20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith
4. Gary Oldman Almost Voiced General Grievous
Five-time Oscar-nominated sound engineer Matthew Wood ended up providing the voice for General Grievous, but earlier in the process George Lucas actually sought out an A-list talent to play the part.
Gary Oldman was initially hired to voice Grievous, though ended up pulling out of the production after learning that the film was going to be made outside of the Screen Actors Guild.
Lucas decided to do this after being fined $250,000 by the Directors Guild of America during The Empire Strikes Back for failing to include director Irvin Kirshner's name on the opening credits, after which he ceased having anything to do with the major filmmaking guilds.
For Oldman, participation in a non-Guild project would've been a violation of his membership, and could've resulted in him being fined, suspended, or expelled, all of which would've hurt his future career.
As awesome as it would've been to have Oldman aboard, it's a completely understandable decision.