I’ve enjoyed a great deal of movies with Connery as the lead. I think he made the right choice not being Gandalf.
Cocaine was cheap and plentiful in the 70s.
Connery even made a Michael Bay movie watchable.
There’s not many actors that can say that.
Okay, but hear me out. Zardoz is good.
I know it looks goofy, and it IS goofy. But it’s also GOOD.
Same. It was actually trying things, but all people see is this one image of Sean Connery.
The director’s commentary is so delightfully honest, right at the top he’s like “so I’ll be the first to admit, this film kinda got away from us,”
Quoting from memory. But that was the gist.
I heard this story, not sure if it’s true, but I choose to believe it and will not hear any corrections; apparently, he was approached about Gandalf, but he turned it down because he didn’t really understand it. Then he was approached about Dumbledore, but turned it down because he didn’t really understand it. After seeing how those two franchises turned out, he said, “screw it, I’m taking the next role that I don’t get.” That role was Alan Quartermaine in League of Extraordinary Gentleman. After that movie bombed he retired from acting altogether.
That role was Alan Quartermaine in League of Extraordinary Gentleman. After that movie bombed he retired from acting altogether.
Which is a shame really because I remember it being… Kinda good? Clearly not a work of great art, but fun action silliness. Admittedly I watched it as a kid and never again so who knows really.
With adult eyes, it’s pretty bad. Also, it’s an adaptation of a much better Alan Moore graphic novel.
It has some of the worst dialogue and pacing of any movie I’ve ever seen. I can see how it would be fun as a kid, but even as a teenager, it sucked ass.
Didn’t hate it? It was a fun action film. Sometimes people take things too seriously.
I’d also argue that however the movie did after the fact, turning down roles you don’t understand is probably the smarter option. Maybe those other movies would have also flopped if they had Connery in those roles.
Like I can’t picture him doing a good Gandalf. It wouldn’t be Gandalf, it would be Sean Connery in a wizard outfit. I can’t think of any roles where Connery played someone who wasn’t Sean Connery. He brought a lot of charisma to his roles but not a ton of range.
I agree that he wouldn’t have been right for either part, but I’m sure they still would have been very successful franchises. Also, he probably wouldn’t have gotten either part (definitely not Gandalf), they were just approaching him about it. Producers on Batman (1989) were in talks with Bill Murray and Pierce Brosnan before they moved on to Michael Keaton, but it’s pretty unlikely either one would have made it.
Jesus can you actually imagine if LOTR had Sean Connery instead of Ian McKellen? Hideous prospect. No shade to Connery, he’s played some of my favourite characters over the years, but christ that would have been a terrible mistake.
Idk he could land “Run, you foolsh!” pretty well.
“You shall not pash!”
“Is it shecret? Is it shafe?”
“When did Sharuman the wishe replace hish wishdom with madnessh?”
You could play this game all day long
I don’t think he’ he’d be a good Gandalf anyways
nothing against him, but what we got was perfect.
That reminds me of how Will Smith turned down Neo in The Matrix because he thought Wild Wild West was the safer bet.
Honestly though, I agree with him. WWW definitely is the safer bet on paper. But safer doesn’t mean foolproof, and the risky ventures sometimes are the most profitable. Making the worse move doesn’t necessarily mean you made the incorrect one.
Yeah, but in the third act he got to fight a giant spider. Do you know anything about spiders? They’re the fiercest killers in the insect kingdom.
Dragonflies would like a word
They’re not in the insect kingdom.
They broke in, because they are the fiercest killer.
He would have been an awful Neo. Bullet dodged for everyone.
Imagine all the matrix themed rap songs that were missing out on tho
Jazzy Jeff feat. Powerman 5000
Ok I wanna see that collaboration!
Ouch
Honestly, the only good decision he’s made lately was to not appear in the Independence Day sequel.
i’m gonna be honest looking at will smith’s career the good decisions were ones other people made
It’s hard for me to imagine anyone else in any of the roles. They are all such perfect fits.
Gollum should’ve been played by Nicolas Cage. With no VFX or makeup.
Also Willem Dafoe with a bald cap could pull it off.
“I’m something of a hoarder myself … but only for this precious ring!”
I’m currently watching the Mandalore gaming video on Ring and this sounds like an Alberich line.
💀💀
"Mm! You! You … come to me! You come to me because … you’re mine, right? Precious! PRECIOUS! I’m talking to you!"
i really don’t think anyone else could pull off the german neoclassicallism of the role
SC would have been awful as Gandalf to be honest
Could’ve been worse. Could’ve been Steven Segal.
He would’ve been awful. Connery was good at playing smarmy dickheads, but he was kind of ass any time he wasn’t playing a smarmy dickhead.
This is why his performance in The Rock is pitch perfect.
To be fair to Connery, Zardoz was right after 007. He was type casted and nobody would hire him. He had to do something different to get new work. Also, Zardoz is legit a good movie… If you get past the weird and laughable aesthetic choices, the plot is a decent sci fi plot.
Also, Zardoz is legit a good movie
And then Highlander, so it was no wonder he was a bit wary when it came to LOTR.
My shubmarine doeshn’t react well to bulletsh, Ryan.
You’ve really gotta admire his outright contempt at the thought of even attempting a Russian accent in that movie.
It’s honestly hilarious and one of the reasons I love that movie
His character is actually Lithuanian, so he shouldn’t have a Russian accent. Not that Scottish is accurate…
It was a thriller movie in the 90s for American audiences.
Whether he had contempt or not the accents did not matter. Just needed something to indicate “not American”
“Some things in here don’t react well to bullets”
Sorry, I munged the quote a bit from memory 😅
Addendum:
Shome thingsh in here don’t react well to bulletsh
But Highlander was awesome.
It won the Academy Award for best movie ever made.
Zardoz is legit a good movie
I assumed it was going to be, but when I watched I found it aggressively terrible.
But, did you watch it a second time? Honestly it’s awful the first watch because you can’t get past the aesthetic of it. When I watched it again I realized the movie itself is pretty good. It’s practically the definition of a good bad movie.
I have not. Maybe I’ll try it again someday because I actually have more than once hated a movie first try and liked it on second viewing.
I don’t blame you. I took a long time between viewings. I liked it enough that I had my goalie mask painted like the big stone head. I figured it was funny and a stone head was appropriate for a goalie.
Also, Zardoz is where he came up with the policy of not acting in movies that he doesn’t “get”.
Zardoz is legit a good movie
Well, ok. But we are comparing it with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
(But then, committing to a trilogy probably has a huge opportunity cost.)
Bear in mind that very few people thought a film adaptation of LOTR was actually going to be any good. It seems obvious now, but it was not seen a really viable project with how trilogies were made at the time (with many years between them) the amount of budget needed, and the effects challenges. The guys who made the movies deserve a lot of credit for doing something so well that it looks obvious when they are done, but little thinks like how to do the hobbits were seen as effects challenges with no real solution that wouldn’t look stupid or be insanely expensive.
Connery would have been the biggest name in the film and getting attached to something that wound up looking like shit or making him look stupid would have been a bigger problem for him than anyone. Again, its obvious that they turned out great, but look at what Peter Jackson made before this and its not really as obvious a choice as one would think now (although I am personally a fan of his early work, I get why people might not be and why people maybe wouldn’t hand him the biggest film franchise in history).
And just for a fun tidbit, at the time that Connery bailed on the offer the film was being produced by Weinstein, so I get maybe not wanting to work with that dirtbag. They almost lost Liv Tyler for the same reason and reportedly did lose them Ashley Judd and Mia Sorvino, who flat out refused to be attached to anything involving him.
Frankly LOTR is way overrated. Both the books (and therefore) the movies.
That’s a bold thing to say out loud in these parts… I like your moxie.
That moxie can be thrown into mount doom and incinerated
There was a population boost in the town they filmed Zardoz in due to all of the drug-induced revelry that was going on during the making of that movie.
There is a good chance that town is populated with tens if not scores of Sean Connery’s illegitimate grandchildren now.
The gun is good!
I mean, maybe the bottom picture made perfect sense to Sean?
Yeah, it’s called “I was young and broke, and needed the money”.
Although, I really do recommend watching Zardoz at least once. It’s a trip.
I fucking love Zardoz!
When I first watched it for the ridiculous Sean Connery outfit I became quickly outraged that it’s not spoken of more highly in sci-fi film media. It’s got some really solid bones.
Zardoz is sci-fi
goldplatinum.
Definitely - a bit of a long and weird trip, that is. Obviously some obscure hippie stuff from the early 1970s.
Or it’s the reason he stopped doing ones he thought made no sense to him?
i mean, i can understand zardoz tho
People still wondering why Sean Connery isn’t a household name… 🙄 /s
“And sho do all who live to shee shuch timesh. But that ish not for them to deshide. All we have to deshide ish what to do with the time that ish give to ush.”
He did his best work in Time Bandits.
time bandits is cheating
The name is Grey. Gandalf the Grey.
Even selective people make bad selections now and then.
You can even be selective and make only bad choices. Ask me how I know.
i didn’t think we’d met
