Selleck as Indy makes 'Sack the Agent' List

Reality check - Don't blame the agent, blame the network since Selleck was held out of Indiana Jones due to his Magnum PI commitments. From http://www.halcyonmag.com comes an article "Sack the Agent"

A wise man once said that experience is a hard teacher; it tests you first and teaches you the lesson after. With that in mind, let’s hope that the agents to these actors and actresses have been studying hard. It time to reveal the top 10 shoulda, woulda, coulda’s in Hollywood history…

Mel Gibson as Gladiator, John Travolta as Forrest Gump...seems like a bunch of bad ideas in hindsight. So... at #4.

Tom Selleck: Indiana Jones. Tom Selleck was once given a choice: Magnum PI, or Indiana Jones. With both projects providing a scheduling clash, Selleck’s agent nobly said that Tom should honour his initial deal for Magnum PI, thus forgoing the chance to grab his fedora and whip (standard archaeology professor issued) and make one of the most successful franchises of all time. To add insult to injury, Magnum PI was later put on hold for 6 months due to a writer’s strike, meaning that Selleck could have been legging it from giant boulders after all. Still, at least he made An Innocent Man…

http://www.halcyonmag.com/2011/09/04/top-10-%E2%80%9Csack-the-agent%E2%80%9D-casting-blunders/

Who are Steven Spielberg and George Lucas pointing and looking at?

Hey there goes that guy we almost hired to be Indiana Jones....what's his name again?

Tim...right? Tim something

Selleck missing out on Indy role makes list of missed choices

Movie Holes list: 50 Original Casting Choices

With the rehabilitated curiosity – stemming from the footage that was recently released… albeit 25 years later! – in Eric Stoltz’s engagement as Marty McFly in “Back to the Future” pre-Michael J.Fox, and of course the big casting switcheroo on “The Hangover 2” (Mel Gibson swapped for Liam Neeson), thought it might be fun to take a look back at some of the could-have-been’s of the celluloid struggle.
The following list includes roles that some passed on, movies that an actor or actress was forced to pull out of for one reason or another (ultimately having to be replaced), and some, like Stoltz, that were vetoed either just before – or at the start of – a particular film’s shoot.

43. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) – Tom Selleck as ‘Indiana Jones’
It was a done deal. TV star Tom Selleck would play adventure-seeking archaeologist Indiana Jones in a film by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Unfortunately the pilot of a TV series that Selleck had filmed (“Magnum P.I”) was picked up and Selleck was legally obligated to it. So the moustached-hunk was off to Hawaii, and “Raiders” was a hero short. Spielberg suggested that Lucas hire his “Star Wars” star Harrison Ford to play “Raiders”’ superman, but Lucas was dead against using actors he’d used before (always has been). Lucas eventually agreed that Ford was the best man for the job.

Tom Selleck interview: talks Indiana Jones role

from an interview September 30, 2010 with Collider


What did you think Magnum was going to be when it started?

Tom: Thirteen paychecks. We were picked up, and that was the best thing that ever happened. I didn’t know past that. It almost didn’t go because CBS got in a fight with Universal. Universal said, “We’re not shooting it in Hawaii,” and CBS said, “We bought a show for Hawaii.” It was off the schedule after it sold, so it was a bit of a roller-coaster for awhile. Then, I went over there to start it and the Screen Actors Guild went on strike. I was stuck with a rent I couldn’t afford and worked for my landlady for seven bucks and hour, so I didn’t have to give up my security deposit until the show actually started.

Is that when you almost got the Indiana Jones role?

Tom: Yeah, I couldn’t do it. Bob Daly wouldn’t let me do it. I got offered Indiana Jones, after I did the pilot. While it turned out I could’ve done both, CBS said, “No, we’ve got a contract.”

Was that disappointing?

Tom: Yeah.

More disappointing when you saw the box office?

Tom: No. Steven [Spielberg] and George [Lucas] let me read the script. Up until then, I was pretty philosophic because I thought Magnum was probably going to sell and I told them that. They said, “We’re not worried about that. We’ve got cards to play with the network.” I screen-tested without seeing the script, and they let me go into an office when they made me the offer, so that I could read the script. I went, “Oh, my God!” because it was all there. It was on paper. They held out the offer for about a month. Harrison gets sick of this because he’s indelible. He’s Indiana Jones. It’s just an interesting story and I’m proud that I didn’t drive my car into a wall. I lived up to my contract and things didn’t work out so badly.