Movie Merchandising vs. The Butterfly Effect

Jodie Foster as Princess Leia in Star Wars? Elvis Presley as Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy? Lucille Ball as Scarlett in Gone With the Wind? Groucho Marx in Ethel Merman's role in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World? Judy Garland as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate? Alfred Hitchcock directing The Exorcist? Alfred Hitchcock directing Rosemary's Baby? Sally Field as Alice in Friday the 13th? Meat Loaf as Bluto in Animal House? Holly Hunter in Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn? Orson Welles in THX 1138? John Travolta in Splash? Molly Ringwald in Blue Velvet? Richard Gere in Making Love? Goldie Hawn opposite Richard Gere in Making Love? Drew Barrymore as Nomi in Showgirls? Bette Midler as Annie Wilkes in Misery? Ice Cube in Forrest Gump? Madonna in Breaking the Waves? Madonna in Brazil? The searchable, cross-referenced NotStarring.com database shows you who almost was... but eventually was not cast in the roles of a zillion different films, and opens up a Pandora's box of alternate cinematic universes.

Comments

[James]

That website's good for falling for a prank, too. Check under the entry for Batman. It claims that Orson Welles considered directing a Batman film in 1946. Nope - that was a prank (a quite elaborate and convincing one, actually) published on a comics industry website by comics writer Mark Millar a couple of years ago.

(Here is the prank, if anyone's interested:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/?column=14

)

[Listener Paul]

I heard that Ronald Reagan was considered for the role of Rick in Casablanca.

[Dale Hazelton]

I still try to imagine Buddy Ebson as the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. It just doesn't work for me. Or the dad from Happy days playing Bosley in Charlies Angels.