10 More Movie Roles Obviously Designed For Other Actors
2. John Candy, John Belushi And Eddie Murphy - Ghostbusters
The sci-fi comedy adventure of failed professors going into business for themselves, Ghostbusters is a film that personifies the 1980s. It also has perhaps one of the most perfect casts of all time, gifting iconic roles to all of its major players.
Several characters in early drafts had certain actors in mind that never made it to screen. In the storyboards leading to the film’s production, sketches of Louis Tully are very clearly not Rick Moranis and are instead writing duo Aykroyd and Ramis’ first choice of John Candy. However, Candy’s requests to tweak the character ultimately led to his replacement.
The original drafts for the movie were intensely different and were set in the far future, with Ghostbusters being part of a massive time-travelling conglomerate. In Aykroyd’s earliest visions, the film was a comedy adventure vehicle for his long-standing acting partner John Belushi. When Belushi passed away, the role of Dr Venkman instead went to fellow Second City alumni Bill Murray.
Similarly, Eddie Murphy admitted that Aykroyd offered him the role of Winston Zeddemore. However, when the film got closer to fruition, Murphy turned the part down for Beverly Hills Cop.
This left Ernie Hudson to pick up the role who, compared to Murphy, was a relative unknown. Hudson was a great fit for Zeddemore, who offered an understated straight-man role to the supernatural chaos around him and, in so doing, launched his own film career proper.