bravely tackling Predator - a 1986 title which has taken on whole new and horrific meaning in filmdom. Plus TV, music, sport, education and, of course, politics. So this re-spin has a sub-title: Badlands. Top critic Roger Ebert said first one began like Rambo and ended like Alien.

Julia Garner’s also re-cycling Rosemary’s Baby as Apartment 7A. They call it a prequel, not a sequel, as it takes place before Mia Farrow’s tale about another girl falling victim to Satanists. Julia is a budding actress called Terry – briefly played by Victoria Vetri in Roman Polanski’s ‘67 classic, before committing suicide. Now we’ll find out why… (Victoria was supposed to be dining with Sharon Tate on the night of the Manson murders).

Hollywood’s new horror queen, ex-kiteboarder Maika Monroe (from Longlegs, Watcher) is the baddest nanny in town for a vengeance trip adaptation of Rebecca De Mornay’s 1991 chiller, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle - from Mexican cineaste Michelle Garza Cervera.Anaconda is no new Bond Girl, but the massive (up to 30 foot) snake – a serpentine Jaws in 1997. Harrison, Jack and Sean were sought for what can only be termed The Robert Shaw Role! Opposite the (surely too young) Jennifer Aniston, Kim Basinger or Nicole Kidman. Today, Jack Black and Paul Rudd head what is now a comedy. Always was for me.

And, of course, there has to be a new Godzilla. There’s been 38 since 1954. Kurosawa, Spielberg, Lucas, Scorsese, Carpenter were all fans of the monster Gojira (combining the Japanese for gorilla and whale). Takashi Yamazaki, the wizard auteur-director-visual effects supervisor of Godzilla Minus One, remains in charge.