Things don’t always go as planned in Hollywood and while most times you decide after watching a movie that the cast just wasn’t right, this time around the casting foul was recognized on the first day of filming. The Coen brothers, who brought you such great films as The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, and O’ Brother Where Art Thou?, were working on their latest project, No Country For Old Men, which followed two aging men being pursued by a cold blooded murderer across the western terrain. So imagine their surprise when instead of a 70yr old Vietnam veteran character played by James Brolin in walked 39 year old Josh Brolin, the former’s son.

No Country for Old Men had Tommy Lee Jones in place — no mistake there — as a crusty west-Texas sheriff on the trail of a bad man to be played by four-time-Goya-winning Spanish sex symbol Javier Bardem. And to round out the cast we hired — we thought — rugged everyman Jim Brolin as Llewelyn Moss, the aging Vietnam vet caught in the middle.

Well, there were some red faces on the set the first day of shooting when Jim Brolin’s son Josh showed up to play the part. Crossed wires, misunderstanding — who knows what kind of snafu — had resulted in our casting office offering the part to an actor who was patently thirty years too young. Talk about a boo-boo. In retrospect, this explained William Morris agent Michael Cooper’s surprise on hearing we wanted his client for the coveted role. Too late now, though — the contracts were all signed.

So what did they try to do? Dump Tommy Lee Jones, get Shia LeBeouf as a younger replacement and drastically change the characters. Thankfully, oh thankfully LeBeouf turned down the offer and the Coens had to make another shuffle. Finally they decided to just change the time setting of the movie back to the 80’s, allowing Brolin to keep his veteran status. All of this finally makes sense as the “Old Men” in the movie’s title was kinda strange considering there was only one old man in the main cast. Had there been two old men being pursued by a younger, dangerous killer then the whole “No Country For Old Men” would have worked a lot better. But boy, this story has just gotta give Josh Brolin the warm fuzzies! Either way, I’m very, very anxious to see this movie.

Source: Esquire

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