After the release of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Leonardo DiCaprio was reportedly offered quite a few films. Obviously. Reports surfaced that he was offered new films from folks such as Paul Thomas Anderson and Alejandro Innaritu. There were also reports that he was offered a potential role in a Guillermo del Toro film. With Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” getting a bit of a delay, DiCaprio decided to skip the other offers and sign on to film “Don’t Look Up” with director Adam McKay.
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But what if he did end up with Guillermo del Toro in what is now called “Nightmare Alley?” That would have been a completely different film, right? With DiCaprio taking the Bradley Cooper lead role. And according to a new report from Deadline’s Justin Kroll, that’s not the only “Nightmare Alley” what-if question that is interesting to ponder.
In a tweet, Kroll said, “You wanna hear a real fun sliding door, not only was Leo up for the Cooper role but JLaw originally had Blanchet’s role, which means had they done that, DONT LOOK UP either looks different or doesn’t happen at all.”
That’s right, Jennifer Lawrence was reportedly up for the role that Cate Blanchett absolutely kills in “Nightmare Alley.” So, in some sort of Earth-2 multiverse reality, we could have been all preparing to watch DiCaprio and Lawrence in “Nightmare Alley” and Adam McKay would have maybe gone back to the drawing board with another project.
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Obviously, we get what we get and “Nightmare Alley” is a flawed film with Cooper and Blanchett (though, again, Blanchett destroys her role, while Cooper is…fine). And we also get “Don’t Look Up,” which seems like an awards contender even if it does have mixed reviews.
Another what-if question that many people (especially this writer) had after seeing “Nightmare Alley” is about the filming technique of the feature. Why didn’t del Toro film his noir in black and white? Well, thankfully, we don’t have to jump through a Doctor Strange-esque portal into the multiverse to find out. Searchlight Pictures has announced (via Variety) that in January 2022, “Nightmare Alley” is getting a special limited black and white release with a new title, “Nightmare Alley: Vision in Darkness and Light.” So, that’s likely going to attract quite a few film fans.