10 Roles Written For Actors That Didn't Play Them

2. The Da Vinci Code Was Supposed To Star Harrison Ford

Jake Gyllenhaal The Hangover
Sony

Dan Brown is the kind of novelist that graces the main bookshelves of stores and airport kiosks for months, only to disappear into obscurity after something more compelling comes along. He's also a terrible writer and fairly shameless about it, filling his work with boring or outlandish and byzantine plots of religious hokum that draw in those stuck between layovers.

He tries to create some controversy just by glossing over some Catholic conspiracy, but as Sir Ian McKellan said, it's a "load of codswallop".

He also knows his appeal, and how far he can stretch it. But he might have stretched too far when he created symbologist Robert Langdon. For Brown knows his books will sell enough to likely get a film adaptation, he fantasy casts them in his prose. For, Langdon's first appearance, he's described as looking "like Harrison Ford in Harris Tweed."

After Ron Howard got his hands on The Da Vinci Code, he de-aged the character and gave it to Tom Hanks.

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Contributor
Contributor

Kenny Hedges is carbon-based. So I suppose a simple top 5 in no order will do: Halloween, Crimes and Misdemeanors, L.A. Confidential, Billy Liar, Blow Out He has his own website - thefilmreal.com - and is always looking for new writers with differing views to broaden the discussion.