An actor not been pulled out of a movie project at the last minute by his TV network to star on a new TV show he had just commited to, like what CBS did to Tom Selleck for Magnum P.I. just as Selleck was chosen to play Indiana Jones for Raiders of the Lost Ark?       An actor not been replaced after the director had already shot many scenes of a movie with him, such as the case of Eric Stoltz and Back to the Future?       An actor who was just about to become the new lead in a movie franchise after his TV show finally got cancelled did not have the deal kiboshed by his former TV network, stating that the actor had commited to three TV-movies of his TV character - even if only one was eventually made? (In a delicious bit of irony, the actor ended up taking the lead in that movie franchise anyway... albeit almost a decade later.) Such was the bizarre story of Pierce Brosnan, NBC, Remington Steele, and the James Bond franchise. Brosnan was all set to become the new James Bond in 1987's The Living Daylights, but finally did become the new James Bond in 1995's Goldeneye.       How different would have 1980's cinema been? Would those movies have been as successful as they had actually become in those circumstances? Would we have even noticed a difference? -G
How different would 80's cinema be if Phoebe Cates hadn't been an exibitionist? Hell, how different would our culture be?
Let me see if I can find a photo that won't get me carded... Nope. Here is a link to some that would. Phoebe Cates Pool Scene
Lucas and Spielberg apparently had nothing against casting Harrison Ford from the beginning as Indiana Jones, but Lucas wanted someone pretty unknown at the time; Ford was already very well known to the world as Han Solo by that point, and Lucas was afraid that people wouldn't accept Ford in any other major role (judging by the box office and the critical acclaim for Raiders of the Lost Ark, it seems that Lucas had nothing to worry about). It seems that Harrison Ford was high on the filmmakers' list anyway: when Lucas and Spielberg spoke to each other on the phone after finding out that CBS would not release Selleck to shoot the film, there was a half-minute of silence, followed by Lucas suddenly asking Spielberg "You're thinking of Harrison, aren't you?". Incidentally, a later episode of Magnum P.I. had Selleck play in an Indiana Jones-like episode (undoubtedly in homage to Selleck's missed opportunity to cinematically don the brown fedora). Michael J. Fox apparently was always Robert Zemeckis' (director) and Bob Gale's (writer/producer) first choice to play Marty McFly for Back to the Future, but Fox was initially unavailable since he was already commited to NBC's Family Ties. So after some screentests by Zemeckis and Gale, it came down to two choices: C. Thomas Howell and Eric Stoltz. Between the two, Zemeckis and Gale preferred Howell, but Universal's studio chief preferred Stoltz (guess which choice prevailed?). After filming many scenes with Stoltz, Zemeckis and Gale decided that it wasn't really working out with Stoltz. They then contacted Michael J. Fox again and worked out a deal where Fox would film Family Ties for most of the day, then immediately head out to the Back to the Future set and film there... Fox averaged about 1-2 hours of sleep a day during that time. You can view several pages of stillshots with Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly here. Pierce Brosnan was so ticked off by NBC's refusal to release him to play James Bond that he immediately went on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson to voice his displeasure (it's amazing that NBC let him do that, considering that The Tonight Show was an NBC show). Perhaps in a bit of revenge, Brosnan starred in the similarly-themed movie The Fourth Protocol the same year that The Living Daylights hit theaters, and at the very least the movie did no worse (financially and critically) than the James Bond movie did. -G