Rejecting "Rainman [1989]"

Rain Man is a 1988 Drama by Barry Levinson, it stars Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise as lead actors playing brothers.

Tom Cruise plays Charlie Babbitt 
Dustin Hoffman plays Raymond Babbitt

Rain Man won 4 Oscars, 3 of which were Best Picture, Best Director for Barry Levinson and Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman.

There was many people who were supposed to be a part of this film but it was rejected time and again. Here goes a list of people rejecting a certain part in Rain Man.


Jack Nicholson turned down the role of Raymond Babbitt.

Rober De Niro turned down the role of Raymond Babbitt.

Dustin Hoffman turned down the role of Charlie Babbitt to play Raymond Babbitt.

Dustin Hoffman almost left Rain Man after shooting for a couple of weeks and asked the director Barry Levinson to cast Richard Dreyfuss as Hoffman was unsure of the film's potential and his own performance.

Barry Levinson turned down the offer to direct this film in 1987 and instead he directed Good Morning, Vietnam.

It was Steven Spielberg, who was supposed to direct Rain Man, he made some notes as well in preparation of starting the project,  he later had to withdraw from it as his friend George Lucas needed him to start working on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [1989].

Director Sydney Pollack was the 2nd person to direct Rainman, but he later ditched the film saying he wasn't keen on the idea of a road movie.

Dustin Hoffman originally wanted Bill Murray to play Charlie.

-Amritt Rukhaiyaar

[This post is a part of the A to Z Challenge in April 2014. Let's celebrate blogging.]