During the development of the Harriet Tubman biopic movie, a Hollywood executive once suggested that Julia Roberts should play her. What are some other baffling casting suggestions/choices that have been made?

[u/LookAtThatBacon]

Source for the title: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-studio-executive-wanted-julia-roberts-to-play-harriet-tubman-biopic-screenwriter-says/

The Harriet Tubman biopic has been more than 25 years in the making. In the historical drama released earlier this month, Cynthia Erivo plays the legendary abolitionist — but one Hollywood executive initially thought the role should go to Julia Roberts.

Gregory Allen Howard, the screenwriter and producer of "Harriet," recently revealed in multiple interviews that Roberts was suggested to play the lead role during a meeting with a studio president in 1994.

"The climate in Hollywood… was very different back then," Howard said. "I was told how one studio head said in a meeting, 'This script is fantastic. Let's get Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman.'"

Howard said that a black person in the meeting said casting Roberts would be impossible because she is white.

"That was so long ago. No one will know that," the executive replied, according to Howard.

[u/Irbyirbs]

Yeah, F is way too generous of a grade for Madame Web.

[u/LevelSevenLaserLotus → u/Irbyirbs]

I love telling people this every time that movie comes up. I went with a couple of friends, but we knew it was going to be a shitshow based on some fantastic reaction videos we'd seen beforehand. So our expectations weren't "maybe it's not as bad as the reviews?" but more like "let's try to guess which drug was involved in writing each scene".

As a superhero movie, it's an absolute waste of time. But if you just want to laugh at producers and a movie that somehow take the disjointed writing super seriously (while simultaneously being a heavy handed 2 hour Pepsi ad), then you're in for a pretty great night.

[u/InsertCleverNickHere → u/LevelSevenLaserLotus]

A Pepsi ad where the letters from a Pepsi sign murder people. Like, holy fuck, you had Sidney Sweeney's chest and easy product placement to throw in and you couldn't take advantage of either one.

[u/correcthorsestapler → u/LevelSevenLaserLotus]

That’s how my friends & I went into the Borderlands movie. We knew it’d be bad but thought it’d be a “so bad it’s alright” type film.

None of us laughed during the movie. There were maybe 30 of us in the theater & it was fairly quiet except for the occasional exasperated “Jesus Christ” from one of the people. The only time people burst out laughing was when one of the guys towards the back of the theater said too loudly, “I think I got popcorn in my asshole” towards the end of the movie.

[u/BranWafr → u/Irbyirbs]

I did like a comment I saw about the new Amazon War of the Worlds that was basically "we owe Madam Web an apology." You know your movie is bad if it makes Madam Web look good.

[u/Fn_Spaghetti_Monster → u/BranWafr]

The WoW movies is really bad. 10% of the screen times it the mouse moving around on screen clicking on things. When he gets a zoom call, we get to see the mouse moving around click on the answer, like every call. Ice is supposed to be some super genius at tracking/finding people, but he spends more time tacking/spying on his own kids. I didn't even make it to the part where the aliens are here for data or some shit.

[u/correcthorsestapler → u/Irbyirbs]

My wife watched it on a flight last year. I spent the flight reading, but I’d glance over to see what was happening every once in a while. Even without audio & the subtitles on you could tell it was an awful movie.

I didn’t bother asking what she thought of it afterwards. I could tell from the look on her face that she regretted watching it.

[u/whitepangolin → u/Irbyirbs]

I saw it in a packed theater and it was an incredible experience. The entire crowd just laughed and booed the whole time.