![]() Wanting to appeal to Generation X, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger had an idea for a movie that would be part Rolling Stones concert film and part buddy comedy. Untitled Rolling Stones Project (unproduced, in development 1994) Let’s take a look back at the various parts Ben Stiller has been considered for, turned down, and dropped out of over the years, as well as some of the projects that have fallen apart altogether, including the Rolling Stones concert film/comedy movie hybrid he wrote with Judd Apatow, two projects from Patton Oswalt, and the movie Hollywood is afraid to make.ġ. ![]() Along the way, Stiller has been good about helping talented newcomers into the industry, giving early jobs to a long list of comedians and writers who pretty much dominate the industry now, including Judd Apatow, David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, Dino Stamatopoulos, Andy Dick, Owen Wilson, Jack Black, Rob Schrab, Dan Harmon, Judah Friedlander, and Danny McBride. With a string of diverse hits that includes Meet the Parents, The Royal Tenenbaums, Tropic Thunder, and opening tomorrow, Tower Heist, as well as his own major production company, Red Hour, Stiller has established himself as one of the leading comedic voices of his generation. Stiller achieved movie star status in 1998 with There’s Something About Mary and has been on top ever since. Ben Stiller was one of the first Gen X’ers to break through, with his widely-influential but short-lived sketch show The Ben Stiller Show paving the way for a lot of great comedy that followed and giving a first job to many key players in the alt-comedy boom of the 1990’s. Death took John Belushi and Andy Kaufman from us, while ex- SNL’ers like Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, and Chevy Chase, who created a lot of great comedy in the 70’s and early 80’s, saw their output growing shoddy. ![]() Show, The Simpsons, and The Onion were right around the corner, but things were looking pretty dismal at the time. The Larry Sanders Show, Conan, Seinfeld, Bill Hicks, The State, Mr. Besides Letterman and SNL’s Hartman-Carvey resurgence, there wasn’t a whole lot happening. The late 80’s were a stagnant era in comedy. Lost Roles is a weekly column exploring what might have been in TV and film comedy, taking a different comedian, writer, or work each week and examining the casting possibilities and career moves that almost came to be.
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