Brad Pitt May’ve Starred In A Cult Horror Sequel Years Earlier than He Was Well-known

Put your self right into a 1987 way of thinking, and picture you are utilizing the pc from “Bizarre Science” to create the right younger actor. You need all of it: A hunk with reliable performing chops who can do finely composed drama as simply as he does zany comedy. He could be the world’s sexiest man and its greatest blithering fool. He is additionally received an athletic body onto which you’ll be able to pack layers of muscle. Can he sing and dance? Most likely, however we’re not attempting to take roles away from our underserved musical theater stars, so let’s not get grasping. All the opposite stuff you desire a star to do, nevertheless, he does it.

So feed your snipped-from-magazine clippings of Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and the like into the pc, and who do you provide you with? Lorenzo Lamas?? You have received your self a virus, pal (and fairly presumably worse). Strive once more. Did you get Brad Pitt? Good.

Now think about you are casting a horror sequel in 1987, and a then-23-year-old Brad Pitt walks into the room to audition for a task. You are underneath stress from the studio to discover a younger stud to make up for the intercourse enchantment deficit left by your balding, 42-year-old co-lead. That is your probability. You get to find one of many greatest film stars in Hollywood for the subsequent 37 years and counting. However he isn’t fairly Brad Pitt but, and also you go. It is not your fault, actually, however years later, you work what you did not get in that display take a look at you’d discover in a short time on set. How do you reside with your self?

Ask Don Coscarelli. He is the man who did not solid Brad Pitt to be in “Illusion II.”

I do not imply to tug Mr. Coscarelli right here. He is one of many nicest guys I’ve ever had the pleasure to interview in Hollywood, and he does nothing however make sui generis style gems like “Illusion,” “The Beastmaster,” and “John Dies on the Finish.” However in the event you learn his showbiz memoir, “True Indie: Life and Dying in Filmmaking” (which you completely ought to, as a result of he is a spectacularly entertaining raconteur), you will uncover he is extremely arduous on himself when relating the casting drama within the lead-up to capturing “Illusion II.”

In keeping with Coscarelli, “As casting started on ‘Illusion Il,’ the Common executives made it very clear to me that they anticipated me to solid a working actor within the function of Mike.” The a part of Mike, the younger protagonist from the primary movie, was written for the actor Michael Baldwin, however since he hadn’t been working within the years previous to the greenlighting of “Illusion II,” the studio was useless set in opposition to him.

Initially, Coscarelli did not let that deter him. Per the filmmaker:

“To attempt to change the chief’s minds l even cajoled Michael into coming over and permitting me to videotape him studying for the half. On reflection, this was massively disrespectful. Michael had originated the function in successful film — why ought to he ever be requested to learn for his personal function? Nicely, I believed I may use his studying to persuade Common to permit him to play the function. It did not work.”

Coscarelli ultimately went with James LeGros as Michael, and was rewarded with pretty much as good a efficiency as he may’ve hoped for in lieu of Baldwin — who, for “Illusion” followers, is the one true Mike. Thankfully, Coscarelli was capable of get his good friend again within the function for the next sequels (which /Movie’s Ryan Scott advises you to look at in a really particular order), however he was nonetheless upset about how all the things went down on “Illusion II.”

What he did not know — or, extra precisely, bear in mind — on the time was that he had the chance to solid Brad Pitt. Amusingly, Baldwin was the one who knowledgeable him of this.

In “True Indie,” Coscarelli wrote that Baldwin had been mates with Jennifer Aniston earlier than she was well-known (maybe again in her “Leprechaun” days). Years later, he went to a cocktail party at her home whereas she was courting Pitt, and was stunned when the star mentioned, “Hey, you are the ‘Illusion’ man!” Pitt then informed Baldwin he’d auditioned for the a part of Mike for “Illusion II,” however misplaced out to LeGros. Baldwin associated this to Coscarelli, who did not bear in mind this, so the director appeared by way of his audition tapes for the sequel and fast-forwarded till he discovered his man.

In keeping with Coscarelli’s memoir, it would not sound like Pitt put his finest foot ahead on this take a look at:

“On-screen, my casting director, Bersy Fels, opens the workplace door with a flourish and broadcasts, ‘Don, meet Brad Pitt.’ And in walked Brad Pitt, who proceeded to learn the cemetery scene from Illusion II. ‘Reggie, each one in all these graves is empty!’ In my protection, Brad was younger, twenty-three years previous, had this Flock of Seagulls wraparound coiffure, and on the time was sporting eighties parachute-style train pants tucked into his socks and hi-top Reeboks.”

Coscarelli nonetheless has but to work with Pitt, however, in a bit of untamed Hollywood irony, LeGros did go on to play a crazy film star character in Tom DiCillo’s filmmaking satire “Dwelling in Oblivion” that feels prefer it was a minimum of partially based mostly on Pitt (on condition that DiCillo had directed Pitt beforehand in “Johnny Suede”). Even wilder, DiCillo’s film additionally options Dermot Mulroney and Catherine Keener, each of whom appeared in Coscarelli’s “Survival Quest” 5 years earlier. Closing out this saga, Coscarelli wrote that he auditioned a “diminutive, very younger actor” for Mulroney’s half in that film who went on to realize Pitt-level fame. He will not say who it was, however I feel we are able to safely assume it may solely have been Lorenzo Lamas.