Hello, friends. Welcome to the Weekly Movie Thread right here on the Avocado. Discovered any new classics? Seen fresh new films on streaming? How does Tom Hanks do in his return to World War II films? Talk about it here! And in the awesome 30 Day Film Challenge, which had been pretty great!
Today year marks the 20th anniversary of a film that would help define blockbuster cinema for the next two decades or so. It had a rocky start. Films like Batman & Robin from three years back had done a lot of damage. Superheroes were uncool again. So to make them more cool, you had to follow a trend that the Wachowskis had popularized just a year prior: stuff everyone in black. The movie premiered on Ellis Island on July 12… which is not pretentious at all!
Despite getting the budget cut by a skittish Fox Studios, X-Men was a big financial success, being the ninth highest grossing film of 2000. Superhero films could be popular! Who woulda thunk!
You’ve come a long way from that Pizza Hut ad, baby.
Some of that was due to the casting. Patrick Stewart was a no-brainer. I am pretty sure that every nerd had him as #1 on their fantasy ballots. Mainly because he was bald, for sure, but because he projected such stern but caring authority in his decade-plus of playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Shoot, I’m pretty sure every nerd had a smug, knowing smile when this announcement came down.
Rumors are that Michael Jackson was lobbying hard to play Professor Xavier… and, oh man, that would be so awkward. Terrance Stamp also auditioned… and he honestly would’ve done a great job.
But this was seriously Patrick Stewart’s role to lose.
People were less certain of Hugh Jackman. Too tall. Too Australian. Not Glenn Danzig (director of Verotika), who was everyone’s top Wizard magazine pick. (Danzig, a huge Wolverine fan, had negative things to say about Jackman’s portrayal.) Jackman eventually owned the role, from Day 1 onward. I mean… I get chills watching Logan.
However, part of me does want to see how Dougray Scott —- the original pick who had to back out due to his commitments to Mission Impossible II — would have handled the Canucklehead. Russell Crowe was also offered the role, but he declined… and suggested fellow Australian Hugh Jackman would be perfect.
Then you have Halle Berry, who feels totally miscast as Storm. Ororo Munroe oozes authority and respect in the comics. You never get that sense when Berry is on the screen. She barely registers as a character, only showing up because someone needs to fight Toad and deliver the worst Joss Whedon line ever.
For years, fans have wondered what Storm would look like if played by someone more formidable. Someone like Angela Bassett. She would eventually get her time in superhero movies as Amanda Waller in Green Lantern and as Ramonda in Black Panther… which only shows how perfect she would have been as Storm. It’s a casting choice that X-Men writer Chris Claremont endorsed.
Then again, Claremont also wanted Bob Hoskins for Wolverine… which honestly is something I am 100% on board with. He specifically mentioned how he was enamored by his performance in Lassiter, a movie where Tom Selleck is a charming jewel thief.
I can guarantee that Hoskins would’ve done a better job of selling Wolvie’s berzerker rage.
Here’s today’s bonus prompt: Fantasy casting! What actor would you prefer to have been cast-swapped, timelines be damned? (h/t KGB)
Nic Cage in the John Cusack role in 1408? Late career Angelina Jolie in the Sharon Stone role in The Quick and the Dead? Leonardo DiCaprio as Spider-Man?
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