Recasting THE APARTMENT

Happy Birthday to the successful and exuberant Hollywood producer, Joel Silver.  I've interviewed him a couple of times during movie junkets promoting films he'd produced.  One time during either the junket for his CONSPIRACY THEORY or LETHAL WEAPON 4, I made a note to ask him about director, writer and producer Billy Wilder.  In addition to the two films I just mentioned, Joel Silver also gave us DIE HARD, the previous three LETHAL WEAPON movies, 48 HOURS, PREDATOR and THE MATRIX.

So why did I want to ask him about Billy Wilder?  Here's why:  In some of my research, I read that one of Joel Silver's favorite films is Billy Wilder's Oscar-winning classic, THE APARTMENT, starring Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon.

It's one of my all-time favorites too. 

I asked the Hollywood action movie producer a question about casting.  If the shooting script for Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT landed on his desk, word for word as we know it today, and he had to cast current stars in the roles played by Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, who would he cast?

Joel Silver answered, "Julia Roberts...and Tom Cruise."

I felt my facial muscles and limbs kind of go numb for a moment.  I needed someone to screw a good, stiff cocktail into my hand -- like in the movie AUNTIE MAME.

But that was just my personal reaction back in the 1990s.  You might think Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts would've made mighty fine casting as the leads in Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT.

Anyway....Happy Birthday, Joel Silver.