Bullock, Fraser, L.A. race relations and undercover cops shooting each other are floated without a clear affirmative conclusion. — Bill Simmons
Howard’s 2005 with Hustle and Flow has a strong case, challenged by Empire’s first season. — Bill Simmons
Dillon is rejected; St. Christopher statues and human trafficking are floated without affirmative resolution. — Bill Simmons
Cheadle, Peña, Phillippe, Newton, Tate and Esposito are rejected; Cruel Intentions and Westworld or Mission: Impossible II are alternatives for Phillippe and Newton. — Bill Simmons
Dreyfuss trying-not-to-cry face perhaps best ever,lip bite/head drop repeated and conducting finale succeeds. — Bill Simmons
Young Terrence Howard likability,charisma,handsomeness raises career do-over and Will Smith-scale potential wish; off-set issues acknowledged. — Bill Simmons
Multi-decade aging,being pushed to care,rock-and-roll alarm,Howard funeral callback,Rowena coaching and credible conducting admired. — Bill Simmons
The casting names are called almost more fun than Titanic's, which the same three hosts covered two weeks earlier, because people did not want to own up to passing on Titanic; Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Michelle Gellar were both up for Cher, the Gellar name recalled through Cruel Intentions.
A tangent: Cruel Intentions came a couple of years later, Clueless is a G rated movie by comparison, and one host cannot believe their parents let them watch Cruel Intentions all the time.
Paul Rudd, who played Josh, apparently wanted to be Christian or Murray; the hosts could see him as Christian but are glad he did not do it, and one was deep in Paul Rudd fandom in the nineties through the show Sisters, where he was Swoozie Kurtz's son-in-law married to Ashley Judd's character (names as transcribed).
Clueless and Paris in Romeo and Juliet are called the peak Paul Rudd run for one host, who says he never gets enough credit for sustained relevance but will never matter more than he did then.
The best what-if is Jeremy Renner being up for Christian, which the host thinks he turned down; the hosts can see it and wonder whether his career would have looked different, joking about his status in the Marvel movies.
More names in the mix: Terrence Howard for Murray, Lauryn Hill for Dion (she was acting then, as in Sister Act), Owen Wilson trying out for Travis, Leah Remini auditioning for Ty, and Zooey Deschanel up for both Amber and Cher; a Deschanel Cher is agreed to be a very different and worse movie.
