Recasting: Ali Larter's Landman character as Big Nick's ex-wife, with a joke that she would respond less gracefully and might stab him. — Chris Ryan
A prequel about young Nick's football years and entry into Los Angeles policing is proposed after discussing Timothée Chalamet's next role. — Bill Simmons
The Chappelle idea receives immediate objections; the proposer ultimately says he was wrong despite imagining gun training and jokes at Nick’s expense. — Chris Ryan
The existing cast is ultimately retained. — Bill Simmons
A funnier Bosco is proposed, with Flea invoked as a model for someone who could mock Nick. — Chris Ryan
Shane Gillis as Murph is offered as another example of a cop who could supply a few jokes about Nick.
Nicolas Cage would have suited Big Nick in the mid-to-late 2000s but has aged out of that version. — Chris Ryan
Pedro Pascal is a contemporary Big Nick possibility, with physical credibility and apparent behavioral authenticity important to the role. — Chris Ryan
An unspecified Wagner is another possibility; the transcript does not establish a surname. — Chris Ryan
Part of what makes the movie rewatchable is that everyone plays their part; Bosco, Gus and Borracho never go over the top to steal scenes.
The suggestion is the big Hawaiian guy who talks, Marcus, a low-usage-rate player who asks why they cannot just cut loose and is intimidating in the garage scene when he starts speaking another language.
Details noticed only after many viewings: two small children are in the garage scene, one postured up like he is ready to fight, and the major crimes office has a bench press in the back, which Russo would appreciate.
Bosco's femoral-artery moment at the opening crime scene is liked; what the cops did with the dead robber is recalled as the start of connecting the 2005 and 2006 robberies, the ten-year bids and the new wave.
The one nominee and winner is Bosco, Evan Jones, the little guy with the weird face in Merriman's crew.
Other candidates are Borracho and Murph, who is Brian Van Holt from Cougar Town, Breaking Bad and Big Evil in End of Watch; the movie has thirty that guys.
The security guard who eyeballs O'Shea on both deliveries, with no lines but constant tension that he might reach for his gun, is a preemptive that guy.
The script floated around for a long time with little record of who nearly played whom; Sylvester Stallone was attached at one point, twenty-five years too late, and on the Skyscraper set The Rock told Pablo Schreiber he was supposed to do the movie ten years earlier, when he would have been a lead rather than the 50 Cent part, since villain Rock still does not exist.
The film had a long, circuitous development of ten or fifteen years, at one point at Relativity, with various names attached; it benefits from not being the Heat setup of two famous stars, since Schreiber and Butler let you lose yourself in the movie.
