"If the Other Guy Isn't Jack Nicholson, I've Got the Part": Hollywood Tales of Big Breaks, Bad Luck, and Box-office...

ISBN-10: 0809235285
ISBN-13: 9780809235285
Category: Performing Arts / Film / General
Pages: 319
Language: English
Published: 1994
Publisher: Contemporary Books
Author: Ron Base

Description

So said Burt Reynolds after being told by director Milos Forman that the coveted role of Randall McMurphy in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest was down to two people. But the other guy was Nicholson, who went on to win an Academy Award for the role and enjoy a film career that pushed him into the stratosphere of stardom. Their career paths would cross again - this time over the role of washed-up astronaut Garrett Breedlove in Terms of Endearment, a role written for Reynolds - and the decision he made all but spelled the end of his superstar movie career. Movie stardom is often won or lost on the basis of one simple word - "no". Al Pacino might never have been considered for his Oscar-winning role in Scent of a Woman if he had agreed to play Rambo. If John Travolta had accepted An Officer and a Gentleman instead of the pitiful Staying Alive, Richard Gere might be hosting game shows today. Had Shirley Temple been allowed (she was a child - someone said "no" for her!) to star in The Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland might have remained an anonymous member of the singing Gumm sisters. And a page in modern movie lore might never have been written if Frank Sinatra had been the one to say, "You've got to ask yourself one question. 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk?" The complex chemistry of movie stardom - a potent mix of greed and cunning, ego and casting, dedication and just plain dumb luck - is examined by Ron Base in this vastly entertaining look at Hollywood magic. Base provides an insider's look at the real stories behind "overnight stardom", often more gripping than anything that ever made it to the screen. From long-ago casting decisions that still resonate today - Vivien Leigh over BetteDavis in Gone With the Wind - to the creation of present-day screen icons - Sharon Stone won the role in Basic Instinct only after Geena Davis and Michelle Pfeiffer refused it - this fascinating narrative will delight all film buffs. Filled with behind-the-scenes intrigue, "If the Other Guy Isn't Jack Nicholson, I've Got the Part" is sure to surprise even avid movie fans who thought they knew the history of Hollywood - a history brimming with dramatic stories of the triumph and despair of the glamorous, the infamous, and the unknown desperately scrambling after Hollywood fame and fortune.

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