These days there's often more excitement and chatter around casting rumours and announcements than the actual movies that result from them. As soon as a new title is announced, fans are quick to start discussion the ideal actors for the roles, and more often than not the real casting announcements cause a lot of disquiet. Quite often, unexpected casting decisions work well: no one would have picked former Aussie soap heartthrob Heath Ledger as the perfect Joker, for example, but that's precisely what he turned out to be. Those offbeat casting choices appear to have increasing currency, so studios seek more and more of them in an effort to look better (it doesn't always pay off quite so well as Ledger did). For every surprise decision that works, there are plenty more that fall flat. And then there's a the shiningthird category: the surprising, baffling, downright weird decisions that - thankfully - never came to pass. Still, imagine what big money disasters would have been made had these muddled ideas from the minds of Hollywood directors, producers, writers and studio executives actually happened. Somewhere in an alternate universe Tupac stumbled his way through Jedi dialogue while Nic Cage and Bob Hoskins-led superhero flops ensured big budget comic book movies would never get greenlit. And these examples arent even the strangest ideas that never were...
15. Tupac Shakur As Mace Windu
In the early 90's rap superstar Tupac Shakur decided to branch out into acting. His most famous role was in the movie Juice, alongside Omar Epps and Samuel L. Jackson, but if George Lucas had his way - and had cruel fate had not intervened - then Tupac would have starred in one of the biggest franchises of all time. When the Star Wars prequels were announced, actors were queuing up for roles as whatever characters Lucas had used mixed up Scrabble tiles to name. According to Death Row Records engineer Rick Clifford, Tupac was George Lucas' first choice for the role of Mace Windu, and apparently read for the role. The rapper's murder in 1996 meant, of course, that he would have no chance to take the part. Instead, it went to his Juice co-star Jackson. It's impossible to know what kind of actor he would become, but can you really picture Tupac Shakur on the Jedi council, discussing the whys and wherefores of intergalactic trade deals? Thought not.
David is an office drone and freelance writer for WhatCulture and Moviepilot, among others. He's also foolishly writing a serialised novel on Jukepop and has his own irregularly updated website. He's available for freelance work. Reach out on Twitter to @davefox990
