It’s always fun to think about how a famous role would have been handled if another superstar actor had landed it instead.
And it turns out there are a lot of roles Bill Murray had in his grasp.
In the new book “The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray,” author Robert Schnakenberg looks back on the legend’s career in glowing, but brief, snippets, including those projects he turned down. In some cases, he "passed" on roles because he just didn’t feel like checking his voicemail at the time. (Murray no longer has an agent or manager and gets all of his offers via a 1-800 number he’s set up.)
Here are some of the roles that have come Murray’s way over the years.
SEE ALSO: 23 actors who turned down huge movie roles
“Airplane!”
The directors of the iconic 1980s comedy, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, reached out to Murray to play the lead role, Ted Striker. According to the book, Murray turned it down. (The filmmakers also went to David Letterman.) Murray later said that “Airplane!” was an example of a project he passed on but knew would be a hit.
“Bad Santa”
Murray was director Terry Zwigoff’s first choice to play despicable strip-mall Santa/safe cracker, Willie. Zwigoff said that he even got a verbal agreement from Murray. But when it was time to sign a contract the actor was MIA.
“I was told by one of the producers that he really wanted to do it,” Zwigoff said. “I left several messages on his answering machine, but after a few weeks of hearing nothing we eventually moved on.”
The role went to Billy Bob Thornton.
“Batman”
It's hard to believe, but according to the book, Murray was briefly considered by Tim Burton to play the Dark Knight in his 1989 movie. Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, and Pierce Brosnan were also in contention. The role eventually went to Michael Keaton.
Could you even imagine Murray as Batman?
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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