by Stephen Vagg
In honour of the upcoming Blu-ray release of the 1975 classic, Scobie Malone, starring Jack Thompson at his most Jack Thompson-y, here is a top ten of lost film roles of the Aussie icon.
Shut your eyes and imagine an alternative timeframe where Our Jack is in the following movies.
Frank Maguire in Newsfront (1978)
By the mid 1970s, Jack Thompson had established himself as the number one movie star in Australia via Petersen (1974), Sunday Too Far Away (1975) and Caddie (1976). Bob Ellis wrote the script for Newsfront, about brothers who work for rival newsreel companies, “with the idea that they would be played by Bill Hunter and Jack Thompson, who roughly resembled one another in complexion, blondness, huskiness, and even in voice. It was a tragedy we lost Jack Thompson because two blond beasts of great charm would have been better than pairing Bill Hunter with the saturnine and curious-looking Gerard Kennedy, who was inexplicably a star at the time.”
As a rule, all Ellis’ claims need to be run through a truth filter, but Phil Noyce confirms that they offered the part to Thompson, who turned it down, presumably annoyed that he would be playing second lead to the relatively unknown Bill Hunter. Thompson wasn’t against playing second leads around this time, but only in support of a Hollywood star (Mad Dog Morgan, Because He’s My Friend, The Earthling) or an Aboriginal actor (The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith). And to be fair, no one knew how well Newsfront would turn out. Still, it’s a shame that he didn’t do this one as he and Bill Hunter would’ve been terrific as brothers, and Thompson had more glamour than Kennedy.
The Siege of Sydney (never made)
In the late 1970s, Brian Trenchard-Smith was going to do a Siege of Pinchgut style tale about rogue CIA agents taking over Fort Denison and threatening harbourfront Sydney with destruction. According to Trenchard-Smith’s memoir, Michael Cove wrote a script, Cleavon Little was going to star as the main baddy, with Jack Thompson as the hero, “a younger, sexier Neville Wran” (then NSW premier – who incidentally once had aspirations to act before an operation damaged his throat). The film fell over after investors became spooked about terrorist movies following the flop of Black Sunday (1977). Boo! Siege of Sydney remains one of our all-time greatest-unmade-films. Someone should still make a film about taking over Fort Denison and threatening to blow up the most expensive real estate in the world – only who would be the villains?
Mike Preston’s entire movie career
This is facetious but also not. Preston was a blonde, muscular English singer, variety show host, and actor, who lived in Australia from the 1960s to the 1980s. He also had a brief movie career here, in which every part that he played felt as though it was originally intended for Jack Thompson – Last of the Knucklemen (1979), Maybe This Time (1980), Mad Max 2 (1981), Duet for Four (1982). Now, that generalisation is possibly unfair, but also may not be – Bob Ellis definitely wrote Preston’s role in Maybe This Time for Thompson, and we are pretty sure Duet for Four, from the writer-director team of Petersen (David Williamson and Tim Burstall), was originally meant for Thompson. To be fair on Preston, every Burstall feature after Petersen feels as though it included a part originally intended for Jack Thompson eg George Mallaby in End Play, John Castle in Eliza Fraser, Grigor Taylor in High Rollin, Gerard Kennedy or Preston in Knucklemen, Mel Gibson in Attack Force Z (yes, we know Burstall took over this film during filming, it still feels Thompson-y), John Stanton in The Naked Country. Incidentally, Preston parlayed his Mad Max 2 success into an entirely decent American TV career in the 1980s.
Flash Gordon in Flash Gordon (1980)
No bull. At one stage Nic Roeg was going to direct this film for Dino de Laurentiis, who wanted an unknown in the lead – this was after Christopher Reeve’s great success in Superman (1978). Thompson, not very well known internationally, would have seemed ideal, with his blonde hair, talent and physicality. He was flown to London to audition but the role ended up going to Sam Jones (under new director Mike Hodges). Thompson’s persona was maybe too inherently knowing for the wide-eyed innocent version of Flash that they wanted – still, we bet when de Laurentiis and Jones clashed, resulting in the producer arranging for the American actor’s voice to be dubbed, there were times De Laurentiis wished he’d gone with Our Jack.
Welcome Stranger (never made)
This was a drama about a soldier coming back to Australia at the end of World War Two. It was frequently announced through the late 1970s and early 1980s, to be directed by Thompson’s brother Peter, with Thompson to star and produce. For whatever reason, they could never get the finance together – yet somehow, producers found the money for The Journalist (1979). Life is strange.
Lt Hancock in Breaker Morant (1980)
Thompson was originally offered the role of Morant’s fellow prisoner-shooter, Lt Hancock, but turned it down; Bruce Beresford rewrote the script, and Thompson accepted; then filming was delayed; John Hargreaves, who was to play the defence lawyer, had to drop out; Thompson stepped into that role and Brown took over as Hancock. It worked out happily for everyone involved – well, except for maybe John Hargreaves – as Thompson won an acting award at Cannes and, like Brown, used the film to kick off his American career. Interestingly though, Brown’s career soon outstripped Thompson’s via the double whammy of A Town Like Alice (1981) and The Thorn Birds (1983), and Jack never caught up. Thompson certainly had his successes from the 1980s onwards such as The Last Frontier (1986), but he never enjoyed something on the scale of Brown’s biggies like FX (1986), Cocktail (1987) and The Shiralee (1987). Instead, he found himself starring in commercially disappointing efforts like Flesh and Blood (1985), and Burke and Wills (1985) or as a love interest for American female stars (The Letter, Last Frontier, Shadow on the Sun, Trouble in Paradise) before eating his way out of leading man parts into a career as a character actor. That isn’t to say Thompson didn’t do some great work or had a wonderful career (a shout out especially to Bad Blood, Riddle of the Stinson and The Sum of Us), he just never became the big popular star it seemed he was going to be around 1975.
The kidnapper in Fortress (1985)
In the early 1980s, an adaptation of Gabrielle Lord’s novel (based on a true-life kidnapping case) was going to be the second feature from R and R Productions, the production company of Rupert Murdoch and Robert Stigwood, which had made Gallipoli (1981). Bruce Beresford was going to direct, with Thompson to play the kidnapper. But there was dissatisfaction with the script, Beresford and R and R pulled out, and the film was ultimately made by Crawfords. The result wasn’t bad, just not what it could have been.
The Holiday (never made)
In 1980, Thompson was attached to this “tribute to Jacques Tati” about a simple man who causes chaos at an Australian island holiday resort. Budgeted at $2 million it was written by Chris Bearde (an Australian who had huge success writing and producing for TV in America), Bob Hudson, Ted Robinson and John Clarke, and produced by Pat Condon. The AFC gave them $60 grand to develop it to first draft and to fly to Hollywood for scriptwriting sessions – this was $60 grand, back in 1980! This is why Australian filmmakers today hate boomers. The film was never made.
MacReady in The Thing (1982)
Kurt Russell is so closely associated with the lead role of the John Carpenter classic that it’s weird to consider that he was not flat-out offered the part of MacReady to start off with, especially as he’d already collaborated a number of times with the director (Elvis, Escape from New York). Yet, studio execs had been so impressed with Breaker Morant that they seriously considered Jack Thompson for the role, flying him in to audition with Carpenter. (A producer’s account is here – Tom Atkins was also a front runner). And, actually, it’s not hard to envision Jack in that part, even if we think Thompson always loses something as an actor when he drops his Australian accent. Carpenter eventually went with Russell, and Thompson launched his American career with a slew of then-prestige television instead (The Letter, A Woman Called Golda).
Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List (1994)
Steven Spielberg wanted a relative unknown to play the lead and for a long time Jack Thompson was a front runner, in part because he looked like the real guy. By this stage, Thompson’s weight had turned him into a character actor rather than a leading man (don’t get angry at us for writing that, blame society), but Schindler’s List could have brought him back. However, he lost out at the last minute to Liam Neeson. It’s the only role Thompson says he regrets not getting. It’s hard to see how Neeson’s performance could have been bettered – but we would love to see Thompson starring as an angry middle aged man getting vengeance in some Neeson-esque middle of the road 2000s action picture!
