I mean, we all know about Nick Nolte and Tom Selleck being people that the producers originally wanted for Harrison Ford's two most iconic roles(Han Solo and Indiana Jones respectively), and there are a few other really public actor changes that are common knowledge now.
Some of the weird ones:
Independent of the article yesterday, I was having a discussion over at Burbanked and I found out something that really messed with my mind. Milos Forman wanted Bill Murray for the title role in the People vs. Larry Flynt. Now, there are a lot of perfectly valid switches people can make, it is true, but I have a really hard time imagining Bill Murray playing that role. And then I read that Tom Hanks was also considered for that role and now the back of my skull is slowly sliding down the wall behind me because that both blows my mind and provides me with an image that just isn't right.
I am also trying to imagine Christopher Reeve as Jack Cotton in Romancing the Stone... he didn't seem to have the roguish charms of Michael Douglas.
And Robert Redford or Burt Reynolds as Michael Corleone in the Godfather... WTF?!?
John Travolta as Forrest Gump: Well, I know he is dumb enough to make that believable, but man, there is no way I could like him in that role. *shudder*
Or Jennifer Love Hewitt/Melissa Joan Hart as the titular Lolita in Adrian Lyne's adaptation of that book. Somehow I think either of those actresses would have had an entirely different career if they had been given the role (and Natalie Portman turned the role down because of the response to her earlier sexually charged work in Leon/The Professional, and I have a feeling that she wouldn't have played Amidala)
Things I could have totally seen:
Jon Voight as Superman. I mean, he had the clean cut looks back then, the acting chops, and a little bit more marquee value than Reeve.
Stephen Baldwin and Halle Berry in Speed. I think that could have totally worked.
Tim Curry as the Joker in Tim Burton's Batman: This may be the most controversial of my picks, but I think there is a subtle insanity that Curry could have worked into that role. And I can see him doing a huge Joker smile as I type this.
Burt Reynolds in Soapdish: I like Kevin Kline, I really do, but the thought of Sally Field and Burt Reynolds playing former lovers who have to work together again on a Soap Opera would have been exceptional. Unfortunately, Loni Anderson convinced Burt that the only reason they wanted him was so they could make a laughingstock of him, so he didn't do the movie... and because of massive reshoots the movie required, Kevin Kline was then forced to pull out of the role of Peter Pan in Hook, which would have been another great bit of casting.
The greatest DOH! moment from the list to me:
Keanu Reeves was in Heat, but Val Kilmer was able to find the time in his Batman Forever schedule to take the part. Before he got the part in Batman however, he was scheduled to start filming an adaptation of a William Gibson short story Johnny Mnemonic, and there was suddenly an opening in that movie... which Keanu Reeves stepped into... and if you've seen that movie, wow... that is quite a demotion. I actually feel bad about that one.
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