The Varinia part played by Jean Simmons in SPARTACUS was to be played by an unknown actress. Stanley Kubrick replaced her with Simmons at the last minute just before shooting began.
Before Arnold Schwarzenegger came on board the production of the Stephen King film The Running Man Andrew Davis was suppose to direct the film with Christopher Reeve in the lead role.
Jean-Claude Van Damme did leave the production of the movie Predator and was replaced by Kevin Peter Hall as The Predator himself.
Donald Pleasance was to play Blair in The Thing. There's a great old producers blogspot that has all the alternate casting theyvwent through. I'll have to find the link.
I'm surprised Henry hasn't mentioned George Miller's Justice League that got the plug pulled at the very very last second. The cast was: Armie Hammer as Batman, D.J. Cotrona as Superman, Adam Brody as The Flash, Santiago Cabrera as Aquaman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, Hugh Keays-Byrne as Martian Manhunter, and Common as Green Lantern.
I read that Frank Sinatra was set to play Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry but had to bow out because his hand was injured. Some dude named Clint Eastwood got the role as a result.
The well-known one was Leone initially wanted James Coburn for what became the man with no name role as he thought he moved like a cat, but was eventually quite happy with Eastwood.
Stallone was going to do BEVERLY HILLS COP but they wanted it to be more of a comedy and he exited the project before it was made into a comedic vehicle for Eddie Murphy.
Offered or considered for the Popeye Doyle part in The French Connection: Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen, Peter Boyle, James Caan, Jimmy Breslin, and Jackie Gleason!
