Recast Your Favorite (or Least-Favorite) Movies!

[FilmNerdJamie]

score by: Hans Zimmer and Daft Punk

Your awesomeness has yet to be matched.

[Ed Hocken]

I need to give this one some serious thought, and as always I appreciate good suggestions:

At the height of the crack cocaine epidemic, Director Michael Mann looks at it from an unlikely source. In the story of a decent man who increasingly finds himself immersed in a world of crime and violence just so he can provide for his family long after he's gone.

BREAKING BAD

[FilmNerdJamie]

Acclaimed stage and film actor John Lithgow as Walt and making his acting debut Sean Penn as Jesse.

EDIT: I'm sorry I thought this was circa late 70s/early 80s with Billy Friedkin.

DOUBLE EDIT: Michael Mann circa mid-80s it is!

[Ed Hocken]

I see Jamie had a far better idea. But I want Michael Keaton as Saul Goodman.

Although, this movie would be around the mid 80s, so I was thinking Robert Downey Jr. for Jesse.

-edit-

Yeah, I originally thought Friedkin, but Walter does live by his own code as he sinks deeper into the criminal world. That's more in Mann's wheelhouse.

And crack explosion was the meth of its day. So I figured it linked together.

[FilmNerdJamie]

Reportedly Michael Moriarty was the first choice for Walt.

[Ed Hocken]

But, he was found to be too humorless. Harrison Ford also wanted it, but passed on to instead do Witness.

And for you folks out there, chew on this:

The Wachowski Brothers' HACKERS (2000)

[FilmNerdJamie]

Trying to mull through Brian De Palma's politically charged The Times of Harvey Milk circa 1989 after his huge success with The Untouchables.

I'm thinking Al Pacino as Harvey and Christopher Reeve as Dan White from a screenplay by David Mamet.

[Anderson]

In 1980, Spielberg was desperately trying to find his next hit following the box-office death of "1941". After his friend George Lucas became blackballed by the industry for breaking his contract with Universal...Spielberg decided to pilfer through Lucas's available scripts.

Taking an unpolished script from 1975, Spielberg chose to ignore the other tales about Vietnam and a James Bond type in the Jungle.

Bringing the script to the attention of his bosses at Paramount, Spielberg sought out to bring Lucas's dream to the big screen.

Coming June 12th, 1981...

"THE STAR WARS"

Director: Spielberg
Writer: Lucas with revisions by Kasdan, Huyck, Katz and Kaufman

Original Score: John Williams

Luke Skywalker: Treat Williams
Han Solo: Harrison Ford
Princess Leia Organa: Nancy Allen
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Christopher Plummer
Darth Vader: Toshiro Mifune
Grand Moff Tarkin: Richard Attenborough
Chewbacca and the various Alien creations are to be created by Rick Baker and his make-up team.

The film was widely received in the Summer of 1981, which pushed Paramount to demand a sequel for the Summer of 1984. The result was a prequel entitled "Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Rise of the Death Star".

America was immediately annoyed by the concept of the prequel and widely ignored the second film. Lucas would find later success directing his version of Apocalypse Now, while Spielberg would bounce back with a series of films about dinosaurs.

[BillyG]

OK, after Twin Peaks I would have loved to seen Ray Wise get a turn as The Joker.

[FilmNerdJamie]

1987.

With The Untouchables, Brian De Palma delivers a big studio-driven, summer blockbuster that simultaneously was acclaimed by critics and an audience favorite. His career rejuvenated De Palma decided to use his clout to push forward on a more daring, unflinching film in the midst of the AIDS crisis.

De Palma and producing-partner Art Linson convince Paramount to greenlight Milk, a politically-charged account of the life, political career and assassination of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person elected to public office in California. The script, from playwright David Mamet, is an accumulation of sources including the Oscar-winning 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk to original testimony supplied to the filmmakers by those closest to Milk. As a part of their deal with the studio, the filmmakers are allowed freedom from everything ranging from casting to final cut under the agreement they will deliver an R-rating and its budget doesn't exceed $15 million.

Al Pacino – Harvey Milk
River Phoenix - Cleve Jones
Christopher Reeve – Dan White*
Willem Dafoe – Scott Smith
Jason Robards – Mayor George Moscone
Jennifer Jason Leigh - Anne Kronenberg

When released in the closing days of 1989, Milk garners universal praise and lumped into the same class as Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies & Videotape as films changing the landscape of cinema for the better. As expected, the film isn't seen by many across the U.S. because of the subject matter.** While the Academy ultimately rewards the more conservative, crowd-pleasing Driving Miss Daisy for Best Picture, Milk earns awards on Oscar night for Best Director (Brian De Palma), Best Actor (Al Pacino), Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Reeve) and Best Adapted Screenplay (David Mamet).

* Recounts De Palma: "We sent out offers to people like Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, even Kevin (Costner) who I’d just done 'The Untouchables' with. You would think it was an easy role to cast. But it actually was one of the hardest roles I’ve ever been involved with casting. The problem was never the script or how David (Mamet) had written the part. No leading man, at that time, was willing to take the risk of playing someone like Dan White.

Harrison (Ford) particularly said it was one of the best script he'd ever read and in the same breath a role he could never play because he was Indiana Jones. And as silly as that might sound, I understood what he meant. He wasn't wrong because Chris (Reeve) approached us out of nowhere and wanted the part, badly. But Art and I immediately thought, 'But…you're Superman!' And that was kinda what clinched it for us because it is shocking to see Superman, the embodiment of everything that is good and noble and right, doing the horrible things the real Dan White did."

** The film was submitted three times before the MPAA before receiving an R rating.

[FilmNerdJamie]

And for you folks out there, chew on this:

The Wachowski Brothers' HACKERS (2000)

I also have a big one to chew on:

John Landis' Wet Hot American Summer (1987)

The only thing definitive I've got? George C. Scott as the voice of Arty.

[FilmNerdJamie]

Jennifer Jason Leigh - Anne Kronenberg

My apologies. That should be Glenn Close.

[Captain Russ]

I had a great one going and it died when I mistakenly closed the tab.

This is worse than Pearl Harbor. The movie, I mean.

[Anderson]

First one of 2:

David Lynch presents:

BATMAN (1992)

Following up on his television success with Twin Peaks, David Lynch decided to pick up his turn at big studio directing. After WB failed to secure the return of Tim Burton for a second Batman movie, the studio was willing to take chances on darker and more artistic choices.

Lynch has previously turned down the chance to direct Return of the Jedi, as well as having his own terrible experience working on Dune at Universal. This time would be different promised new series producer Dino de Laurentiis.

Production began in Downtown Mexico City in the Fall of 1991. Due to labor concerns and general production instability, the production blew through its original release date of Memorial Day Weekend 1992. Now coming out on Thanksgiving 1992, WB had no idea what they should expect.

Cast:

Batman/Bruce Wayne: Nicolas Cage
Silver St. Cloud: Patricia Arquette
Harvey Dent/Two-Face: Ray Wise
The Joker: Willem Dafoe
Commissioner Jim Gordon: Harry Dean Stanton
Alfred Pennyworth: Dean Stockwell
Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow: Jack Nance

Plot:

Bruce Wayne keeps having terrible dreams since his parents were gunned down in front of him as a child. Shot in various film stocks, we see as Bruce desperately tries to rebuild his life as an adult. The constant image of Camazotz The Aztec Bat God haunts him through the run-down haunt that is Wayne Manor.

A friend of his parents, Alfred Pennyworth, shows up and decides to help Bruce deal with what seems to be his mental collapse. Training his body and mind, Bruce finds purpose. He privately commissions a suit of battle armor to be drafted, so that he can become Camazotz's Avatar in Gotham City.

Fearing the worse, Alfred tries to introduce Bruce to socialite Silver St. Cloud. Feeling that tits and ass can cure anything, Alfred is assured that Bruce is ok. Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Gordon is having to deal with a string of dead criminals being found throughout the city. Fearing that the star District Attorney Harvey Dent is after his job, Gordon makes a deal with a local kingpin dubbed The Joker to solve the Dent problem.

That was just the tip of the iceberg. Warner Brothers cut 25 minutes out of Lynch's cut so that the film would get an R rating. Years later, WB would relent and release the true Director's Cut onto DVD.

The following scenes were cut:

Batman eating The Scarecrow's left eyeball to gain his strength and powers.
The Joker stomping an infant to death at Gotham General Hospital.
The original version of the finale shootout between Batman and the GCPD.


Also made available via Lynch's website were a gallery of images from the film including his original watercolor paintings for the true look of Two-Face.

FUN FACT: At the film's premiere, Adam West yelled at the screen during the infamous Joker rape scene: "WHAT THE COCK IS THIS SHIT?!?" Thus, that's how that particular phrase was born.

[FilmNerdJamie]

1985.

A chance encounter at a restaurant between The French Connection producer Philip D'Antoni and director William Friedkin results in an ambitious, crime drama from the duo: Law & Order, a procedural look at the criminal justice system in New York.

The first hour strictly follows the "Law" covering the investigation of a homicide (The film opens with the murder already taking place and the body being discovered) following the two detectives assigned to the case as they interview witnesses, follow their leads, putting the pieces together and ultimately making an arrest.

Sergeant Max Greevy - Brian Dennehy
Detective Mike Logan – Ed Harris
Captain Donald Cragen – Peter Boyle

In the second hour, the film takes a tonal shift focusing entirely on the "Order." The audience follows the process of how the District Attorney's office proceeds to make their case (led by the Executive Assistant DA, serving as the lead for the remainder of the film) and prosecute the defendant ultimately resulting in a conviction.

Executive Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Stone – John Lithgow
Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette – Andre Braugher
District Attorney Adam Schiff – Marlon Brando