Gerard Butler Waves Goodbye To ‘Point Break’ Remake
Scottish heartthrob Gerard Butler won’t be part of the remake of the surfer cult classic Point Break, leaving the filmmakers just a month to recast his role before filming is set to begin in late June.
Citing both “creative differences and a scheduling conflict,” the Hollywood Reporter reports that the Gerard Butler is no longer involved with the project in which Butler was to play the iconic role of the chill surfer and bank robber Bodhi, which was played by Patrick Swayze in the original.
It is unclear what the creative differences might be, but the scheduling conflict arises from the shooting schedule of London Has Fallen, the sequel to Olympus Has Fallen. Gerard Butler is set to start filming in the fall in London for that film, but filming for Point Break is not due to be completed by that time. Break starts in late June, but will be shot in several locations, requiring several months. Even someone as talented as Gerard Butler hasn’t figured out how to be in two places at one time.
Gerard Butler was to have starred opposite Luke Bracey, who will be portraying FBI agent Johnny Utah, originally played by Keanu Reeves. The role of Bodhi is set to be cast in the coming weeks, which may prove to be quite a challenge. Both Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves were nominated for “Most Desirable Male” in 1992 for the MTV Movie Awards, with Reeves taking home the award. Gerard Butler is consistently on the lists of sexiest/hottest men around. Alcon Entertainment certainly has some pretty big shoes to fill, and not a lot of time to do it in.
Reaction to the remake itself, as well as to the casting of Gerard Butler as Bodhi, has been mixed. As is true of most remakes, there has been resistance from die-hard fans, many of whom were not happy with Butler being tapped to replace Swayze as the brooding philosopher/thrill seeking Bodhi.
The Inquisitr reported the Twitter temper tantrum over both the idea of remaking the surf action movie directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the idea of Gerard Butler in the role of Bodhi. From the current twitter feed at #PointBreak, it appears that the problem was never so much Gerard Butler as it was the idea of anyone at all trying to replace the irreplaceable Patrick Swayze.
Gerard Butler was trained as a lawyer before pursuing his love of acting. His hard work, talent, and passion have wowed audiences as Andre’ Marek in Michael Crichton’s Timeline, as the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera, and King Leonidas in 300. Olympus Has Fallen is his most recent success story. Point Break will not be added to Gerard Butler’s impressive repertoire, but there is little doubt that Butler’s adoring fans will see more of him in the future.
[images via bing]
