Last week Moviehole posted the bottom half of their Top 50 Original Casting Choices. Of course Sly made that list several times. This week Moviehole is back with their Top 25 and Sly again makes the cut…
- 15. “Face/Off” (1996) – Sylvester Stallone vs. Arnold Schwarzenegger
The big studios always tried to pair up action stars Stallone and Schwarzenegger. When the script for “Face/Off” landed in his pigeonhole, Captain Hollywood read it with an eye to ultimately casting the two biggest names in action in the film. By the time director John Woo was hired to helm the film a couple of years later, Stallone and Schwarzenegger’s appeal had started to wane and, amusingly enough, John Travolta and Nicolas Cage’s stars were on the rise again – thus, the latter twosome got the job.
- 10. “Masters of the Universe” (1987) – Sylvester Stallone as ‘He-Man’Either because there was no money in it, or Sly didn’t like the idea of dying his hair blonde, he passed on the offer to play the burly cartoon character on the big screen. Sly suggested Dolph Lundgren, whom he had worked with on “Rocky IV”, would be a much better fit. He was right… not that it did much for Lundgren’s career.
- 5. “The Expendables” (2010) – Wesley Snipes as ‘Hale Caesar’
Sylvester Stallone had wanted his “Demolition Man” co-star to play the role Terry Crews ended up playing in the hit actioner. Snipes was interested, but the film was due to lens in Brazil, and the actor’s tax problems meant that he couldn’t leave the USA. Forest Whitaker ultimately took on the role – even rewriting it – but was forced to leave a few days before production due to a scheduling conflict. Stallone then went to Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson but when he got wind that his fans weren’t happy with that decision he handed the part to brawny footballer cum actor Crews.
