George Clooney almost starred in the movie that sent Michael Keaton into Hollywood exile
Trying to narrow down a list of the worst Christmas movies ever made is not an easy task, to say the least, akin to working out the stupidest thing Donald Trump has ever said, or which is the best Mcflurry, or something equally frivolous like which one of your kids you like best.
If you’ve ever had the misfortune to sit through 1998’s Jack Frost starring Michael Keaton, then you won’t need us to remind you of the plot, but just in case you haven’t read about a movie with an absolutely insane plot yet today, try this on for size. A dad, who is a musician, is killed by a car one day, but then comes back to life as a snowman using a magical harmonica…good lord.
That’s the delight that awaits you should you suddenly take leave of your senses between now and New Year’s and decide Jack Frost would be a fun, festive film, then possibly, the most interesting thing about it is that its ‘star’, Michael Keaton, was never actually supposed to be in it, as a snowman or otherwise.
That dubious honour would have instead fallen to George Clooney, who around that time was very much the man of the moment and enjoying all kinds of huge roles from Batman to romantic comedies with Michelle Pfeiffer, like One Fine Day. He had agreed to do the Christmas movie that was originally to be directed by Sam Raimi, but once he dropped out, so did Clooney, leaving the production in a bit of a state.
The general manager of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, who were making the props for the film, recalled, “We sort of had to play catch-up. Once it became Michael Keaton, we didn’t change the head completely. We did some signature things to the chin and to the lips because Michael Keaton has this little mouth and talks out of the front of his mouth. You can only do as much to reflect the performer.”
Which isn’t exactly what we’d call a glowing recommendation, and, in the end, the film lost something like $50million at the box office, not really helped by distributors making the inexplicable decision to release the movie in February, a month where one Christmas is a distant memory and the next seems like forever away. Keaton, for his part, also seemed like he was particularly underwhelmed by his involvement in an end-of-year holiday extravaganza, saying: “I hadn’t done one before and I thought it would be nice to do one that would become a perennial”.
Well, it is perennially bad, so that’s job done in some respect. Keaton also seemed perplexed by the release dates too, noting, “I have no idea why I’m here. I don’t know why they’re putting out the film in February. I just got off the plane. It doesn’t make any sense to me”.
Matters also aren’t helped by the main Jack Frost character coming across as incredibly creepy, more like something out of a horror film than a cute festive movie for kids clutching their freshly opened stuffed animals, and that may well be why the trailer works so beautifully when recut as an alarming scare fest, as you can see below.
