One of the most interesting talking points surrounding Fantastic Four: First Steps is John Malkovich’s absence.
He was expected to play ‘Ivan Kragoff/Red Ghost’ in the film, and a simple Google search will show you images of the actor as he would have appeared in First Steps. But the director removed him from the film, which may surprise some Ugandan viewers who don’t understand why anyone would cast an actor as famous as Malkovich only to exorcise them from the final product.
This trend is more common than you think. Hollywood makes casting announcements months and even years before their films debut. Only when you know who was cast in a role ahead of time will you notice that their role has been cut from the final film. But why does this happen?
Keep in mind that Malkovich did his job. In other words, he was still paid for the ‘Red Ghost’ role. What is the point of weathering the expense of hiring an actor only to remove them from the film?
I mentioned in previous articles that a movie is made in the editing phase. The director tries to shoot as much footage as the script demands. Then he enters the editing bay and assembles that footage into a cohesive film. The average director can easily shoot 30 hours of footage over three months.
What do you think happens when he edits that footage into a 90-minute film? Most of what he shot will go on the cutting room floor. Adrien Brody was still fighting to establish himself in Hollywood when Terrence Malick cast him as the lead in 1988’s The Thin Red Line.
The extensive scenes Malick shot with Brody justified initial claims that he would carry the film. Imagine Brody’s shock when he attended the screening and found that Malick had reduced his career-making role to less than five minutes of screen time.
Malick looked at the footage in the editing bay and concluded that Brody’s arc was not nearly as compelling as the script initially suggested. So he pivoted. This is what most directors do.
They prioritize their artistic integrity over the actor’s feelings. Do you remember Michelle Monaghan from Constantine? She primarily appears near the end, when Constantine sets the sprinklers off and all those demons burn. Well, she had a more prominent role as Constantine’s love interest in the original cut, sharing several intimate moments with the protagonist.
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