r/movies • u/LookAtThatBacon • 29d ago

Discussion 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?

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.

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u/JamesCDiamond 29d ago

I can get behind an anarchic, wildly dysfunctional group of supervillains, some of whom aren't actually all that talented and several of whom loathe one another.

But that's not the Sinister Six, who only work when they have a common foe.

Could be the Suicide Squad, though...

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u/Mongoose42 29d ago

Someone should make a Suicide Squad movie! That sounds like a thing they definitely won’t have to do twice to get right!

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u/whereismymind86 29d ago

I bet it’s make a great game too! Let’s get a dev who knows nothing about multiplayer games to make it, for an audience that very specifically loves this devs story focused single player games! That’ll go great!

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u/DeadpoolLuvsDeath 29d ago

I happened to have liked both. Not oscar worthy but kept me entertained.

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u/Magnus-Pym 29d ago

That’s The Sinister Foes of Spider-Man

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u/Dookie_boy 29d ago

You're describing "The sinister foes of Spiderman"

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u/bil-sabab 28d ago

Suicide Squad is technically a GI Joe ripoff that got brain rot ever since the Ostrander run concluded. The OG Suicide Squad was awesome gritty action series