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Franco Nero, Il mercenario(US: The Mercenary),Italy-Spain, 1968. James Coburn was top choice for the title role – an American – while Nero was given Paco Roman, to explain his accent. When he also got top billing, Coburn quit. Nero then became the hero – now Polish! Musante took over Paco when Nero was impressed by the American (!) in The Incident,1967. ther American Musante took over as Paco. Nero then recommended Musante to director Giuseppe Patroni-Griffi for Metti, una sera a cena(One Night At Dinner), with Floridan Bolkan and Jean-Louis Trintignant.
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Charles Bronson, Città violenta (UK: Violent City; US: The Family), Italy-France, 1969. As a switch from his spaghetti West, Rome director Sergio Sollima tried an urban thriller – Quentin Tarantino called it a re-hash of Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past. Replacing 1947’s Jane Greer-Robert Mitchum-Jane Greer with Florinda Bolkan-Tony Musante or Sharon Tate-Jon Voight. Until Bronson became the betrayed hit-man, inevitably insisting on his wife…as his double-crosser.
- Robert Forster, Vigilante, 1981. Sometimes a walk-out can improve matters… Musante changed his mind about the Death Wishian thriller. Producer-director William Lustig called up Forster – having been impressed by his work in Lewis Teague’s 1980 Alligator. Most directors recalled Forster’s work in Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool, 1968, but a horrorsmith is a horrorsmith!
Birth year: 1936Death year: 2013Other name: Casting Calls: 3