We have been bringing you a list of top ten movie roles that were recast and today we give you number eight on our list. So far we have had Michael J. Fox replacing Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly in Back to the Future, as well as Hugh Jackman replacing Dougray Scott as Wolverine for the X-Men movies.
Life of Pi poster
Last year saw the release of the critically acclaimed movie Life of Pi, which became a huge hit and grossed over $600m worldwide. While the star of the movie was clearly Suraj Sharma, Life of Pi also saw a good turn from British actor Rafe Spall but he almost wasn't in the movie.
Director Ang Lee originally cast Tobey Maguire in the role of the writer in Life of Pi and Tobey even filmed all the scenes for the movie. Unfortunately though, Ang Lee felt that Tobey Maguire's star presence took something away from the film, so decided that a lesser known actor would be more suited.
Rafe Spall in Life of Pi
Ang Lee said of the recasting, "I love Tobey. But it's a small part, so when it's a movie star sitting there, it captures attention. It didn't really work out." Rafe Spall was then brought on board and all the scenes were reshot with Rafe, before the release of Life of Pi.
Life of Pi trailer
