5 Auditions With Legendary Actors Who Didn't Get A Legendary Role

3. Sam Neill - James Bond

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfGz-_iI23g With the Cold War colder than ever, Roger Moore pushing 60, and Fleming's novels running out, the mid-80s was a confusing time for the Bond saga. It was time to go back to formula, and we know that in Bond's world that meant giving 007 a new face. It is well known that Pierce Brosnan was nearly cast as the James Bond who would replace Roger Moore, but a contractual obligation tied him to the show Remington Steele and he missed out (in Brosnan's case, luckily for him, the Bond train stopped twice at his station). Before Timothy Dalton finally landed the part for The Living Daylights and License To Kill, Sam Neill was considered to play the world's most famous secret agent. Sam Neill - as in "the guy from Jurassic Park." And his screen-test is really quite impressive. In the little available footage, we can see his approach to the character is less menacing and more suave than Dalton's. The role finally went to Dalton, who only did two films and got a lot of critiques for his more frigid take on Bond. It could be argued that Sam Neil's vision was more along the line of Brosnan's, while Dalton's pioneering depiction ended up carving out a path for Daniel Craig.