Damon Wayans, met by chance, reportedly denied the research claim that he and Bruce Willis feuded on The Last Boy Scout, illustrating the unreliability of casting research. — Bill Simmons
Nicholson was reportedly the studio’s top Joker choice since 1980, and Willem Dafoe reportedly stated in 2009 he had been in talks. — Bill Simmons
Robin Williams was reportedly offered the Joker to pressure Nicholson, released once Nicholson agreed, and then refused Warner roles such as the Riddler without an apology; the apology detail is doubted. — Bill Simmons
Dead Poets Society was 1989’s third-biggest film; swapping Nicholson and Williams would make both films worse, and “he stole my balloons” is called a favorite line.
Nicholson’s reported conditions included top billing, a share of earnings including merchandise, capped work hours, and no work on Lakers home playoff games; his fee dropped from $11 million to $6 million, but he may have made $90 million. — Bill Simmons
Martin Landau reportedly turned down Carl Grissom for Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Jack Palance in that role is imagined as bad.
Sean Young was cast as Vicki Vale and replaced after a horse-riding injury; the Knox actor later claimed she sabotaged a read-through, which is doubted. Her Catwoman costume audition for Batman Returns is recalled.
The Knox actor also claimed Keaton blocked Peters’ choice of Michelle Pfeiffer because they had dated, which is doubted since she is in the sequel. — Bill Simmons
Adam West was publicly disappointed not to be asked to reprise Batman. — Bill Simmons
Willis is incredible, but the pick is Damon Wayans for a dynamite movie-star performance he never got the chance to repeat. — Chris Ryan
The pick is agreed with: multiple people could have played the Bruce Willis role, including Don Johnson, but nobody else in 1991 could have been Jimmy Dix (Eddie too old, Denzel too established, Wesley Snipes weird, Jamie Fox too early). — Bill Simmons
It was right time, right place for Wayans, who is likable, and it is a bummer he never got better scripts. — Bill Simmons
Tony Scott was considered but rejected because this is not seen as a signature Tony Scott movie and it sounds agonizing to make. — Bill Simmons
In a book about cocaine-era late 80s and 90s movies, this would be a chapter. — Bill Simmons
Early-90s kooky L.A. still goes to True Romance. — Chris Ryan
The $650 leather pants are called an apex. — Chris Ryan
The movie is proposed as the Apex Mountain for hangover acting, but Sonny Crockett and Jack Cates are raised against it and the claim is left contested rather than settled.
Later, dripping blood from the mouth and nose is added as an apex for this movie. — Bill Simmons
Troubled production; O.J. Simpson and Al Cowlings as football experts; a Lethal Weapon deleted scene; a near riot of extras; the body count; the original script
The assistant director attributed on-set tension to an overabundance of alpha males; Joel Silver told the New Yorker it was one of the three worst experiences of his life. — Bill Simmons
Shane Black was forced to keep rewriting; the studio wanted a Die Hard-style Bruce Willis follow-up, and the save-the-wife plot was changed because it repeated Die Hard. — Bill Simmons
The two football technical experts were O.J. Simpson and A.C. Cowlinks, per a Taylor Nagrond interview; it is called possibly the best research item ever. — Bill Simmons
The $650 pants conversation was a deleted Lethal Weapon scene Shane Black repurposed. — Bill Simmons
During filming at the Los Angeles Coliseum, extras who were told to go home after a canceled recall nearly rioted. — Bill Simmons
Shane Black's original script had a different second half: bigger roles for Milo and Shelley Marcombe, Milo directing snuff films and killing a family, a boat chase, two more shootouts, and Joe's wife killing Milo. — Bill Simmons
Script scenes like Jimmy throwing a football at a player abusing a woman build character, and the shooting script is worth reading or maybe making as a Netflix series. — Chris Ryan
Admittedly a stretch: Tony Scott hated Joel Silver so much that he based Lee Donowitz in True Romance on him, played by Saul Rubinick, and Silver went nuts when he saw it. — Bill Simmons
An open question is which Joel Silver movie Coming Home in a Body Bag parodies. — Bill Simmons
Joe's hatred for rap music; the Jimmy Carter look-alike; the first dad-daughter scene; Tony Scott's conception of football contact; the Joel Silver–Bruce Willis relationship
The scene is set at halftime of a Cleveland versus Los Angeles game with Vern Lundquist, Dick Buckkiss and Lynn Swan as sideline reporter, who berates the L.A. owner about ratings, attendance and where all the heroes have gone. — Bill Simmons
The hosts want sideline reporters to ask NBA players like Brandon Ingram and LeBron James where all the heroes have gone. — Chris Ryan
Billy Cole is alleged to take PCP in the locker room, though one host always thought it was cocaine until reading Wikipedia. — Bill Simmons
Early nits: whether he had the gun in his pants the whole quarter, how it did not affect his burst while breaking four tackles, and whether his touchdown would count for gamblers. — Bill Simmons
He says 'Ain't life a bitch' as he shoots himself, and the broadcast presumably cuts to a test signal. — Chris Ryan
Only one spotlight seems to be on in Cleveland Stadium, like a German expressionist film; Tony Scott's football is closer to Zach Snyder's 300 and the rain device returns in The Fan. — Chris Ryan
The scene was a watershed; the movie arguably peaks in the first six minutes, helped by the Bill Medley Friday Night Football song. — Bill Simmons
Other rewatchable scenes offered: Joe finding the guy in the closet, which leads to the first of several car bombs. — Bill Simmons
Jimmy's speech on the NFL stance on drugs and gambling, played back by Craig, reads like Shane Black at 3:30 in the morning.
Joe versus Kim Coats, where Joe warns him not to touch him again and then kills him. — Bill Simmons
The quirky hitmen, like Pablo playing piano and Taylor Negron, feel Tarantino-like before Tarantino made a movie. — Bill Simmons
The stuffed-animal scene with the car chase, despite not knowing how the gun fits in the stuffed animal. — Bill Simmons
The Hollywood Hills car chase with cars going down the hill that lands in the pool. — Bill Simmons
The strip club with Corey and the Corey car-chase murder right after it are offered as another rewatchable scene; the other side left it out because seeing Halle Berry murdered hurts, wishing she had just taken one in the shoulder. — Bill Simmons
Asked for a most rewatchable pick, the answer is the opening scene, watchable a hundred times in a row; it is jokingly why football had to leave L.A. — Bill Simmons
Urban-western origin; Gibson's horseshoe kidney; Jackie Swanson's own high fall; a blank in the suicide scene; the Beretta 92F; director's cut and alternate opening and ending; the original Shane Black script
In the suicide-contemplation scene there was a blank in the chamber of the gun Gibson pointed at his head. — Bill Simmons
The gun was a Beretta 92F, also used by Bruce Willis in Die Hard and since retired. — Bill Simmons
A director's cut runs about seven minutes longer; an alternate opening had Riggs drinking alone in a bar and beating up thugs. — Chris Ryan
The original 1985 Shane Black script is online and much darker, with a possible school-shooting opening, a rocket launcher and more Vietnam material. — Chris Ryan
The alternate ending, on YouTube, has Riggs telling a retiring Murtaugh not to retire; the fight was four minutes longer. — Chris Ryan
Willis could have had Lethal Weapon and Gibson Die Hard; a hot take follows that Willis in 1986 was not believable as a super soldier, while his Die Hard hero is streetwise. — Chris Ryan
Willis looks like an everyman while Gibson looks cut from limestone; one host would have loved to see them switch, likened to a Brady-Brees swap. — Bill Simmons
Gibson turned down The Fly and The Untouchables for this film. — Bill Simmons
Gibson pursued Bond in The Living Daylights, but Broccoli turned him down for not being British and Timothy Dalton was cast; Dalton's Bond films are debated and called terrible. — Bill Simmons
Brosnan was held to Remington Steele and had to wait about ten years for Bond. — Bill Simmons
After the $250,000 script purchase, Ridley Scott was considered but had Blade Runner tensions with Warner Brothers; Leonard Nimoy was busy with Three Men and a Baby; Donner got it. — Bill Simmons
Brian Dennehy was lined up for Murtaugh but did not want to play a cop again; F/X is praised as influential. — Bill Simmons
The Joshua role was offered to Steve Railsback and John Saxon; Busey, ice cold after his Buddy Holly Story nomination, auditioned and lost weight. — Bill Simmons
Shane Black wanted William Hurt as Riggs; Hurt would play a damaged vet, not a super soldier, and a Hurt-Dennehy version would be a movie few watch. — Bill Simmons
