"The Bonfire of the Vanities"
(1990) Well, I remember the controversy that raged when Tom Hanks -- then a pre-Oscar-winning, second-tier movie
star best known for "Splash" -- snagged the role of smug, duplicitous New York
patrician Sherman McCoy, a role that seemed to belong to
... moresomeone like William Hurt. And that was just the first of many baffling
choices that went into Brian De Palma's famously bungled adaptation of Tom Wolfe's
definitive '80s novel. The British hack journalist became Bruce Willis. The angry, racist, black judge became Morgan Freeman. Only Melanie Griffith fit the bill as the debutante
floozy -- too bad about her accent. Every choice designed to make the book, a
story of greed and human ugliness, more palatable to wide audiences was simply
wrong; and the most surefire hit in decades, with every available marketing
nickel at its disposal, was a born dead disaster. (Warner Bros. / Courtesy
Everett Collection)Close
Hotmail
