»Alternate Casting«

I read in one of the polls that WB considered casting Will Smith as Neo. If you had been in charge of casting of all three films, what would be (if any) the changes you'd make in casting?

Would you have cast Will Smith as Neo; Ian Holm as the Architect; Whoopi Goldberg as The Oracle? What would be your choice?

Or are you perfectly happy with the casting choices made?

I know one thing- I wouldn't give up Hugo Weaving.

I'd never change Hugo, greatest actor ever. I've heard of them possibly considering Will Smith but apparently he turned it down. I think the movie would've sucked with Will. The only actor I'd change is one of the men in Zion at a control panel in the Zion fight who has a bout 2 lines, the rest of the characters where casted perfectly, Niobe was crap in Reloaded but good in Revolutions.

I think Lambert Wilson was also excellent casting as the Merovingian. However, Monica Bellucci (although she fills a dress nicely) completely blew her one line in Revolutions. Too bad Aaliyah had to die (she was originally casted as Persephone). I'm not sure who I would have cast. Maybe Monica was good, but that line about Trinity being in love was so cheesy that it couldn't be saved.

Anyway, I think I would have changed the second Oracle. Since tragically they couldn't have Gloria Foster again, I think they should have gone off the wall and shocked us with someone completely different like a teenager or an Native American woman or something. I think they had the oppurtunity to be more creative and decided to phone it in by casting a close apporximation.

Thats a good idea, bachsoffice. I would have liked to have seen a Native American woman instead. Hmm....Whoopi Goldberg....maybe....she did a good job in Star Trek as the Oracle type person. That could have worked out.

Bachsoffice,

I don't know...I thought the line about Trin being in love was fine. Being a married man myself, I know that if I was in that situation, I'd kill everyone that I had to in order to see her again. But as for Monica Bellucci, she was just OK. I would've like to see a French woman cast in the role to make everything more cohesive. Someone like Jacquline Bisset.

As for Whoopi as the Oracle, I agree she'd be good but I don't think she's old enough. I think the Bros. purposefully cast an older woman to be kind of a grandmotherly-type character.

Bachsoffice,

I really hate to be one of those people pointing out mistakes, but Aaliyah was originally cast as Zee (Link's wife). As we all know, her death opened the door for Nona Gaye, who was marginal at best.

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but Aaliyah was originally cast as Zee (Link's wife).

Whoops. . .my bad

this thread already exists but hey why not

neo:matthew mcfadden
trinity:kate beckinsale
morpheus:liam neeson
smith:john malkovich
oracle:judy dench

Hey, here's an idea that some people are gonna like and a lot of people aren't:

One of my biggest beefs with the trilogy was that Keanu and Carrie-Ann Moss were both too unemotional to get me to commit to them emotionally. They were perfectly cast for the first movie because it gave a machine-like computerish tone which I'm sure they were trying to achieve. But when they decided to expand the story, I think Keanu and Carrie-Ann failed as actors to become more "human" as their roles needed to.

With hindsight 20/20, Neo and Trinity should have been cast with more personality. Will Smith would have been TOO much personality, I thnk. However my choice for Neo would have been. . .Tom Cruise. I know, hang on, wait, stop typing your angry protests! Don't think "Top Gun" and "Cocktail", think Minority Report and Magnolia. He's actually done some pretty good stuff, and he's still got that cockiness that makes you like his characters from the get-go.

For Trinity, I would have gone with someone much younger and apt to fall madly in love with a relative stranger like Kirsten Dunst or Dominique Swain. (They still had to be hot, though. . .it's intrinsic to the character).

I know that this is gonna stir up some responses!

matthew mcfadden?
are we talking about Tom Quinn from Spooks (Mi5 in the states)?
cause if so HELL YEAH
spooks is my favourite TV show! So clever and cool

Bachsoffice, I agree that Neo and Trinity's love was not at all expressed well. They needed better acting to show the power of their love which was supposed to conquer all and make the difference between this matrix and the other versions.

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They needed better acting

Their acting was great! What bugged me was the brevity of some of their lines. For example:

Trin: Still cant sleep. You wanna talk?
Neo: They're just dreams.

And that's all we get regarding an intimate conversation between the two of them.

Unfortunately, the sex scene lacked passion and seemed too relaxed and a bit contrived - hardly a reason to ditch the two main actors whose work prior and afterwards was superlative ( in my opinion only of course)

Thats exactly what I meant dude.

I read in some article that Chow Yun Fat was approached for the role as Morpheus, but he turned it down.

I think Lawrence Fishburne was perfect for role Morpheus. Jet Li would be awsome for role of Seraph, but I think he turned it down.

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Chow Yun Fat was approached for the role as Morpheus

Chow Yun Fat has a very strong accent and words might be lost . He strikes me as an actor gifted with the ability to relay empathy and to impart a paternal indulgence onto those who have sparked his attention - very powerful

But Fishburne's portrayal was just so right on!

As an aside, I think the REAL reason Tank, aka Marcus Chong was tanked for M2 was because he was a sound techie's nightmare. For the most part he spoke his lines VERY quietly in M1. That's my personal opinion. I had difficulty hearing him. He did alot of internal work but vocal technique and an inability to realize the necessity of projection and levels meant he was most comfortable being honest when he stayed small and intense. Needs to work on levels.

And I still cannot think of a replacement for K.Reeves. However, as an exercise I would like to entertain other actors in the role or Neo, Trinity.
Saw some lovely work from C.Moss - check out the elevator scene when they're back in Zion - she's so aware of Neo standing beside her - ready to touch her - awareness - very honest.

MantaRay wrote:

matthew mcfadden? are we talking about Tom Quinn from Spooks (Mi5 in the states)? cause if so HELL YEAH spooks is my favourite TV show! So clever and cool

sure am talking about him...glad you like the programme...how far on in the states is it...season 3 comes out here in june or so...its been so long since seaon 2 finished and i missed the episode about "eerie" and the response to a major disaster...

the ending of season 2 was superb but i wont ruin it for you if you havent seen it

hehehe im from the UK
yeah i saw the end of season 2 INCREDIBLE!
how the hell are they going to continue that?
is tom dead?
will it be him on the run?

the response episode was amazing. it was all a test, but everyone thought it was real and tom shot some bent guy

i cant wait till june

MantaRay wrote:

hehehe im from the UK yeah i saw the end of season 2 INCREDIBLE! how the hell are they going to continue that? is tom dead? will it be him on the run? the response episode was amazing. it was all a test, but everyone thought it was real and tom shot some bent guy i cant wait till june

well i know he aint dead...ive seen behind the scenes stuff for filming of season3 and there is a bit when he meets christine dale(the cia woman)on a park bench(hahaha...very cliched)

it should be very good...my guess is because he is a top marksman then he would have been able to kill harry easily if he wanted too...it is this that leads me to believe that the end of season 2 was a cover for tom going deep undercover in some secret plot into a corrupt branch of the cia or mi5...

i think we will see him swimming a distance offshore and then being picked up by boat or sub

woa good thinking
yeah, it would be very clever if it was all just a way to get Tom to go undercover...but I recon Harry's dead...unless you've seen him in season 3

O...K

Although I agree that at times Reeves and Moss seemed a bit oddly matched, there are times where their love is obvious and blaring. This convinces me. For example, in the Zion scene before the huge-orgy thing, Keanu's "I missed you" is as genuine as you can get, and, although the Trinity death scene in M3 was too long, the M2 one was excellent and really showed Keanu's character.

MantaRay wrote:

woa good thinking yeah, it would be very clever if it was all just a way to get Tom to go undercover...but I recon Harry's dead...unless you've seen him in season 3

just when he was on the stretcher at the end of season 2 he had a saline drip in his arm and he wasn't covered over with a sheet or such like...i havent seen him in series 3 but i think that he is alive

I really dont want him to be dead cause he's funny in a dry kinda way.
Like in season 1 were they're reading the crazy diary thing and they're all saying 'christ' alot.
and he looks straight at the camera and says 'christ' and does this thing with his eyebrows...its really funny...

anyway, i appologise to everyone else who doesnt get what the hell we're talking about...

we'll get back on topic...

will self should have been the architect...