What Might Have Been: DDL Almost Played Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction

Always thought the most famous one was Henry Winkler turning down "Grease" because he didn't want to be typecast.

Also have heard the story that Chris O'Donnell was the first choice for Men In Black, but they used some minor schedule conflict as an excuse to dump him when the director's wife insisted that Will Smith was a way cooler choice.

 

The Joker was written for Ashton Kutcher, but he wouldn't wear the makeup so they gave it to Heath Ledger.

 

Madsen turned down the part, which was going to be written as Vic Vega, so Quentin Tarantino turned Vic into Vincent, who was supposed to be Vic's brother though that part never got mentioned.

There had been speculation they would do a Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction prequel about the Vega brothers, but there's no way that can happen now given the actors are 20 years older. And Tarantino isn't the type to force a sequel using new actors, particularly given how hard it would be to emulate Madsen and John Travolta in those roles.

 

I thought it was written for Fred Savage, but they replaced him with Topher Grace.

 

Wikipedia: "On the DVD featurette, producer Jerry Bruckheimer claimed that the role of Axel Foley was first offered to Mickey Rourke, who signed a $400,000 holding contract to do the film. When revisions and other preparations took longer than expected, Rourke left the project after his contract expired to do another film. It was then offered to Sylvester Stallone, with the character of Michael Tandino being his brother, and Jenny Summers being his love interest. Two weeks before filming was to start, Stallone was suddenly out and Eddie Murphy was in, prompting massive rewrites."

I can't come up with any other reason to write out the love interest plot except that Eddie Murphy is black.

 

That's exactly what it was. People weren't ready for that in 1984. It's kind of implied they fucked, though.

 

Wow, that's a great line.

 

Dyno to the white courtesy phone ...

 

Nancy McKeon very narrowly lost out to Courtney Cox for the part of Monica on Friends...

Lisa Kudrow was fired as Roz on Frasier.

Ray Romano was originally cast as the Joe Rogan part on NewsRadio before getting fired. There may have been another actor in between Romano and Rogan. I think the middle guy was in the pilot.

 

Fun thread. Love these "what might've beens."

Another one I've read about is Pretty Woman, which apparently was originally scripted as a dark gritty drama with the hooker being a drug addict who gets ruthlessly dumped back on the curb in the final scene, and with Al Pacino and Molly Ringwald as the targeted leads.

That somehow evolved into a lighthearted happy ending fairy tale chick flick featuring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.

 

I'm here. I hate DDL and he would have ruined "Pulp Fiction." For me, at least. That's all I've got.