Humans have many capacities that differentiate us from the rest of the living beings of the planet and, of all of them, today we’ll be focusing on one: imagination. And if we add some humor to our imagination we can have a fun time reviewing what would have been some movies if the first choices of directors and producers had accepted those roles.
Today we’ll have, Cinephile Dystopias!
We have all gone through situations in which we must make a decision and in those moments, in our brain, hundreds of analytical thoughts occur in order to guide us in the best direction. For all this to happen we need the capacity for imagination, or it would be impossible. If we only analyze the raw data without imagining the possible consequences, we become automatons, causing human beings lose their most unique singularity.
Imagine Neo choosing between the blue or red pill, that decision sets up the story ... or not, maybe the two pills are candy and have no effect ... but what would have happened if he took the other pill? maybe The Matrix had gotten into a box and asked if it is alive or dead without allowing us to open the box? Well we don’t know and we will never know, but my mind has the ability to imagine an alternative story, it may be absurd for their inferior minds, or maybe it is absurd because their minds are superior ... because we like dystopias!
Throughout the history of cinema there have been hundreds of cases in which an artist has refused to work on a project for different reasons and today, with the perspective time has give us, we know they were clearly the wrong decisions. I'm going to do a review of the ones that I remember and that seem more scandalous to me, but as always, I wait for your contributions.
Since I've mentioned The Matrix, did you know that before Keanu Reeves took the role, it was offered to Will Smith and Nicolas Cage? Nicolas Cage, friends! I can’t imagine at what point a Hollywood producer or director, looking for an actor for a character like Neo could think of Nicolas Cage. He may be one of the most overworked actors in the history of humanity and they wanted him to give life to a character as sober and elegant as Neo ?! This is one of those occasions when you are happy with the outcome, although probably both Nicolas and Will greatly regretted not having accepted that role.
One of the most viewed movies in history, at least in Spain, is Pretty Woman, they show it on TV about a thousand times a year on a "rehashed" channel of those that we have on DTT in this country. As everyone already knows, Julia Roberts stars in it, but previously the options were Demi Moore and Meg Ryan ... Julia and Demi seem like good options, personally, I don’t like Meg Ryan excessively, but that doesn’t mean that she would have not played a good role as a luxury prostitute. I can’t understand how women like such an insulting movie that much, a love story between a rich man and a whore ... what a great lesson for the girls!!!, but that is another issue. What is clear is that this role gave a very powerful boost to the career of Julia Roberts and sure the other two "rejecters" felt like shit, analyzing their refusal to this project years later.
As a highlight of this section I’ll go with one of the actors who have best taken advantage of the poor vision of their peers regarding the potential of the projects they rejected. Harrison Ford! Both for his role as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, the first options were other actors who rejected the role, in the case of Indiana Jones, the first option was Tom Selleck and for Star Wars there were two, Al Pacino and Christopher Walken. Two of the most successful franchises of recent decades, which those "great visionaries" rejected. That has to hurt a lot, enough to hit your head against a wall just thinking about it.
Some theories state that when you make an important decision, the universe unfolds and a parallel universe is formed in which you live having made a different choice ... surely this could a dystopia created by one of those actors who rejected the role of their lives and they want us to believe that in another universe they were the protagonists and their fame increased to infinity ... I neither confirm nor dismiss the theory, I just know that I don’t know anything, at least in this universe, in a parallel universe I know everything!
To finish, I’m going to recommend some audiovisual products with dystopia as protagonist.
Cinema
Blade Runner, Twelve Monkeys, Matrix, The City of Lost Children, Minority Report, V for Vendetta and finally one that impressed me back in the day: Children of Men.
Series
Black Mirror is the maximum exponent of dystopian series, in my opinion.
The Man in the High Castle is another clear example of a dystopian series that analyzes what the world would be like if the Nazis had won the IIWW. It's a very good argument, but they screw up the execution, and I was not able to see i all of it, I was bored.
The Walking Dead can also fit into this category.
A highly recommended series is Mr. Robot, it is a bit complex to follow and even at times you feel like throwing it in the garbage and hit someone in the head with Lucille, but the plot is awesome, i recommend it.
Ahhhh and I almost forgot !! Westworld is a must-watch series !!, that is if you want to keep saying that you like series and dystopias ... if not, then don’t see it, I will not force you either.
I will end with a proposal ... I want you to describe a world in which the Steem rises up to $400 and be realistic, something that would be perfectly possible in one or two years ;)
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