Back To the Future: With Eric Stolz

sunama said:
He was also VERY good in The Mask (as pointed out, not the J.Carey movie, but a drama about a boy with severe disfigurement).
If you haven't seen The Mask, I urge you to watch it. It will get you hooked in the first 15 minutes.
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This. He deserved an Oscar for playing that role & so did Cher for playing his mum. One of the few films that brought a lump to my throat (at the time, but I was only 19 then)

When BTTF was 1st released in the Cinema in December 1985 (I was working in one at the time) all the media let it be known that MJF was the replacement for Stoltz.

Personally I don't think BTTF would've done the amount of box office it did if Stoltz did go on to complete the film, I agree with what Robert Zemeckis & Stephen Spielberg said about him being too serious for the role. Also there would've been less teenage girls turning up for repeat viewings too IIRC. :p

Did a bit of digging & found out that Fox is in fact older than Stoltz (by about 4 months) I always thought it was the other way round. :rolleyes:
 
Washout said:
Might be spealt Stoltz. Won't really help with recognising him but he played the main role in the film Mask (not the Jim Carey one ;) ).
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I remember watching that film in my early teens and enjoying it (which was stange seeing the subject and I'd normally be watching something with guns and explosions).

Hadn't realised that it was Stoltz as the main character in that film but now it's obvious. :eek:
 
Same here. I saw The Mask on BBC2, I think it was, as a teenager (I was about 13 I think). On paper, I would never watch this movie.
It was one of those movies which come on the telly. You have never heard of. You start watching it in the background. Then 15 minutes later, you find yourself hooked and concentrating fully on the movie. At the end of the movie, I didnt even know the name of the movie I had just watched. I had to look it up.
 
sunama said:
I think we all know and love how Michael J Fox brought Marty McFly's character to life in the Back To The Future movies. However, did you know that originally, it was Eric Stolz who was originally cast for that role?
I didnt.

I just stumbled across this short video and thought that some of you might want to take a look at some of the film footage, where Stoltz plays Marty McFly.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/video/back-future-eric-stoltz-as-original-marty-mcfly-3020

EDIT: correct surname spelling: Stoltz
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Michael J Fox was the original request but was unable to extract himself from his commitments to Family Ties......so they cast Eric Stoltz instead, realised that he was a load of pants and then tried to get Fox again instead or bin the project. Michael J Fox ended up doing both as Zemeckis was able to negotiate a schedule that allowed Fox to film both Family Ties and BTTF......Fox was allegedly working 7 days a week and 18 hours a day......

Dedication or what.

Eric Stoltz was the lead in one of my favourite movies when I was a young un.....Some Kind of Wonderful, with coincidently Lea Thompson of BTTF.....
 
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sunama said:
I never realised that it was that close to being canned.
Obviously, they really wanted to MJF badly - literally, at all costs.
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I only know all that because I was watch a Michael J Fox biography last week on the BIO channel where they were speaking to the producers of Family Ties and BTTF.

Fox was only just cast in Family Ties because a casting director wouldn't let it go.....the Family Ties writers, producers and the channel execs thought he was rubbish in his auditions......they said he had no charisma and his face wouldn't be on young girls walls or lunch boxes.......anyway they eventually conceded and let him have a another audition and he aced it......and so much for Michael J Fox not being heart throb material....
 
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robgmun said:
It was a bit stronger then that, basically he was complete rubbish! :D
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Source?

The only explanation was that they cast someone who was clearly too young.

Viggo Mortenson's first scene was the attack at Weathertop and he had almost no sword training and very little preparation / choreography for the scene :)
 
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