Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg have worked on five feature films together, and they’ll team up again this October for the Cold War-era thriller, Bridge of Spies. The partnership has yielded some of Hanks’ biggest successes, such as Catch Me if You Can and Saving Private Ryan.
Nearly any project Tom Hanks decides to take on, though, is guaranteed a certain amount of box office buzz because the guy is just so damn likable. Even with all of the blockbuster roles under his belt — 17 of his movies have grossed more than $100 million — there have been a number of big parts that, for better or worse, Hanks passed on.
Rather than celebrate Tom Hanks’ birthday by looking back at the many, many fine movies he’s done, let’s look at some of the ones he didn’t do.
Field of Dreams (1989)
Kevin Costner was on a bit of a baseball hot streak in the late ’80s, so following up Bull Durham was pretty much a no-brainer. Wait a minute, though: Hanks can hold his own in a baseball flick, as evidenced by 1992’s A League of Their Own. So, why wasn’t it Hanks who was wondering around that cornfield? Well, that’s not exactly known. He was originally cast in the part, then decided for whatever reason that he’d rather not play ball. Maybe he didn’t feel like spending several months in Iowa?
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Hanks could have kick-started his rom-com run with Meg Ryan and Nora Ephron a few years earlier if he’d taken the male lead in this ’80s blockbuster. Director Rob Reiner said that he spoke with Hanks during the casting process about the character, but decided that his best buddy Billy Crystal was the right man to witness Meg Ryan’s delicatessen performance. “They had instant chemistry, and I thought, ‘Okay, this is great.'”
Hook (1991)
When Steven Spielberg began looking at actors for his grownup take on Peter Pan, Tom Hanks immediately went to the top of his list. Hanks was beginning to transition out of comedic film roles at this point and move into more dramatic territory, and opted out of the swashbuckling action. Looking back on it now, though, the late Robin Williams really was the ideal choice to lead the lost boys to victory.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Tim Robbins has the bragging rights to claim that he has the highest-rated movie on IMDb, but it could have been Hanks boasting that honor. A number of big name actors were offered the part, including Kevin Costner, Brad Pitt, and Hanks. Pitt declined because he was busy with Interview with the Vampire, Costner was busy riding jet skis in Waterworld, and Hanks was rambling on about life and chocolate in Forrest Gump at the time. Hanks of course would later work on the film adaptation of author Stephen King’s other prison drama, The Green Mile.
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Both Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks were at the peak of their careers in the mid-’90s, with Hanks still riding the success of Forrest Gump and Apollo 13. So, when director Cameron Crowe began looking at actors for his soon-to-be Oscar-winning film, Hanks’ name immediately floated to the top of the list. Hanks was busy with his passion project, That Thing You Do! at the time and said he feels that Crowe made the right choice with the other Tom.
“I think you look at it now, and it couldn’t have been anybody other than Tom Cruise… It’s the way the movie’s operated. I don’t think anybody would look at that now and say, ‘That movie was not perfect.’”
Batman Forever (1995)
Not all of the movies Tom Hanks missed out on were losses. For instance, he dodged a real bullet by avoiding a possible casting as the Caped Crusader in 1995. Donning this nippled-batsuit would have surely taken the wind out of his sails that he’d built up with Forrest Gump and Apollo 13. Producers batted around other names such as Kurt Russell, Ethan Hawke, and Alec Baldwin, as well, before tricking poor Val Kilmer into taking on the role. At least it wasn’t Batman and Robin, I guess.
