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.
Sideways and About Schmidt director Alexander Payne has wanted to make Downsizing for a long time. It’s only now he’s managed to, with those who’ve seen it suggesting that this is Payne on a larger scale than we’ve seen before, but still with his idiosyncratic take on things.
The bromance between Matt Damon and George Clooney continues with Suburbicon, which Damon stars in and Clooney directs. To make sure it really is a bit of a love-in, the script comes from Clooney’s O Brother Where Art Thou? and Hail Caesar directors, Joel & Ethan Coen, with contributions from George and his longtime producing partner Grant Heslov.
The bromance between Matt Damon and George Clooney continues with Suburbicon, which Damon stars in and Clooney directs. To make sure it really is a bit of a love-in, the script comes from Clooney’s O Brother Where Art Thou? and Hail Caesar directors, Joel & Ethan Coen, with contirbutions from George and longtime producing partner Grant Heslov.
They’ve pulled together a great cast for Ocean’s Eight, which will reboot the Ocean’s Eleven franchise with a largely female cast. However, 
With China now the second biggest market for movies in the world and Chinese companies investing heavily in film, Hollywood is on the lookout for ways to tap in the Middle Kingdom’s money. There’s also Legendary Pictures – makers of Godzilla and The Dark Knight Movies – which was bought by Chinese investors. That’s helped result in The Great Wall, which star Matt Damon but takes us into Chinese history and one of its most iconic structures.
After leaving the franchise behind, it surprised many when Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass were planning to return to the Bourne franchise. However, that’s exactly what they’ve done and now the first official trailer for the movie had arrived.