River Phoenix - Unrealized Film Projects

Unrealized Film Projects

Phoenix's sudden death prevented him from playing various roles for which he had already been cast:

• Phoenix was due to begin work on Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) two weeks after his death. He was to play Daniel Malloy, the interviewer, which then went to Christian Slater, who donated his entire $250,000 salary to two of Phoenix's favorite charitable organizations: Earth Save and Earth Trust. The film has a dedication to Phoenix after the end credits.
• London's The Guardian suggested in 2003, without explanation, "It was likely that Phoenix would have followed by appearing as Susan Sarandon's son in Safe Passage" (1994), a role that went to Sean Astin.
• Phoenix had signed onto the lead role in Broken Dreams, a screenplay written by John Boorman and Neil Jordan (to be directed by Boorman). The film was put on hold due to Phoenix's death. In June of 2012, it was announced that Caleb Landry Jones had been cast in the role.
• Gus Van Sant had gotten Phoenix to agree to play the role of Cleve Jones in Milk when he was originally planning on making the movie in the early 1990s. The role was eventually played by Emile Hirsch in 2008. When asked in Interview magazine, "You were going to do a movie with River about Andy Warhol, right?" Van Sant said, "Yeah. River kind of looked like Andy in his younger days. But that project never really went forward."
• In 1988, Phoenix was reported by a magazine to have been carrying around a copy of the 1978 memoir The Basketball Diaries. He had heard a movie version was in the works and wanted to play the role of Jim Carroll. The film was sent into hiatus on numerous occasions, with each occasion Phoenix being cited as the main contender for the role. The Basketball Diaries eventually went into pre-production in 1994 with the role going to Leonardo DiCaprio.
• He had expressed interest in playing the 19th century poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse (1995) by Polish director Agnieszka Holland. Phoenix died before the movie was in the casting stages, with the role eventually going to Leonardo DiCaprio.