15 Strangest Movie Casting Rumours That Thankfully Never Happened

13. Robin Williams As Jack Torrance

It makes complete sense that Stanley Kubrick turned to Jack Nicholson when casting for the lead in his adaptation of Stephen King's horror classic The Shining. A great actor capable of displaying a bubbling undercurrent of menace, his manic style was perfect for the father-turned-demon-haunted killer. But around the same time there was another actor turning heads with manic intensity, albeit of a comic variety - Robin Williams. The stand-up comedian had yet to make the leap into feature films and was still starring on the small screen in offbeat sitcom Mork & Mindy. Kubrick saw promise in the young actor though, and felt he had it in him to play darker roles. The possible casting of Williams met with King's disproval (but then, so did that of Nicholson - and the movie in the general) and the role was eventually won by Nicholson, who made it iconic. Granted, later in his career, Williams would prove Kubrick right by playing unsettling villains in Insomnia and One Hour Photo, but I think The Shining would have come too early for him. His over-eagerness and penchant for improvised comedy would have clashed with the tone of the piece. With Robin Williams in the lead, The Shining could have ended up as a "so bad it's good" curio instead of a stone cold horror classic.