3. Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close - James Gandolfini
One of the most controversial Oscars decisions of the last few years came in 2012, when Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close was nominated for Best Picture, despite the crucial fact that nobody actually seemed to like it (The Huffington Post's Chris Krapek, for example, called the film "not only the worst reviewed Best Picture nominee of the last 10 years, but easily the worst film of 2011".) It probably didn't help that the film was down one great actor, in the form of the excised James Gandolfini. With the filmmakers clearly failing to recognise they were messing with Tony Soprano, they made the decision to cut Gandolfini when it was found test audiences didn't respond to his character. Gandolfini was apparently set to play a love interest for Sandra Bullock's character, whom she meets at a 9/11 victims' support group, but Daldry removed his character altogether. Upon seeing the final product, Gandolfini was probably OK with not being in what is notoriously one of the worst Academy-approved films ever.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
