Michael J. Fox was not original lead in Back to the Future

[wheelyq]

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/thr-eri ... mcfly.html

Eric Stoltz as the original Marty McFly

Everyone knows the classic 1985 film "Back to the Future" featured a boyish Michael J. Fox in a winning performance as Marty McFly.

But Fox was not the original McFly. In fact, Eric Stoltz was five weeks into shooting the famed McFly role when director and co-writer Robert Zemeckis made a drastic production decision -- changing his lead actor.

Details of the shocking Hollywood switch and never-before-seen footage of Stoltz as McFly are part of the extras package for the "Back to the Future 25th Anniversary Trilogy" to be released on Blu-Ray on Oct. 26.

Zemeckis says the casting change was "this horrific decision; it was heartbreaking for everybody."

Executive producer Steven Spielberg said that Zemeckis consulted him before pursuing the casting change.

"(Zemeckis) showed me the first five weeks of shooting that he had put together," Spielberg said. " And he said, 'I just don't think we're getting the laughs I was hoping we would get.' "

Spielberg said he realized his director "was absolutely correct."

The rest is pop-culture history. Zemeckis was able to "convince the studio to let me reshoot five weeks of work," and Michael J. Fox was cast in a career-defining role. "Back to the Future," released on Oct. 26, 1986, would go on to gross $381 million worldwide and lead to two further sequels.

[Reino]

so?

[*krissyloohoo*]

sheesh, maybe he just thought it was an interesting thing to share, Reino.

[Jolie]

so?

lmao

[wheelyq]

well, it's my favorite movie, and kind of a shock to know they started filming it and then didn't like how it was going and changed the lead actor. And it's like a classic movie.

[anna_c]

I think they talk about that on the thrillogy dvd...
I worked for about a month @ BTTF the ride @ universal studios (Orlando), my uniform was Doc's yellow shirt, I think he used it on the second movie. I might have pictures of it somewhere!

[wheelyq]

I think they talk about that on the thrillogy dvd...
I worked for about a month @ BTTF the ride @ universal studios (Orlando), my uniform was Doc's yellow shirt, I think he used it on the second movie. I might have pictures of it somewhere!

In that article they sad there's gonna be a new DVD release of the 3 BTTF movies with bonus footage that shows the original filming, before they changed to Michael J. Fox...hopefully it's longer that that short video on the link I posted!

Yes, Doc had a yellow jacket in Back TTF 2.

[anna_c]

Kinda off topic, but not quite...
Tom Wilson (Biff) singing The Questions song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X084W8Pob8U
Hilarious.

[wheelyq]

Yeah, this can be the Back to the Future thread...

So, yeah, I found out that Biff is a stand up comedian about a year ago. He's really funny. I heard him on the Bob and Tom show on the radio. Maybe they have an archive of him on the show on their website. He was really funny on their radio show.

[wheelyq]

http://www.bobandtom.com/guest/wilson-tom/9796

here it is. But you need a real player or windows media player it looks like??

edit: you have to pay for it.