Forget about Don Cheadle replacing Terence Howard as James Rhodes / War Machine in Iron Man II, which smells a lot like the “we’ll threaten to replace Tobey Maguire with Jake Gyllenhaal” tactic that Sony used for Spider-Man II –– Hollywood has been doing this for years. It was bad enough back in the days of television with Dick Sargent replacing Dick York in Bewitched, but now it’s becoming pretty commonplace for producers to replace actors in iconic roles. Although now it’s more common due to monetary concerns, which seems to be what has taken Howard out of the War Machine suit, it’s also common to see an actor ankle a role because they don’t like the source material, or the direction the character is taking. We’ve put together several different re-castings, which all happened for a variety of reasons: money, dissatisfaction with the script, test audience reactions, and actors just growing tired of playing the same character. Check them out after the break.

Alec Baldwin –> Harrison Ford –> Ben Affleck –> Ryan Gosling (?)

In Tom Clancy’s series of “Ryanverse” books, action politician and former teacher Jack Ryan has dne everything from rescue a rogue Russian submarine to become the President of the United States. Alec Baldwin first played the role in 1990’s The Hunt for Red October, but he was unavailable for the sequel Patriot Games (which in the books is a prequel), due to a stint on Broadway. The producers then approached Harrison Ford, who took over the role for two movies, with Clear and Present Danger being the highest grossing Ryan film to date.

Ford decided not to play the role a third time, and for 2002’s The Sum of All Fears they decided to try and jumpstart the franchise with a young Jack Ryan, casting Ben Affleck in the role. At the time, Ford reportedly told Affleck, “Knock yourself out. I don’t want to do these movies anymore.” Which contrasts with what he just told AOL’s Moviefone: “I thought that we hadn’t quite exhausted the potential of the Jack Ryan character. Those films were, I think, very good movies. I wouldn’t mind doing another of those.” Nevertheless, there’s a rumor that Ryan Gosling will become the new Jack Ryan in Without Remorse, which is currently in development. Personally? I thought Baldwin made the best Jack Ryan, but he’s a better Jack Donaghy.

Jodie Foster –> Julianne Moore

When Foster declined to reprise the Clarice Starling role from Silence of the Lambs in Hannibal, the producers considered a list of actors that ranged from Winona Ryder to Gillian Anderson, who lost the role because her contract at Fox said she couldn’t play another FBI agent. Even though Foster had initially said she’d do it and had specific notes on the script, eventually Julianne Moore won the part, but in the end it wasn’t much of a prize –– it’s hard to remember that Ridley Scott directed this movie, because it just didn’t have a the spark or charisma of the original.

Similarly, if you rent the excellent Manhunter, you’ll see William Petersen in a non-CSI role playing FBI agent Will Graham, who actually captured Hannibal Lecter (oddly spelled Lecktor in this movie), played by Brian Cox. Later Hollywood remade this movie as Red Dragon (the name of the book) with Anthony Hopkins reprising his Lecter role, and Ed Norton playing Will Graham. Although if we include remakes on this list, it’ll stretch on far too long.

Katie Holmes  –> Maggie Gyllenhaal

Katie Holmes turned down a big payday when she decided not to return for the sequel to Batman Begins, and missed out on being in the biggest movie of this year. It’s still unclear if her decision shows Tom Cruise’s influence at work, or if she just didn’t want to do it now that she’s a mommy, but it was one of those head-scratching moments that just makes you wonder what happened. Maybe she bristled at the paltry two million dollars she was being offered for the role, especially since the part was beefed up for The Dark Knight.

Claudia Wells –> Elisabeth Shue and Crispin Glover –> Jeffrey Weisman

Back to the Future Part II saw two major roles get recast, and in some cases rewritten completely. Claudia Wells, who played Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer in the first film, decided to leave acting since her mother was diagnosed with cancer, and she later took more time off to have children. Her part was recast with Elisabeth Shue stepping in, and they had to re-shoot the ending sequence of the original movie since that’s how Back to the Future II opens.

Additionally, Crispin Glover found out that the producers were using his image without his approval for the sequel, and he sued the directors and producers, including Steven Spielberg. The case was settled out of court, and the Screen Actors Guild later implemented rules to prevent this from happening again. As a result, Glover’s part was recast with Jeffrey Weisman playing George McFly, and most of his scenes show the back of his head, or him floating upside down (he’s supposed to be in traction, having hurt his back) and wearing heavy prosthetics.

Burt Reynolds –> Jackie Gleason –> Jerry Reed

This story is so strange that it makes me want to go back and watch this movie again, even though I remember how terrible it was when I saw it as a kid. This movie was originally titled Smokey and the Bandit III: Smokey IS The Bandit, with Jackie Gleason playing both Buford T. Justice, and the role of the Bandit. We sure would have like to see him as the Bandit, but apparently audiences didn’t and were too confused by the dual roles. So the studio dumped Gleason as the Bandit, and rewrote the film to have Jerry Reed as the Bandit.

If you remember from the first two movies (and it’s forgiveable is you don’t have the lore of Smokey and the Bandit memorized at this point), Reed was the Bandit’s best buddy, Cledus Snow, who drove the big truck. However in this third installment, the Enoses (I swear I’m getting dumber by remembering all of this stuff) decided that the Bandit was too egotistical, and hire Snow to do their bidding. In the climactic scene, when Smokey finally catches the Bandit, he seems him as Burt Reynolds, who reprised the role just for that one moment. Now I need to go get a stiff drink. If someone out there can find the footage of Gleason as the Bandit, you’ll make my day. Thank god he made Nothing In Common with Tom Hanks before he died, because this would have a been a terrible film to end a career with.

I was going to include Michael Gambon replacing Richard Harris in the role of Dumbledore, which opens up a whole realm of actors who had to be replaced because they died. Then I realized there’s actually quite a lot of those, so look for that in a future post.