The Amazon Western, metaphysical sci-fi hybrid, “The Outer Range,” is on Prime Video now; it’s fantastic, and obviously, lead actor Josh Brolin is doing the rounds doing press on the feature (read our review here). His appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast has been the gift that keeps giving. He discussed almost appearing as Batman in Zack Snyder’s “Batman Vs. Superman,” he essentially said “never say never” to Marvel if Thanos would ever come back, talked about his reappreciation for “The Goonies,” and more. But two additional topics are broached, too, turning down the lead in “Jurassic World” and a sizable part in an unnamed Alejandro González Iñárritu film.
“It’s an instinct, man,” Brolin said when talking about how he makes his film choices, giving a slightly rambling answer about why he turned down the Iñárritu film in favor of working with another filmmaker. “There’s only one movie— and I might tell you what it is— and again, even that one movie, I don’t look at like, ‘god, I shoulda done it, that would have changed something, or that would’ve…’ Because I understand why I didn’t do it, this one movie that I’m talking about with Iñárritu.”
“And I think it wasn’t based on the movie,” he said, explaining about his decision to bail on it. “It was based on working with another great director, and I still appreciate [Iñárritu] wanting to be one of the great directors, but that’s all I’ll say.”
Brolin’s trying to be coy and doesn’t elaborate further but does admit the film in question is not “The Revenant.” Either way, a quick google search reveals Brolin is talking about “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” and he was supposed to have the Mike Shiner role that Edward Norton eventually took. Original reports said Brolin left due to “scheduling conflicts,” and if you do the trigonometry of it all (“Birdman” shot in the spring of 2013 in New York), the film in question he likely left for is Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice” which began production in May of 2013. There are other guesses one could have, but given pre-production, costume fittings, etc., I’m pretty positive it’s the PTA film.
As for “Jurassic World,” Brolin seems very comfortable and happy with that decision because he thinks Chris Pratt was perfect for the lead role of that movie.
“And Jurassic World, with all respect to Steven [Spielberg], I could not picture me doing it,” he explained. “I could not picture me being that guy. And I’m very, very happy, based on my decision, of what Chris does with it because I think Chris is the right guy. When I saw Chris in ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy,’ and I was just like, ‘WHAT??’ I mean, we all were. I even said it to him embarrassingly at a party, ‘DUDE!’… So, I think I knew from a big picture standpoint that somebody else would do a much better job than me.”
Well, pretty understandable answers all around. You can’t really picture Josh Brolin as the lead of the “Jurassic World” series, right? It’s an interesting conversation for sure, and Brolin is always refreshingly candid. Listen below to the whole discussion below, and if you haven’t already, definitely make sure you tune into “The Outer Range.”