It’s difficult to imagine anyone except for Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger playing the lead roles in Brokeback Mountain, but it might have been very different. Before Ang Lee took over, Gus Van Sant was developing the film. However, he’s recently told Indiewire that one of the reasons he didn’t make the movie was how difficult it was to find someone to star.
He says “Nobody wanted to do it. I was working on it, and I felt like we needed a really strong cast, like a famous cast. That wasn’t working out. I asked the usual suspects: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Ryan Phillippe. They all said no.”
It could have been a very different film with them, but before we cry ‘homophobia’ for their decision not to make the movie, Van Sant adds that he was angling to make a movie very different to what others involved were hoping for. He comments, “The original story, which was in The New Yorker, was so beautiful and simple, and Larry [McMurtry, screenwriter] had turned it into something that resembled ‘The Last Picture Show’. Which was really good if you were thinking along certain lines … I was thinking more like ‘Gerry,’ ‘Elephant,’ ‘Last Days.’ I kind of wanted to go back to the simplest view of the short story, which I couldn’t do … I didn’t really want to go and talk Larry and Diana [Ossana, producer] out of what they had created, because it was great.”
Ossana confirmed to Indiewire that those actors were approached, but was very diplomatic about why they might have turned it down, just saying, “Yes, all those young gentlemen (at the time) turned down the project, for various reasons.”
It’s also known that Mark Wahlberg was approached and turned the movie down. At the time Gyllenhaal and Ledger were up and comers, although it was still almost unheard of for a mainstream American film to cast two well-known heterosexual actors to play gay romantic leads in a movie. Indeed, it hasn’t happened that many times since.
A few weeks ago it was revealed that Leo DiCaprio was reteaming with director Quentin Tarantino for his film that takes place in LA at the time of the Charles Manson murders. Now he’s bagged another big name he’s worked with before, as Brad Pitt has also joined the movie, according to 
Netflix has shown they can take on television at their own game (something most thought was impossible a few years ago), and now they want to show Hollywood they can make really big movies too. This year they’ve got the likes of Bright, starring Will Smith, as well as War Machine, with Brad Pitt. The trailer for the latter has now arrived.
Today Netflix was in Berlin, trying to woo the European market and showing off some of its upcoming wares. After releasing a trailer for Bright, starring Will Smith a couple of days ago, they decided today was a good time for the first teaser for another film they’ve got up their sleeve featuring a-list talent – War Machine, starring Brad Pitt.
Brad Pitt isn’t having a great time at the moment, but he’ll be hoping for some good news soon, if Allied is well-received. At least that would take his mind off things.
After World War Z became a surprise hit (particularly surprising as it had a tortuous production, with much of it needing to be reshot), Paramount was keen to get a sequel made. However that’s proven difficult too, not least because the chosen director, Juan Antonio Bayona, dropped out after being attached to the project for a long time.
Brad Pitt is putting on his producer’s hat again to make a movie adaptation of the recently published sci-fi novel by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, Illuminae, with Warner Bros. backing the movie, according to