Of all the what-if stories in the history of Hollywood movie casting, few could possibly be as intriguing as the one about the remake of "A Star is Born" starring Barbra Streisand and Elvis Presley.
For those misguided youngsters who think "The Artist" somehow has even a faint glimmer of originality, you have to understand that the second official remake of "A Star is Born" was a big deal. Streisand was at or near the peak of her popularity and it represented an experimental in the rock musical form for her after about a half decade of dabbling almost exclusively in non-musical comedies and the underwhelming "Funny Lady." Streisand wanted Elvis Presley to play the part of the star on his way down that had previously been portrayed by the likes of Fredric March and James Mason. That French guy in "The Artist" won an Oscar for basically playing this role.
At the time, Elvis was firmly entrenched his bell-bottoms and big collars Vegas mode. Nearly all his rock credibility was gone, but he was still quite the entertainer. He hadn't made of movie of any time in roughly the same period that it had been since Streisand's last musical. Elvis Presley playing a huge rock star on his way to oblivion as Streisand worked her way up would definitely have been something.
Definitely more than Streisand playing against Kris Kristofferson. No offense intended again Kris, but let's face it: he was never Elvis. Had no idea what it might be to have been the biggest thing on the planet experiencing the inevitable drop from the consciousness of the crowd.
Not only was there nobody on the face of the earth more attuned to the character he would be playing, but there was also the fact that Elvis wanted to prove to the world he actually could act if ever given the chance. Col. Tom Parker, the biggest weasel in the history of the music industry-meaning the biggest weasel in the history of entertainment-couldn't figure out how to make the same kind of profit off Elvis essentially being Streisand's second banana that he had made off creating a soundtrack and then stringing together meaningless movie scenes. The result was that Elvis did not get the chance to prove he could act and Streisand was able to steamroll over the considerably less stellar Kristofferson to make "A Star is Born" all her own.
Meaning it became the least impressive version of "A Star is Born" to date.
