25 Things You Didn't Know About Die Hard With A Vengeance
24. The Part Of Zeus Was Originally Written For Laurence Fishburne
It's hard to imagine anyone other than Samuel L. Jackson playing Zeus in Die Hard with a Vengeance, but the role very nearly went to someone else - Laurence Fishburne.
When Hensleigh's script was re-written to accommodate the Die Hard franchise, some changes had to be made. One of them was the part of Zeus, a character who was meant to be a woman in the original Simon Says treatment.
According to Quentin Tarantino, when the part of Zeus was re-written, it was done with Laurence Fishburne specifically in mind. As the Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction director tells it, Fishburne lost out on the role because he turned down the part of Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction, which of course went to Samuel L. Jackson.
Supposedly, while Fishburne was negotiating with Fox to receive a greater paycheck to play the role of Zeus, producer Andy Vajna attended Pulp Fiction's premiere at Cannes, eventually deciding that Jackson would be perfect for the role.
So that's two roles that Fishburne lost out to Jackson. The actor was extremely unhappy with the decision, and went on to take legal action against Cinergi for "breaking a verbal promise" in deciding to cast Jackson over him.