I continue to be underwhelmed by everything surrounding The Hangover Part II. The full trailer released for it was something of a disaster, looking like the same old jokes crammed into a different setting. Or involving a monkey instead of a baby. But before that I was annoyed by the bevy of cameo appearances that kept getting announced what seemed like every other day. First there was Mel Gibson, but the cast did a spit take on that one so it was rejected. Other names popped up, like Paul Giamatti, Bill Clinton, and yeah even Charlie Sheen at one point. It just got tiresome. Gibson's departure led to Liam Neeson taking his place in the brief role, which would've been that of a tattoo artist. I'm guessing as the guy who puts the tat on Stu's face. Now Neeson is out, too, but at least it's not because the cast hates him.
Variety reports that that the reason for the switch is two fold. Neeson shot the cameo awhile back, but director Todd Phillips recognized a need to do some reshoots on it to make it fit tighter with the story. Unfortunately, Neeson is off making Clash of the Titans 2, so he's unavailable. So Phillips called up his buddy, Nick Cassavetes, to take his place.
Phillps: “We were in a complete time crunch so I called up Nick and asked if he would do the part,” “He came in and crushed it and that is the scene that you will ultimately see in the film.”
So while the scene may still end up being a good one, Cassavetes isn't going to pack the recognition punch that Neeson would have. Cassavetes, the son of actress Gena Rowlands and legendary filmmaker John Cassavetes, has acted on screen many times before but never in anything memorable. His last credited acting gig was 1999's The Astronaut's Wife
. Cassavetes has since turned his attention to directing where he has excelled. His last film was 2009's My Sister's Keeper
, but he's also been behind the camera for John Q
, The Notebook
, Alpha Dog
, and others.
