Picture a youngLeonardo DiCaprioandBrad Pittfalling into a forbidden love as they herd sheep through the Wyoming mountains.
Ang Lee’s critically acclaimedBrokeback Mountain(2005), which famously starred Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Academy Award-nominated performances, could have been a different film altogether,Milkdirector Gus Van Sant recently revealed toIndiewire.
The Oscar-nominated director, best known forGood Will Hunting(1997) andMy Own Private Idaho(1991), said he was pitched the opportunity to direct the gay romance before Lee signed on.
Rob Latour/REX/Shutterstock; Gregory Pace/REX/Shutterstock
“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,” Van Sant recalled. “Nobody wanted to do it.”
“What I could have done, and what I probably should have done, was cast more unknowns, not worried about who were the lead actors,” he added.
Ironically enough, DiCaprio and Pittwill finally appear togetheronscreen in Quentin Tarantino’s controversial movie about the Manson murders, titledOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood.
“I don’t think it would have panned out the way it did if I had directed it. I think it was great,” he said.
Van Sant’s latest movie,Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, is now playing in select theaters.
source: people.com
