“They went to Arnold [Schwarzenegger]. They went to Sly [Stallone], who turned it down. They went to Richard Gere—turned it down. They went to James Caan—turned it down,” the writer recalled of casting his movie. The director remembers it similarly: “When I first started working on it, they were talking about Richard Gere. The part was very buttoned-down. He’s wearing a sport jacket, and he’s very suave and sophisticated and all that stuff.”
Despite the many rejections, the movie found its leading actor (who, ironically, was not featured on the movie’s original poster). And while it was originally intended as a sequel to the 1985 film “Commando,” the movie’s concept actually dates back to the 1960s. It’s based off of a book that, at the time, Clint Eastwood owned the rights to.
The flick went on to become a box office success, and equal billing in the film could have been given to the film’s firearms. Click here to learn more about the cast from this cinematic classic and the guns they carried. You’ll find more Hollywood guns at the NRA National Firearms Museum, located in Fairfax, Virginia.
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