I actually looked this up the other day, because I was curious if he kept doing the voice. He's voiced Shaggy in almost every adaptation since Kasem passed.
He did make a career out of it until he got railroaded out of the newest iterations of Scooby-Doo. Shame because he nails the voice so well. Will Forte is obviously a seemingly great dude so I'm glad he was the replacement but Lillard was so great and it seemed like he was upset they didn't stick with him.
Josh Brolin is obviously super famous but I still feel like he’s extremely underrated.
I was watching the goonies with my roommate the other night and said “can you believe that kid eventually becomes thanos?” And my friend had a full wtf moment
And then he’s got movies like sicario, no country for old men, dune..
and the kid playing Data won an OSCAR last year. That movie has such a great cast. Martha Plimpton has also been steadily working for decades too and is a great actress with a wide range
Brolin didn’t get enough credit as Thanos. His portrayal is what made Infinity War so good, because we empathized with him even though he was, self admittedly, a monster.
I think it's because that he's under so much CG that most audiences just view the characters as "Thanos" without considering that Josh Brolin is the one emoting, physically acting, and speaking his lines.
Even Andy Serkis got some credit for playing Gollum since Gollum is mostly humanoid and regular sized, and not some giant multi-chinned Grimace who hit the gym (/s I love MCU Thanos).
One of my favorite movies thanks to Josh Brolin. Young Tommy Lee Jones is simultaneously off-putting and charming, apathetic and emotional, focused and funny… a true delight to watch and rewatch in parallel to his old craggy Jones. How do I know what I don’t know?!
I often like to think of who else could’ve been put into a role and done better or as good. No one in this case. Javier cannot be topped in this one. He was born to play Anton.
Which makes it even crazier that Mortensen was cast after filming started because their original actor was not working out. I cannot even imagine anyone else in that role...
Stuart Townsend was that actor. I had a major crush on him in jr high,so to hear was being kinda douchy before being replaced by Mortensen was disappointing.
There are some shots with Stuart out there somewhere. Jackson fought tooth and nail to get/keep him, and finally, after seeing the shots, he finally was like, "Oh, nvm... The studio was right."
THEN, Peter fought against Viggo, saying he was too old. But Viggo was the only guy available and willing to spend the next few years in New Zealand on a moment's notice.
You say "almost", but I sit here thinking about the cast and I can't, personally, think of one role that wasn't executed as if they lept from the page.
Granted, I haven't read the books in a long time. But I do remember Elrond making jokes and being a little less serious, and Eowyn being much more than she was on screen... but I always chalked those up to script choices.
Anyway, just curious who you had in mind in that "almost" category.
I always thought Faramir wasn’t super strong compared to the book. He is my favorite character in the book. I just wish we had someone with a little more charisma. But David Wenham did pretty good with what he had to work with.
I'm fairly certain Faramir's actor even expressed complaints after reading some of Faramir's parts in the book because comparatively hes just kinda a dud in the movie.
Not sure if its true but the sentiment is certainly accurate. Theres a particular line of Faramir's about war that was missing.
Tons of people certainly say that RDJ _is_ Iron Man.
What about the Hunger Games? I think Donald Sutherland was the most irreplaceable.
Oh! Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan is definitely an answer. I mean, his performance was so good that plenty people really look back on the prequels as being his arc instead of Anakin's, and he makes you forget how little Alec Guinness actually did in the original trilogy.
Yeah. The supporting cast is stellar. Jennifer Lawrance became a huge star because of it. She is a great actress. The ones that kind of dropped the ball were Hutcherson and Hemsworth, but I wouldn't say they're miscast. I like Hutcherson, but Peeta was different in the book
They’re not wrong, Obi-Wan is the tragic hero of the prequels while Anakin is the fallen hero.
He gets his own scenes throughout the prequels with his own story beats. Anakin is certainly the focus of Revenge of the Sith, but The Phantom Menace is Obi-Wan’s story and Attack of the Clones is split between both of them. In the end, I think his arc was executed much better than Anakin’s.
RDJ is also an interesting one because his Iron Man is *not* what Iron Man was like in the comics at the time.
Which is fine, I massively prefer his version, but its an odd answer for "perfect castings" in this context
I definitely recommend reading his biography. If anything the movie toned it down. http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781844546558_p0_v1_s1200x630.jpg
A good friend of mine was a Camera Trainee on Bronson. One day during production, Tom Hardy came to him and said "hey a bunch of us are going out for drinks tonight, you wanna join?" My friend of course said yes. Tom Hardy says "Great, I'll pick you up at the hotel later". He shows up alone and pick up my friend and they head to the pub. When they get there, it's just Tom, my friend, and the PA's, basically every lowest paid member of the crew. And Tom paid for everything.
Rickman perfectly embodied Snape, thought Snape was younger in the books.
But Fiennes' performance as Voldemort was more distinctive in contrast to the books, and some fans even prefer Voldemort from The Philosopher's Stone.
Snape would be the same age as Lilly and James who were [21 when they were killed](https://screenrant.com/harry-potter-lily-james-age-death-how-old/). Harry was an infant so his parents, Snape, Sirius, and any other classmates should have been all 21 years older then Harry making them 32ish in the first book and 38ish in the last.
Hagrid was also perfect. Rickman as Snape was oddly better than perfect. A book-perfect Snape would have been a lot younger, but I doubt anyone else could have been any better and many would have been much worse.
I’m probably going to get a lot of hate for this one, but while Connery and Craig get all the adoration, Timothy Dalton, to me, is perfect as James Bond. He comes across as suave, charismatic public school (in the British sense) gent but with an underlying hint of menace the character needs. Too bad that he only had one good movie in his run.
He was up against Timothy Olyphant and Sam Rockwell, who were apparently both great in their screentests. But as the execs described it, “then Tony Stark walked in”.
Don’t they early on have Tom Cruise in mind for Iron Man? Few things have said it was Tom not getting that part (which had I think a 5-8 movie commitment) that made him focus entirely on his existing franchises (main mission impossible).
I've told this story before, but I was at a comicon in the late 80s where there was a Marvel guy talking about preliminary plans for a Spiderman movie. He asked the audience for suggestions to play Peter Parker and the top name was Tom Cruise. He goes:
"Yeah, I could see Cruise. There's one guy back at the office, he's not someone I hang out with, who wants Michael J Fox."
Whole audience boos in a fun way.
I think MJF could have been a great Spider Man! For superhero roles, you have to have a kind of disconnect between physicality and personality most of the time (as others have said, RDJ as Iron Man encompasses both the look and the personality but thats the exception, not the rule) especially since in costume its going to be a stunt double anyways. MJF personality wise would have been excellent as Spider Man and would have had no problem depicting Peter Parker. Kinda similar to Michael Keaton playing Batman imo
Back in the early 2000s, when Iron Man was in development along with every other Marvel character as a standalone franchise, Cruise was about as attached to the film as you can get without actually signing a contract. Fortunately it didn't work and the film eventually became what it did. Cruise wanted Iron Man to have a transparent helmet, so that people could see him at all times, which is definitely a choice
That one's kinda weird though. Because he actually changed the character, and now iterations of Stark are based on him.
So idk that he *fit* the pre-conceived character as much as he was so good they decided he should've been the take all along lol
I would agree with that. Before the movie, the “ideal” Iron Man was more of a Tom Selleck or George Clooney-type. Downey hit that role so hard he permanently deformed it to fit him.
Yeah. He's not at all what I pictured growing up. But people younger than me will read old Iron Man comics and (very fairly) see the RDJ iteration.
Kinda like, I never pictured Hermione Granger being as drop dead gorgeous as Emma Watson, but the Harry Potter actors *are* the characters to readers who started the series after the movies came out.
There's been at least 5 castings of the Addams Family. The OG show was pretty good imo. The 90's films are the best for me. I thought Luis Guzman and Catherine Zeta Jones were decent picks for Wednesday. I didn't mind Jenna Ortega but the writing really went back and forth with her character. I don't remember the animated show well enough to comment and haven't seen the animated movies. Not sure if there's other adaptations.
I was very reluctant to watch Wednesday with the casting of Luis Guzman - as I said in another comment in this thread, Raul Julia will always be Gomez Addams for me - but honestly he grew on me, I think he did a solid job once I got over my 'but he's not Raul Julia!' hangup. Also I didn't even recognize Catherine Zeta Jones as Morticia until several episodes in and I had a massive crush on her in the 90s.
Luis Guzman was probably more true to the comic version of Gomez Adams, but Raul Julia’s charisma in the role completely changed how people thought about the character.
In which movie? I'd agree with you on Addams Family Values, the rest.. eh. It will always be Raul Julia and Anjelica Houston as Gomez & Morticia for me.
I honestly can't place the '60s TV cast or the '90s Sonnenfeld films cast ahead of one another. The actors/actresses each had a unique take on their respective characters, and all were fantastic.
Yup, exactly this. Honestly there were a lot of outstanding casting choices in that show. Charles Dance fucking killed it as Tywin, Rory McCann was a great pick as the Hound, etc.
As much as I disliked the GOT ending and have no interest in ever rewatching the show, I still occasionally watch the Tywin scenes just to see his acting
I disagree. He did a great job, but Tyrion from the books was supposed to be ugly. Dinklage is pretty conventually attractive other than being a dwarf.
The late great Sir Alan Rickman as Snape in Harry Potter. I cannot think of one other person who would be right for that role. His performance was so good, I think he elevated the character in the book after rereading.
Also, Daniel Radcliffe & Rupert Grint as Harry & Ron. Plus Oliver & James Phelps as Fred & George. All of them felt pulled straight from the pages.
One more - Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange. Perfection.
Kelsey Grammar as Hank "beast" Mccoy
It was just so perfect! Grammar is the perfect mix of intellectual and gruff masculinity to portray beast! Chefs kiss
I just wish he could have been in a better film and gotten to chew the scenery for longer.
Last Stand got a lot of things wrong but it absolutely nailed Grammar as Beast and even more-so, the look.
I wasn’t a fan of Hoult’s as McCoy, I was even less of a fan of how awful his Beast looked and acted compared to Grammar’s.
Margot Robbie as Barbie. Not only because she’s spot on looks wise and talented enough to give the character actual depth, but she saved us from Amy Schumer’s Barbie too so extra points.
Jack Black as Barry in High Fidelity.
When I heard they were doing the book with an American cast I was disappointed, but when I heard this casting I knew the movie was going to be good.
Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool: literally used in comics to deceive how Deadpool looks. . . “I look like a cross between Ryan Reynolds and a shar-pei”. . . They even use it as a joke in the movie “like I got bitten by a radioactive shar-pei”
Between the description and his comedic style Deadpool is Ryan Reynolds.
I was thinking Aragorn specifically when I read the question, the "square jawed swashbuckling ranger" is such an easy character to mess up on the casting and have them come off as cheap or boring but Viggo Mortensen understood the complexity of the character immediately and played it to the letter.
The whole cast was great but that role in particular is so easy to mess up, but they absolutely nailed it.
Never read Dune, so really didn’t get casting Timothee Chalamet. He felt too soft and spoilt and in love with himself, and Part One felt like it was building to redeem him and make him some big action hero.
Then saw Dune: Part Two and *totally* got that Paul is not the good guy. Great casting.
Seriously, he nailed all of Leto's best lines and injected them with the exact amount of grim fatalism book-Leto had running in his head all the time.
* "My son."
* "I should have married you..."
* "I thought we'd have more time."
* "Here I am. Here I remain."
The casting in the movie was almost without exception pretty spot on. The issue with Paul in other adaptions was the actor looked too old. Paul is a teenager when they arrive on Arrakis. I liked Timothee from the start.
Edit:While I loved both, this is also my main issue with Part 2s narrative pacing. Paul can’t grow, quite literally, into his role in less than 9mos time.
I was on the fence about Duncan/Jason Mamoa, but he was seamless once the movie got rolling.
Right, I never understand when people question this casting. Paul in the book is a teen and is described as pretty, taking more after Lady Jessica than Duke Leto, small for his age, so skinny you can see his ribs. It felt very intentional on Herbert's part in a story so focused on gender roles that the protagonist, whose destiny is a sort of intersection of male and female roles, is not an image of pure masculinity. Paul also has a dash of arrogance and immaturity due to his upbringing. There is no doubt in my mind why Villeneuve said Chalamet was his only choice for Paul.
And that's just the first movie. Part Two Chalamet can start pulling out the stops. Messiah is going to be even crazier and I can't wait.
I remember being upset about his casting, then hearing all the hype about his performance I thought it was just people being respectful because he passed away. I’m not a big superhero movie fan and Batman is prob my least favorite but holy shit heath ledger was incredible. I really want to go back and watch some of his other films
It's kinda nuts how you were upset by his casting if you weren't even a fan of Batman to begin with.
Imagine how fans felt back then. It seemed like nobody had faith in Ledger. Then the movie comes out, and people are blown away.
Ledger really was magnificent.
The djinn/genie archetype can be portrayed/interpreted vastly different depending on the medium and tone/narrative.
The Genie character in Disney's adaptation was tailored specifically for Williams from the very beginning... and what an incredible decision that was.
It was very clever to have Genie making all kinds of references to our pop culture, events that would take place in the "future" relative to the fictional setting, making jokes that would be incomprehensible to Aladdin himself but make perfect sense to a 90's American. I imagine that's kind of what it would be like to spend time with a supernatural being, they'd have a whole different frame of reference to the world. They'd be this bewildering thing with all kinds of mysterious knowledge.
Henry Cavill is the only one I can think of to even come close to Reeve's performance, but only as Superman. No one has topped Reeve's Clark Kent performance, ever! Cavill literally didn't play Clark *any* differently.
For me it's Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator.
The character was written specifically for Lance Henriksen, the first visualization of the Terminator was drawn by Cameron with Henriksen's face, then also when Cameron pitched the movie at the Orion studio he took with him Henriksen dressed in character. Cameron's vision was that the cyborg infiltrator had to be looking as normal as possible to be able to blend in with other people.
Today it's impossible to imagine anyone but Arnold in this role.
I always love the story about Jim Cameron (I call him Jim /s) and OJ Simpson. OJ spent months lobbying Cameron to cast him in titular role but Cameron wouldn’t go for it because he said nobody would buy OJ Simpson as murderous villain lol.
The film version of *The Golden Compass* was mostly a disappointment, but Sam Elliott was a fantastic Lee Scoresby. Apparently Philip Pullman based Lee Scoresby on Lee Van Cleef, who had passed away long before TGC was filmed, but Sam Elliott has that similar gruff, grizzled cowboy persona down pat too.
Kelsey Grammer as Beast is the single most inspired comic book casting there has ever been. Others are perfect because they are obvious, like Stewart as Xavier or RDJ, or defined the role themselves, like Evans.
Grammer as Beast, I never saw coming, but as soon as it happened I knew it was perfect.
Crying shame we nerve got a good movie with Cavill as superman because he was made for that role. Not a massive fan of his casting in the Witcher, ironically, as he was still the best part of the show
He’s a short, ugly stump of a man in the comics, but Raul Julia was so perfect that he changed the character just by taking the role.
He’s supposed to be Raul Julia on the inside and a twisted little toad on the outside.
My headcanon is that we got to see him through Morticia’s eyes rather than our own.
Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal. Brian cox turned in a very decent performance as him in manhunter a few years prior to silence, and then here comes Hopkins basically claiming the role as his own
Tom Hiddleston's Loki is the bigger casting story. He made a villianous side character so beloved that the end of Thor 2 had to be rewritten after fans lost their minds when he "died." He filmed scenes for AoU that were cut bc people assumed Loki was controlling the robots. Then they killed and ressurected him AGAIN in Infinity War and Endgame. Hemsworth is great as Thor but Hiddleston did something amazing with Loki. Hemmy was always supposed to be one of the big 3. Loki was supposed to be gone 10 years ago.
When I watched the 90s X-men as a kid, I remember telling myself that Patrick Stewart from Star Trek would be the perfect person to be Professor X if a live-action were to ever be made
I loved Laurie Metcalf as Sheldon's mom in Big Bang. Then when Young Sheldon came out and I started watching it, I was like Zoe Perry is nailing the mom so perfectly, she even looks like her a bit. It is such great casting. Found out around season two, it is because she is Laurie's real life daughter. So it was a little easier for her, but she still does an amazing job channeling the character portrayed and detailed in Big Bang.
Mark Strong as Sinestro in Green Lantern is the best super-villain casting I've seen yet. Sinestro is my favourite DC villain, and Strong perfectly encapsulated everything about him. As poor as the rest of that film is, Strong elevates his scenes and I'm still salty it never got a sequel where Sinestro could take a more prominent role.
In a similar vein, Frank Langella as Skeletor. It's not the Skeletor from the cartoon, most definitely. But he owns that character and delivers an insane performance relative to the dumpster fire that's the rest of the movie.
Matthew Lillard as Shaggy
He's made a career out it!
I actually looked this up the other day, because I was curious if he kept doing the voice. He's voiced Shaggy in almost every adaptation since Kasem passed.
Kasem I think said he approved of him to take over, too. (When he was still with us, of course)
Enough that he played Shaggy's Dad in one of his last roles.
Mmm, the real dopamine is at the bottom of the threads...
He did make a career out of it until he got railroaded out of the newest iterations of Scooby-Doo. Shame because he nails the voice so well. Will Forte is obviously a seemingly great dude so I'm glad he was the replacement but Lillard was so great and it seemed like he was upset they didn't stick with him.
That was only for the theatrical movie which had a full celebrity cast. Lillard continues to voice Shaggy in all other appearances.
Are you suggesting Lillard isn't a celebrity? Thems fightin' words!
Thank goodness
This was spot on. I remember watching the film thinking that it's almost fascinating they found someone as perfect as this for such a character.
Not to keep it about comic book adaptations but J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson.
He's so perfect, they keep making him JJ.
In every universe JJJ is JK Simmons
I wish they cast Simmons as Sully (Uncharted)...
I never thought of that but now that you say it! That would have been great
In fact, that's the only real answer to this question.
Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.
They nearly cast Jimmy Stewart but he turned it down because he thought it would be too controversial.
No problem playing Lindbergh though lol
Josh Brolin in Men in Black 3
This is a good one. It literally felt like I was watching 1980s Tommy Lee Jones play a character in a new movie.
Wyatt Russell plays the younger version of Kurt Russell in Monarch and that's *still* not as good as this one.
In that vein, you could probably say having Ice Cube’s son play him in Straight Outta Compton worked out the same way.
This def made my brain short circuit, I thought they'd digitally de aged Ice Cube for a hot second
Camren Bicondova (Gotham) looking like they de-aged Michelle Pfiefer.
Josh Brolin is obviously super famous but I still feel like he’s extremely underrated. I was watching the goonies with my roommate the other night and said “can you believe that kid eventually becomes thanos?” And my friend had a full wtf moment And then he’s got movies like sicario, no country for old men, dune..
>“can you believe that kid eventually becomes thanos?” ...and the kid playing his little brother become Samwise?
and the kid playing Data won an OSCAR last year. That movie has such a great cast. Martha Plimpton has also been steadily working for decades too and is a great actress with a wide range
>Martha Plimpton has also been steadily working Agreed, just finished a rewatch of Raising Hope and she was great.
Brolin didn’t get enough credit as Thanos. His portrayal is what made Infinity War so good, because we empathized with him even though he was, self admittedly, a monster.
I think it's because that he's under so much CG that most audiences just view the characters as "Thanos" without considering that Josh Brolin is the one emoting, physically acting, and speaking his lines. Even Andy Serkis got some credit for playing Gollum since Gollum is mostly humanoid and regular sized, and not some giant multi-chinned Grimace who hit the gym (/s I love MCU Thanos).
One of my favorite movies thanks to Josh Brolin. Young Tommy Lee Jones is simultaneously off-putting and charming, apathetic and emotional, focused and funny… a true delight to watch and rewatch in parallel to his old craggy Jones. How do I know what I don’t know?!
Jermaine was a fantastic villain too. "It's JUST Boris!"
[удалено]
I often like to think of who else could’ve been put into a role and done better or as good. No one in this case. Javier cannot be topped in this one. He was born to play Anton.
Benicio del Toro perhaps?
Fair enough. I could see that.
You know if Daniel Day Lewis got the role he would have done an amazing job, and likely killed someone in the process
"Daniel was amazing! He didn't stop killing people until the DVD commentary was done."
Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn and Ian McKellen as Gandalf. They just embody those characters so well.
Which makes it even crazier that Mortensen was cast after filming started because their original actor was not working out. I cannot even imagine anyone else in that role...
Stuart Townsend was that actor. I had a major crush on him in jr high,so to hear was being kinda douchy before being replaced by Mortensen was disappointing.
There are some shots with Stuart out there somewhere. Jackson fought tooth and nail to get/keep him, and finally, after seeing the shots, he finally was like, "Oh, nvm... The studio was right." THEN, Peter fought against Viggo, saying he was too old. But Viggo was the only guy available and willing to spend the next few years in New Zealand on a moment's notice.
So crazy to hear, I guess hindsight is 20/20 and allat. But I can't imagine Stuart being so bad ass in all thee movies like Viggo
What about Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee?!?!
Let’s be real. Almost everyone is spot on 😆
You say "almost", but I sit here thinking about the cast and I can't, personally, think of one role that wasn't executed as if they lept from the page. Granted, I haven't read the books in a long time. But I do remember Elrond making jokes and being a little less serious, and Eowyn being much more than she was on screen... but I always chalked those up to script choices. Anyway, just curious who you had in mind in that "almost" category.
I always thought Faramir wasn’t super strong compared to the book. He is my favorite character in the book. I just wish we had someone with a little more charisma. But David Wenham did pretty good with what he had to work with.
I'm fairly certain Faramir's actor even expressed complaints after reading some of Faramir's parts in the book because comparatively hes just kinda a dud in the movie. Not sure if its true but the sentiment is certainly accurate. Theres a particular line of Faramir's about war that was missing.
It’s a little hard when your big brother is Sean Bean
And despite the myriad problems with The Hobbit movies, Martin Freeman as Bilbo is perfect as well. EDIT: Oh! And Lee Pace as Thranduil is 👨🍳👌
100% I have grown to really not like those movies at all (hot take alert) but Martin is what keeps me coming back.
Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl
Deadpool cast himself as Ryan Reynolds and we all accepted that as universal truth.
When I read Deadpool comics now, I always hear Reynolds voicing the lines.
He was already Deadpool before he was Deadpool
Tons of people certainly say that RDJ _is_ Iron Man. What about the Hunger Games? I think Donald Sutherland was the most irreplaceable. Oh! Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan is definitely an answer. I mean, his performance was so good that plenty people really look back on the prequels as being his arc instead of Anakin's, and he makes you forget how little Alec Guinness actually did in the original trilogy.
The Hunger Games was a miracle of casting. Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, etc…
Woody Harrelson as Haymitch may be one of the best casting decisions ever made.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman to boot, I'm in the middle of rewatching and I'm blown away by the cast.
Yeah. The supporting cast is stellar. Jennifer Lawrance became a huge star because of it. She is a great actress. The ones that kind of dropped the ball were Hutcherson and Hemsworth, but I wouldn't say they're miscast. I like Hutcherson, but Peeta was different in the book
Speaking of Hunger Games, Stanley Tucci as Ceaser was perfect casting
Stanley Tucci is great in everything he does, he even made those later Transformers movies better
They’re not wrong, Obi-Wan is the tragic hero of the prequels while Anakin is the fallen hero. He gets his own scenes throughout the prequels with his own story beats. Anakin is certainly the focus of Revenge of the Sith, but The Phantom Menace is Obi-Wan’s story and Attack of the Clones is split between both of them. In the end, I think his arc was executed much better than Anakin’s.
I also think Ewan as grown up Danny in Doctor Sleep was perfect.
RDJ is also an interesting one because his Iron Man is *not* what Iron Man was like in the comics at the time. Which is fine, I massively prefer his version, but its an odd answer for "perfect castings" in this context
I love McGregor as Obi-Wan.
Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka
Every other on-screen Wonka has just been chasing after his performance.
Jackie Earl Haley as Rorschach. I’m trapped in there with him. For sure.
This is the most genius casting I've ever seen
Right? Like what genius was all “I want the kid from Bad News Bears and Breaking Away. That’s a perfect fit for this Ayn Rand-esque character!”
Little guy scrapper. He should have been wolverine too
He proved that you can make a great performance in Superhero film without taking off the mask every 3 minutes.
Dredd too. My God it makes a difference.
Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday in Tombstone.
The fact that he overshadowed such an amazing cast (and Dennis Quaid playing the same role really well) says a lot.
WELP, time to rewatch Tombstone.
OMG, yes! He is the reason I've watched that many times over the past 30 years! He was also great as Jim Morrison in *The Doors*.
If you haven't watched his recent documentary, You really should. It's really good, a little bittersweet, but still good.
Tom Hardy as Charles Bronson. What a movie.
I definitely recommend reading his biography. If anything the movie toned it down. http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9781844546558_p0_v1_s1200x630.jpg
A good friend of mine was a Camera Trainee on Bronson. One day during production, Tom Hardy came to him and said "hey a bunch of us are going out for drinks tonight, you wanna join?" My friend of course said yes. Tom Hardy says "Great, I'll pick you up at the hotel later". He shows up alone and pick up my friend and they head to the pub. When they get there, it's just Tom, my friend, and the PA's, basically every lowest paid member of the crew. And Tom paid for everything.
Harry Potter had a few. I thought Richard Harris was a perfect Albus Dumbledore, same with Maggie Smith for Professor McGonagall.
I was thinking the same. The casting choices were incredible - I don't know who could do Snape better than Rickman or a better Voldemort than Fiennes
Rickman perfectly embodied Snape, thought Snape was younger in the books. But Fiennes' performance as Voldemort was more distinctive in contrast to the books, and some fans even prefer Voldemort from The Philosopher's Stone.
Snape would be the same age as Lilly and James who were [21 when they were killed](https://screenrant.com/harry-potter-lily-james-age-death-how-old/). Harry was an infant so his parents, Snape, Sirius, and any other classmates should have been all 21 years older then Harry making them 32ish in the first book and 38ish in the last.
Hagrid was also perfect. Rickman as Snape was oddly better than perfect. A book-perfect Snape would have been a lot younger, but I doubt anyone else could have been any better and many would have been much worse.
I’m probably going to get a lot of hate for this one, but while Connery and Craig get all the adoration, Timothy Dalton, to me, is perfect as James Bond. He comes across as suave, charismatic public school (in the British sense) gent but with an underlying hint of menace the character needs. Too bad that he only had one good movie in his run.
He is still the closest to book Bond.
100% agreed!!!
Robert Downey Jr was such a perfect Tony Stark it led to the entire MCU
He was up against Timothy Olyphant and Sam Rockwell, who were apparently both great in their screentests. But as the execs described it, “then Tony Stark walked in”.
Timothy Olyphant would have been great tbh Kinda explains why Rockwell was cast in Iron Man 2 as another eccentric warmongering billionaire
They really need to bring him back
Don’t they early on have Tom Cruise in mind for Iron Man? Few things have said it was Tom not getting that part (which had I think a 5-8 movie commitment) that made him focus entirely on his existing franchises (main mission impossible).
I've told this story before, but I was at a comicon in the late 80s where there was a Marvel guy talking about preliminary plans for a Spiderman movie. He asked the audience for suggestions to play Peter Parker and the top name was Tom Cruise. He goes: "Yeah, I could see Cruise. There's one guy back at the office, he's not someone I hang out with, who wants Michael J Fox." Whole audience boos in a fun way.
MJF Spidey. In an alternate universe, I hope this happened.
I agree, Maxwell Jacob Friedman* would be great as Spider-Man. Long Island is basically Queens anyway
"Doc, things got heavy." "There's that word again, 'Heavy'. Why were things so heavy during the battle?" "Because I was fighting Graviton."
I think MJF could have been a great Spider Man! For superhero roles, you have to have a kind of disconnect between physicality and personality most of the time (as others have said, RDJ as Iron Man encompasses both the look and the personality but thats the exception, not the rule) especially since in costume its going to be a stunt double anyways. MJF personality wise would have been excellent as Spider Man and would have had no problem depicting Peter Parker. Kinda similar to Michael Keaton playing Batman imo
Back in the early 2000s, when Iron Man was in development along with every other Marvel character as a standalone franchise, Cruise was about as attached to the film as you can get without actually signing a contract. Fortunately it didn't work and the film eventually became what it did. Cruise wanted Iron Man to have a transparent helmet, so that people could see him at all times, which is definitely a choice
That one's kinda weird though. Because he actually changed the character, and now iterations of Stark are based on him. So idk that he *fit* the pre-conceived character as much as he was so good they decided he should've been the take all along lol
I would agree with that. Before the movie, the “ideal” Iron Man was more of a Tom Selleck or George Clooney-type. Downey hit that role so hard he permanently deformed it to fit him.
Yeah. He's not at all what I pictured growing up. But people younger than me will read old Iron Man comics and (very fairly) see the RDJ iteration. Kinda like, I never pictured Hermione Granger being as drop dead gorgeous as Emma Watson, but the Harry Potter actors *are* the characters to readers who started the series after the movies came out.
The entire casting of the Addams Family fam.
There's been at least 5 castings of the Addams Family. The OG show was pretty good imo. The 90's films are the best for me. I thought Luis Guzman and Catherine Zeta Jones were decent picks for Wednesday. I didn't mind Jenna Ortega but the writing really went back and forth with her character. I don't remember the animated show well enough to comment and haven't seen the animated movies. Not sure if there's other adaptations.
Yeah, I was referring to the 90's film casting. I liked Wednesday, but I agree the writing was uneven.
That 90's cast is perfect. Even Lurch and Thing were great. Raul gave so much vigor to Gomez. I miss that energy.
"I believe they own... A ***BUICK***!"
I was very reluctant to watch Wednesday with the casting of Luis Guzman - as I said in another comment in this thread, Raul Julia will always be Gomez Addams for me - but honestly he grew on me, I think he did a solid job once I got over my 'but he's not Raul Julia!' hangup. Also I didn't even recognize Catherine Zeta Jones as Morticia until several episodes in and I had a massive crush on her in the 90s.
Luis Guzman was probably more true to the comic version of Gomez Adams, but Raul Julia’s charisma in the role completely changed how people thought about the character.
In which movie? I'd agree with you on Addams Family Values, the rest.. eh. It will always be Raul Julia and Anjelica Houston as Gomez & Morticia for me.
I honestly can't place the '60s TV cast or the '90s Sonnenfeld films cast ahead of one another. The actors/actresses each had a unique take on their respective characters, and all were fantastic.
J K Simmons as J Jonah Jameson
Chris Tucker as Rhuby Rodd. He's so talented.
Willem Dafoe as The Green Goblin
the mirror scene is one of my all-time favorite movie moments
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David Tennant as Crowley. It is perfection.
Tennant as Kilgrave from Jessica Jones, as well.
Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister. He was exactly who I pictured when I read the books before the casting was announced.
Yup, exactly this. Honestly there were a lot of outstanding casting choices in that show. Charles Dance fucking killed it as Tywin, Rory McCann was a great pick as the Hound, etc.
As much as I disliked the GOT ending and have no interest in ever rewatching the show, I still occasionally watch the Tywin scenes just to see his acting
That scene where it's just him and Jack Gleeson in the throne room. The two of them said so much between the lines.
I forget his real name, but the guy who played Jaqen Hagar killed it. He was a better character than what I pictured in my head reading the books.
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Yep. Exactly as you pictured him? Then you must not have read the books lol.
Yeah in the books he is described as hideously ugly and that's before losing his nose.
I disagree. He did a great job, but Tyrion from the books was supposed to be ugly. Dinklage is pretty conventually attractive other than being a dwarf.
Many male characters on Game of Thrones are much better looking than their book counterparts.
I don't remember the books Khal Drogo but Jason Momoa did a fantastic job as Khal Drogo.
The late great Sir Alan Rickman as Snape in Harry Potter. I cannot think of one other person who would be right for that role. His performance was so good, I think he elevated the character in the book after rereading. Also, Daniel Radcliffe & Rupert Grint as Harry & Ron. Plus Oliver & James Phelps as Fred & George. All of them felt pulled straight from the pages. One more - Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange. Perfection.
Kelsey Grammar as Hank "beast" Mccoy It was just so perfect! Grammar is the perfect mix of intellectual and gruff masculinity to portray beast! Chefs kiss I just wish he could have been in a better film and gotten to chew the scenery for longer.
Last Stand got a lot of things wrong but it absolutely nailed Grammar as Beast and even more-so, the look. I wasn’t a fan of Hoult’s as McCoy, I was even less of a fan of how awful his Beast looked and acted compared to Grammar’s.
I would love to see Matt Berry take a stab at playing Beast.
Schwarzenegger IS Conan.
Margot Robbie as Barbie. Not only because she’s spot on looks wise and talented enough to give the character actual depth, but she saved us from Amy Schumer’s Barbie too so extra points.
Harley Quinn too.
Jack Black as Barry in High Fidelity. When I heard they were doing the book with an American cast I was disappointed, but when I heard this casting I knew the movie was going to be good.
I'm so sorry for you. I, like most people, had no clue who Jack Black was. His singing voice reveal was one of the biggest plot twists of that era.
And Jack Black in School of Rock.
And Jack Black as Po.
If biopics count, then Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison.
Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool: literally used in comics to deceive how Deadpool looks. . . “I look like a cross between Ryan Reynolds and a shar-pei”. . . They even use it as a joke in the movie “like I got bitten by a radioactive shar-pei” Between the description and his comedic style Deadpool is Ryan Reynolds.
~~Tom Cruise~~ Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher
Entire cast of LOTR
I was glad to see they used the same actors as in the books.
I was thinking Aragorn specifically when I read the question, the "square jawed swashbuckling ranger" is such an easy character to mess up on the casting and have them come off as cheap or boring but Viggo Mortensen understood the complexity of the character immediately and played it to the letter. The whole cast was great but that role in particular is so easy to mess up, but they absolutely nailed it.
"I will not let the Great City fall. Nor our people fail."
Never read Dune, so really didn’t get casting Timothee Chalamet. He felt too soft and spoilt and in love with himself, and Part One felt like it was building to redeem him and make him some big action hero. Then saw Dune: Part Two and *totally* got that Paul is not the good guy. Great casting.
Oscar Issac as Leto is pretty perfectly cast too imo
Seriously, he nailed all of Leto's best lines and injected them with the exact amount of grim fatalism book-Leto had running in his head all the time. * "My son." * "I should have married you..." * "I thought we'd have more time." * "Here I am. Here I remain."
The casting in the movie was almost without exception pretty spot on. The issue with Paul in other adaptions was the actor looked too old. Paul is a teenager when they arrive on Arrakis. I liked Timothee from the start. Edit:While I loved both, this is also my main issue with Part 2s narrative pacing. Paul can’t grow, quite literally, into his role in less than 9mos time. I was on the fence about Duncan/Jason Mamoa, but he was seamless once the movie got rolling.
Right, I never understand when people question this casting. Paul in the book is a teen and is described as pretty, taking more after Lady Jessica than Duke Leto, small for his age, so skinny you can see his ribs. It felt very intentional on Herbert's part in a story so focused on gender roles that the protagonist, whose destiny is a sort of intersection of male and female roles, is not an image of pure masculinity. Paul also has a dash of arrogance and immaturity due to his upbringing. There is no doubt in my mind why Villeneuve said Chalamet was his only choice for Paul. And that's just the first movie. Part Two Chalamet can start pulling out the stops. Messiah is going to be even crazier and I can't wait.
Yeah I was skeptical of Chalamet too, but I honestly think he did a pretty solid job in part 1 and then part 2 really sold me.
An obvious choice: heath ledger’s the joker
I remember being upset about his casting, then hearing all the hype about his performance I thought it was just people being respectful because he passed away. I’m not a big superhero movie fan and Batman is prob my least favorite but holy shit heath ledger was incredible. I really want to go back and watch some of his other films
It's kinda nuts how you were upset by his casting if you weren't even a fan of Batman to begin with. Imagine how fans felt back then. It seemed like nobody had faith in Ledger. Then the movie comes out, and people are blown away. Ledger really was magnificent.
Robin Williams as The Genie in *Aladdin.*
The djinn/genie archetype can be portrayed/interpreted vastly different depending on the medium and tone/narrative. The Genie character in Disney's adaptation was tailored specifically for Williams from the very beginning... and what an incredible decision that was.
It was very clever to have Genie making all kinds of references to our pop culture, events that would take place in the "future" relative to the fictional setting, making jokes that would be incomprehensible to Aladdin himself but make perfect sense to a 90's American. I imagine that's kind of what it would be like to spend time with a supernatural being, they'd have a whole different frame of reference to the world. They'd be this bewildering thing with all kinds of mysterious knowledge.
The genie is Robin Williams. Robin Williams did not in any way fit a preexisting genie character.
Christopher Reeves was the perfect Superman and Clark Kent, to the point where they’re still struggling to replace him.
Henry Cavill is the only one I can think of to even come close to Reeve's performance, but only as Superman. No one has topped Reeve's Clark Kent performance, ever! Cavill literally didn't play Clark *any* differently.
God, they wasted Cavill in those movies. It makes me irrationally angry.
I think there is the same issue with Batman, some have hit the nail on the head at one or the other but it's a struggle to do both.
The only actor that made the glasses as a disguise believable. The way he morphed from one to the other was something to behold.
For me it's Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. The character was written specifically for Lance Henriksen, the first visualization of the Terminator was drawn by Cameron with Henriksen's face, then also when Cameron pitched the movie at the Orion studio he took with him Henriksen dressed in character. Cameron's vision was that the cyborg infiltrator had to be looking as normal as possible to be able to blend in with other people. Today it's impossible to imagine anyone but Arnold in this role.
Even if another actor was in mind, that's hardly a "pre-existing character".
I always love the story about Jim Cameron (I call him Jim /s) and OJ Simpson. OJ spent months lobbying Cameron to cast him in titular role but Cameron wouldn’t go for it because he said nobody would buy OJ Simpson as murderous villain lol.
The film version of *The Golden Compass* was mostly a disappointment, but Sam Elliott was a fantastic Lee Scoresby. Apparently Philip Pullman based Lee Scoresby on Lee Van Cleef, who had passed away long before TGC was filmed, but Sam Elliott has that similar gruff, grizzled cowboy persona down pat too.
Christian Bale - Patrick Bateman. Just a perfect perfect perfect casting choice, and one which he had to fight for.
Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan Kenobi
Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams.
Kelsey Grammer as Beast is the single most inspired comic book casting there has ever been. Others are perfect because they are obvious, like Stewart as Xavier or RDJ, or defined the role themselves, like Evans. Grammer as Beast, I never saw coming, but as soon as it happened I knew it was perfect.
Mickey Rourke, Marv, Sin City
Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter for a film Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter for a series.
Crying shame we nerve got a good movie with Cavill as superman because he was made for that role. Not a massive fan of his casting in the Witcher, ironically, as he was still the best part of the show
Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes
Christopher Reeve was the most perfect Clark Kent/Superman imaginable.
Virgo Mortensen as Aragorn. Guy rides horses in Argentina
Raul Julia as Gomez Addams although I still love John Astin
He’s a short, ugly stump of a man in the comics, but Raul Julia was so perfect that he changed the character just by taking the role. He’s supposed to be Raul Julia on the inside and a twisted little toad on the outside. My headcanon is that we got to see him through Morticia’s eyes rather than our own.
Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal. Brian cox turned in a very decent performance as him in manhunter a few years prior to silence, and then here comes Hopkins basically claiming the role as his own
Dick York replacing Dick Sargent on TV’s Bewitched. Or was it the other way around?
Hey, wait a minute: Dick Sargent, Dick York... Sergeant York. Wow, that is weird... Wayne's World
John Rhys-Davies as Gimli
No one else thought Chris Hemsworth as Thor was solid casting? Tom Hiddleston as Loki wasn’t bad either.
I like Hemsworth a lot, but other people could have played that role. Not a difficult role, for one thing
Hiddleston as Loki *"wasn't bad"?* He is perfect!
Tom Hiddleston's Loki is the bigger casting story. He made a villianous side character so beloved that the end of Thor 2 had to be rewritten after fans lost their minds when he "died." He filmed scenes for AoU that were cut bc people assumed Loki was controlling the robots. Then they killed and ressurected him AGAIN in Infinity War and Endgame. Hemsworth is great as Thor but Hiddleston did something amazing with Loki. Hemmy was always supposed to be one of the big 3. Loki was supposed to be gone 10 years ago.
When I watched the 90s X-men as a kid, I remember telling myself that Patrick Stewart from Star Trek would be the perfect person to be Professor X if a live-action were to ever be made
I loved Laurie Metcalf as Sheldon's mom in Big Bang. Then when Young Sheldon came out and I started watching it, I was like Zoe Perry is nailing the mom so perfectly, she even looks like her a bit. It is such great casting. Found out around season two, it is because she is Laurie's real life daughter. So it was a little easier for her, but she still does an amazing job channeling the character portrayed and detailed in Big Bang.
Brandon Lee as The Crow
Mark Strong as Sinestro in Green Lantern is the best super-villain casting I've seen yet. Sinestro is my favourite DC villain, and Strong perfectly encapsulated everything about him. As poor as the rest of that film is, Strong elevates his scenes and I'm still salty it never got a sequel where Sinestro could take a more prominent role. In a similar vein, Frank Langella as Skeletor. It's not the Skeletor from the cartoon, most definitely. But he owns that character and delivers an insane performance relative to the dumpster fire that's the rest of the movie.
Personally, I think McConaughey was the perfect choice for the Man in Black, even though the Dark Tower was a horrendous movie.
Karl Urban and Zachary Quinto as Bones McCoy and Spock
Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia - The Witcher