…came via an article from Daily Variety which discussed the fate of Ledger’s films, “The Dark Knight” and “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.”
Offering some historical context to the sad but often financially necessary scenario of actors dying in the middle of a production, the piece cited examples like Brandon Lee in “The Crow” and Natalie Wood in “Brainstorm,” but it went on to speak to the matter of films that were in the early stages and could still be recast. I’d heard about “Interview with a Vampire,” where River Phoenix’s role ended up being passed to Christian Slater, but I was surprised to read that the title role in “Shrek” was originally to have been voiced by…Chris Farley?
True story…as you can read about in more detail at Jim Hill’s blog, which makes it sound – not unrealistically – that Farley’s attachment was a major reason the film got greenlighted in the first place.
The plot was notably different as well, as Hill explains:
Of course, back then, “Shrek” was supposed to have had a very different storyline. It wasn’t a movie about an ogre who just wanted to be left alone in his swamp. But — rather — it was about a teenage ogre who wasn’t all that eager to go into the family business. You see, young Shrek didn’t really want to frighten people. He longed to make friends, help people. This ogre actually dreamed of becoming a knight.
Y’know, I actually like Mike Myers, but, that said, I just get this feeling that I would’ve liked the Farley version better…and if you head over to the blog and read how impressed people were with Farley’s initial sessions, you might agree with me.
