According to The Scotsmen, Sean Connery lost out on $225million by turning down the role of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The news comes from Peter Jackson’s new biography where he claims Connery was offered somewhere between 10 and 25 per cent of the final box office takings (trilogy earned a combined total of $1.5 billion) as New Line were desperate to cast a worldwide star in their movie which contained mostly unfamilar faces (Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood and Viggo Mortensen weren’t so well known at time of casting). The deal would have eclipsed the current biggest sum a star has ever recieved, that of Jack Nicholson who recieved $23 million under a similar deal for Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989.
Why did Connery turn down the role? Well last year he told the press….
“Yeah, well, I never understood it. I read the book, I read the script, I saw the movie. I still don’t understand it. I would be interested in doing something that I don’t fully understand, but not for eighteen months.”
Let’s just be thankful he didn’t take the role as Ian McKellan gave us a performance of a lifetime as Gandalf. Connery’s prescence would have been too much in my opinion, it’s difficult in the last twenty years to watch a movie that he has appeared in and see the character he is portraying rather than seeing just Sean Connery.
What do you think guys, would Connery have made a good Gandalf?
source – the scotsmen, filmstalker
2 Comments
No, I don’t think he would have mad a good Gandalf. Especially if, as he claims, he doesn’t understand the material. Ian obviously “got” the material.
However, I disagree with you about all of Connery’s roles. What about Sam Malone from “The Untouchables?” Brilliant work there … I completely buy that performance.
Sean Connery!!…….Hell no im glad he chose not to do it, Ian was this role through and through……talk about dodging a bullet.