Alternate castings you’d have love to have seen

Not too surprised that Brian de Palma was approached to do ‘Flashdance’, can see how he’d have twisted it to his style.

Would be more interested in seeing what David Cronenberg could have done. It seems so far out of his wheelhouse that I’m struggling to imagine how it would look. https://variety.com/2024/film/global/david-cronenberg-flashdance-bruckheimer-marrakech-1236231604/

Shouldn’t this be called “alternate directing assignments”?

Anyway:

-Sam Peckinpah doing Something Wicked This Way Comes instead of Jack Clayton

-Joyce Chopra not being replaced on Bright Lights, Big City by James Bridges

-David Lean’s Empire of the Sun

-Martin Scorsese and Billy Wilder both probably would’ve done a better job with Schindler’s Ark (List)

-Mike Nichols/Harold Pinter’s Remains of the Day starring John Cleese. God, I wish we’d gotten that instead

Michael Cimino's Footloose

That’s a good one. So many unrealized films from him, and he produced a huge number of scripts that could still be resurrected.

a shame that blazing saddles with richard pryor and john wayne never happened

Cleavon Little is so great, though. Such an underrated actor. Pryor still got his screenplay credit, so I see it as a win for both of them

Shouldn’t this be called “alternate directing assignments”?

Yeah, true. Alternate directing assignments a lot less common compared to actors so use this thread for anything cinema related which fits.

Harrison Ford as Joe Buck in ‘Midnight Cowboy’ is intriguing.

George Lucas asked David Lynch to direct Return of the Jedi

George Lucas asked David Lynch to direct Return of the Jedi

Lynch never would’ve worked for a control-freak like Lucas. They took one meeting and that’s it. Frank Herbert hated Lucas for ripping off DUNE, BTW

Tim Burton was going to do Mary Reilly, which Stephen Frears ended up directing.

Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut were both approached for Bonnie & Clyde prior to Arthur Penn

We could have had a David Cronenberg-directed Total Recall starring Richard Dreyfuss

Worth noting that Lynch’s frequent editing partner (and Homeward Bound director) Duwayne Dunham did work on Return of the Jedi

Lucas also offered David Cronenberg the chance to direct, but he declined the offer as he did not want to work on material written by others.[38][39]