Bill Murray’s Role Was Originally Written For Patrick Swayze
One of the most memorable sequences in the 2009 movie Zombieland was a scene when the four survivors meeting a still-living Bill Murray.
However, according to Zombieland co-writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, Murray’s role in the film was originally written for the late Patrick Swayze before his untimely death in 2009 following a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Wernick tweeted –
Since we’re all currently living in #zombieland, @rhettreese & I thought it’d be fun to take you behind the curtain, back to the early days. The role Bill Murray played started in the original draft as Patrick Swayze. Patrick tragically got sick and we never had the opp (1)
— Paul Wernick (@paulwernick) March 19, 2020
In addition to Swayze and Murray, there were a few variations of the sequence written that included Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Mark Hamill, Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Joe Pesci, and Matthew McConaughey –
to offer him the part. But we did WRITE IT. Along with a dozen or so, including for @therock @kevinbacon @HamillHimself @theslystallone, JCVD, Pesci, McConaughey among others. @rhettreese and I are going to post a new scene every day, as written, just, well, just because… (2)
— Paul Wernick (@paulwernick) March 19, 2020
Stallone, couldn’t participate due to his schedule, and Hamill just flat-out declined, however, you can read the script pages for both of these scenes, Rhett Reese posted the pages for the proposed cameos on Twitter –
Wernick posted the pages for Hamill’s cameo –
Mark Hamill’s people gave a firm “no” on this cameo.
Apparently, there are still plenty more alternate versions of the Zombieland cameos to come from Reese and Wernick, watch this space. We’ll leave you with the Murray cameo that they finally went with –
