An early hottest take argues the highly publicized relationship with Angelina Jolie diverted the career from additional substantial leading roles. — Bill Simmons
That career critique is challenged by successful or interesting work including World War Z, The Big Short, Inglourious Basterds and Burn After Reading. — Van Lathan
A hottest take argues the younger driver should win, both for the story and to let younger stars inherit leading roles. — Chris Ryan
The counterargument says the film develops Sonny far more fully, making his victory more satisfying within the existing script; a reversed ending might still be more interesting. — Van Lathan
Creed and Any Given Sunday are raised as examples of transferring sporting focus to younger leads. — Van Lathan
An alternative ending makes Sonny a mentor on the radio after the crash; objections emphasize audience interest in the veteran and possible sequel directions.
The hottest take distrusts people who throw playing cards recreationally, calling it obsessive and useless; Gambit is the lone exception. — Van Lathan
Another hottest take prefers racing films to real racing. — Van Lathan
Lawrence’s toughness and partly goth styling are essential to avoiding cuteness; Vaughn might make a functional but lesser film, while Rob McElhenney and Kat Dennings are joking alternatives. — Andy Greenwald
Jolie is the substantive choice, praised for doing more than Pitt’s familiar charming persona and compared to Kathleen Turner in The War of the Roses. — Bill Simmons
Drew’s ambiguous fall is criticized as poorly motivated; a gunshot, nervous collapse or both are debated, with the book and director’s reported account distinguished. — Ryen Russillo
The exposed femur effect is criticized for looking artificial and anatomically misplaced. — Chris Ryan
Ed’s inability to shoot the deer is called an obvious setup; falling on his own arrow seems contrived.
The teeth, hat and gun leave the identity of Ed’s victim disputed; one participant likes the moral uncertainty while another finds it cheap. — Ryen Russillo
Reese Witherspoon as Marla is revisited; she reportedly turned it down, and it is the part she was always wanted for, as hinted by Freeway. — Bill Simmons
She would definitely have been Oscar-nominated. — Bill Simmons
Angelina Jolie is floated, leading to sliding-doors jokes about the Aniston-Jolie triangle, but the preference returns to Witherspoon. — Bill Simmons
She is a little young, but at that stage she would have fully committed to escape the teen-star image, unlike Wild. — Bill Simmons
The Jolie pitch uses her age and rising Gia-era profile but is rejected because her forceful energy would make Harry’s protectiveness and her ground-bound role less credible.
Leonardo DiCaprio was supposed to play Hans Landa, which would have meant doing the movie in English since he could not have learned German and French in time, though the joke is that a guy who slept in a carved-out bear might have taught himself.
Michael Fassbender tried out for Landa a couple of times and was heartbroken, then got the call that he had Hickox at the expense of Simon Pegg, who chose Tintin instead, a sliding-doors moment the hosts call very tough since they love Pegg.
Adam Sandler was rumored to play the Bear Jew and would have nailed the Teddy Williams thing; Nastasha Kinski (as transcribed) was initially going to play Bridget but turned it down, so Kruger got the role, and Kinski, 10 or 15 years older, would have been more a Marlene Dietrich aging starlet; Kruger is so good in the movie.
This is a generation of actors who grew up on Tarantino: Fassbender and friends put on a stage version of Reservoir Dogs in Dublin, and Simon Pegg sat alone in a hotel room anguished over choosing between Spielberg's obvious blockbuster and Tarantino's World War II movie.
Tarantino struggled over casting Melanie Laurent because he thought she was too famous and wanted to discover someone new; she insisted she was not famous and convinced him.
Tarantino met Pitt at Chateau Miraval, where Pitt lived with Angelina Jolie, and they discussed Aldo over a night and five bottles of the estate's own Pink Floyd rose before he accepted, so the rose was a critical factor.
This was the first time Tarantino worked with an in-his-prime movie star rather than rediscovering an underappreciated asset, and everything since, Django, Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, has used stars in their sweet spot, so it may have been more of a risk for Tarantino than for Pitt; complicating things, the Weinstein Company produced and distributed the film, and Pitt, who had refused to work with Weinstein for years over Gwyneth Paltrow, did so because he wanted to work with Tarantino.
Possibly half-assed research rather than a casting what-if: an early iteration when Tarantino first conceived the project was rumored to include Sylvester Stallone as Aldo, Bruce Willis as Donnie Donowitz and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hugo Stiglitz, which would make sense for a late-90s script.
Earlier, during the tavern discussion, Fassbender is said to have tried out for Landa five times, and a host wants to discuss in Casting What-Ifs how both careers would have gone with him as Landa.
