Transcript
Aaron Mahnke (0:00)
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Aaron Mahnke (1:17)
Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Frank Sinatra Frank Sinatra was one of the most iconic musical artists of all time. His voice was synonymous with the idea of a crooner or a dreamy singer who sings love songs. You may know that he was also a successful dramatic actor, but what most people don't realize is that he was one role away from becoming an action star. Sinatra's acting career began all the way back in the 1940s, but by 1968, he was looking to challenge himself to see if he could get outside of his wheelhouse. Up to this point, Sinatra tended to play characters that were kind of already in his DNA. He was a singer, so. So he played singers. He had a lot of friends in the mob, so he played mobsters. He played a lot of criminals. But could he play a character on the other side of the law? His new film, the Detective, would give him that chance. The Detective was based on a novel by author Roderick Thorpe. It follows Detective Joe Leland, a tired working class man exposed to heinous crime after heinous crime. He doesn't like to listen to orders from his incompetent superiors, and his marriage is disintegrating as he gets pulled in deeper and deeper by his work. It was the perfect role for Sinatra. It allowed him to showcase his signature grumpy Persona, while in a mature, nuanced package. The film portrayed police work in a much more realistic way than most films and even discussed some at the time taboo subjects like homosexuality and sexual violence. The Detective was a critical and commercial hit. Seeing the wild success of his novel being adapted for film, Thorpe was eager to write a sequel so that it too could be turned into a movie. His second Joe Leland story, nothing Lasts Forever turned the drama up to 11. It took Joe across the country from New York to visit his estranged daughter at her office in downtown la. While there, criminals attack the office and Joe is forced to use his skills as a detective to stop them. He manages to succeed, but not before his daughter is killed. It was a well received sequel and producers were excited to turn it into a film. The only problem was that by the time they were ready to make the movie in 1987, Sinatra was 72 years old. No way could he reprise the role in such an action heavy sequel. And the part that really stung for the producers was that Sinatra's contract from the Detective stipulated that they had to offer him the role for any sequels. So they approached him, hands likely shaking as they gave him the script, secretly hoping that he would turn it down. And Sinatra read the script with his usual grim expression, not giving any indication if he liked it or not. And then once he was finished, he looked back over to the waiting producers and told them that this was probably a little more than he could handle at this point in his life. So he declined the role. I can imagine the producers jumping for joy as soon as Sinatra left their office. And what followed was an intense casting call to find just the right successor to Sinatra. All the great action stars of the time were called up too. Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Gibson, Burt Reynolds. But in the end, all of them turned down the role as well. Ultimately, the producers had to go with a newer, younger actor who was more popular on television than film. They rewrote the script to be a little less dark and a little more funny too. For example, the detective was now trying to save his wife instead of his daughter. And he was successful in the end. Also, the criminals weren't out for revenge, they just wanted money. And finally, the character of Joe Leland had his name changed to reflect that this was not really the same guy from the movie from 20 years before, and I'm happy to say that it worked. When it was released in 1988, the film became an instant hit and is considered today to be one of the greatest action movies of all time. A film that should have starred Frank Sinatra but instead starred Bruce Willis. Die Hard.