What if Kim Basinger played Sandra Bullock's character?
http://lebeauleblog.com/2014/12/08/what-might-have-been-kim-basinger/14/
Speed (1994)share
Basinger turned down the female lead role.
Fallout: All the usual suspects passed on Speed which is understandable. It was basically Die Hard on a bus which is a ridiculous concept. Director Jan de Bont was untested. And Keanu Reeves was still best known for Bill and Ted. (Point Break wasn’t all that big of a movie at the time. It developed a cult following on video.) On paper, Speed was pretty easy to pass up.
Of course Speed turned out to be a huge surprise hit and made a star out of Sandra Bullock. Meanwhile, Basinger was starring opposite her real-life husband in the disappointing remake of The Getaway. Speed was such a success that Bullock returned for the flop, Speed 2.
So this just screams “missed opportunity”. And that’s how I’m going to classify it. But you have to acknowledge that Speed starring Kim Basinger would have been a completely different movie than Speed with Sandra Bullock. You can bet that Basinger’s role would have been beefed up since she was arguably a bigger box office draw at the time than Reeves.
Verdict: Missed opportunity