Damn it, Paul Giamatti was supposed to be in Twin Peaks: The Return
If not for scheduling conflicts, the Twin Peaks revival almost had another awesome cast addition
Aux News Paul Giamatti
It’s always nice when Paul Giamatti pops up in something, whether it’s an instantly iconic little cameo like when he played The Rhino in Amazing Spider-Man 2 (remember that?) or a big starring role in something like The Holdovers, and nothing stings quite like the realization that you could’ve seen Paul Giamatti pop up in something had fate not intervened to inexplicably prevent it. So, it is with a heavy heart that we must report that Paul Giamatti was supposed to appear in Twin Peaks: The Return but had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts.
Twin Peaks: The Return was, of course, co-creator David Lynch’s big legacy sequel to his cult classic TV series, and it was a series that tended to veer wildly between off-putting nonsense and some of the most transcendentally masterful television ever broadcast on the small-screen. In order words, it would’ve been a lot of fun to see Paul Giamatti there, doing his Paul Giamatti thing.
This reveal comes from The Wrap, with Giamatti telling the outlet that Lynch is one filmmaker that he has always wanted to work with, but he couldn’t work out his schedule to make room for The Return and had to drop out—a decision he calls “heartbreaking.” Luckily, while Giamatti says he couldn’t bear to watch the show because he was so bummed out, he knows exactly who he would’ve played: One of the Mitchum brothers, a pair of mobsters who befriend “Dougie Jones” (actually FBI Agent Dale Cooper with his mind all frazzled, though it would be impossible for us to explain any more of it beyond that).
The Mitchum brothers were ultimately played by Jim Belushi and Robert Knepper, who were great, and they offered a fun dynamic in The Return that involved them going from intimidating antagonists to lovable comic relief characters over the course of just a couple of episodes. Also, while Giamatti may be disappointed, there’s always a chance that gum you like will come back into style again and Lynch will decide to make a third Twin Peaks thing that introduces a third Mitchum brother and features more characters who have been transformed into tea kettle things in the years since.
29 Comments
I know that he’s in everything and then some, but my first real Giamatti experience was The Truman Show.
He’ll always be Pig Vomit to me, first and foremost. And after that, he’ll be “the son of the guy who banned Pete Rose from baseball.” And after that, he’ll be “the brother of one of the players from the Scott Bakula/Sinbad/Jason Bateman/Robert Loggia/Hector Elizondo college football classic Necessary Roughness.” (But mostly he’s just Amazing Actor Paul Giamatti.)
He’ll always be Pig Vomit to me, first and foremost. And that would be quite the introduction to have precede the poor guy at parties! 🤣
I rewatched The Truman Show for the first time in around a decade earlier this year, and completely forgot he was in it. It’s always a pleasant surprise to see Giamatti.
In a way, it’s like seeing Miguel Ferrer in something. Just that extra addition of awesomeness that shows up.
Look what they took from us. LOOK WHAT THEY TOOK FROM US
Luckily it doesn’t really matter, since TP:TR was a perfect television show.
But if Giamatti had been in it, we would have had something better than perfect
You can always go watch Lodge 49 instead!
Gone to soon.
In their hearts, they truly thought they knew how to fly that plane.
God, wasn’t it. What an insane treat that year to get it. That first big dose was mind-scrambling.
It was like three or four great David Lynch movies all in one. There’s nothing like it.
Speaking only for myself, I’d say it was a pretty terrible television show. A bold, inconsistent, incoherent mess that only coalesced in the brilliant work that it was in the final moments of the final episode. As it aired, and as I became more and more frustrated with the jarring tonal shifts, brutal nihilism, and “bad on purpose” vignettes, I was told over and over again that, “you know, Lynch considers it to be an 18-hour film,” and as condescending as that defense seemed at the time, they were absolutely correct. Just cut out all the interminable music performances (please) and it’s a perfect late Lynch film, sprawling, maddening, baffling, and masterful.
Deadspin gettin’ sued for libel against a child.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nfl/article-12823919/amp/Parents-nine-year-old-Kansas-City-Chiefs-fan-wearing-Native-American-headdress.htmlGuess we kow which G/O site’s next on the chopping block.
I would’ve unconflicted the schedule and paid Lynch to be on that show. I’d feign an interest in TM and babble some nonsense about diving deep.
Now he’s a baddie in 30 Monedas season two!We really need to resurrect Lodge 49.
That show is batshit crazy. It is awesome.
I would totally send some actual serious money to a Kickstarter campaign to finish Lodge 49. My understanding is the whole plot was mapped out for a four-season arc.I even live near Long Beach and would offer up my home for some location shots! (I know most was actually filmed in Georgia but there’s outdoor shots on that show that clearly were done in Long Beach.)
“…veer wildly between off-putting nonsense and some of the most transcendentally masterful television ever broadcast on the small-screen.”The great thing about Lynch is that different viewers will have differing opinions on which bits were which. It’s like when people say The White Album should have just been a sensational single album, but everybody would pick a different track listing.
You’re one of those “Wild Honey Pie” sickos, aren’t you?
That’s less than a minute – you don’t have to exclude anything else to include that. The only track I find superfluous is Revolution 9, which is an interesting piece of work, but just doesn’t fit on an album like this.
I could lose Bungalow Bill and BirthdayBut come at Everybody’s Got Something To Hide and it’s fightin’ time
Listen…it’s time to stop calling that thingy a tea kettle. Lynch has no time for tea. It was a coffee percolator, and Phillip Jeffries was the fish inside it.
How do you unironically call something “an instantly iconic little cameo” only to, in a parenthetical attached to the very same clause, observe that no one really cares about said cameo?
“off-putting nonsense” is one way to tell the reader you aren’t really familiar with David Lynch’s work.
“instantly iconic…(remember that?)“That’s all, nothing to add.
Dude would have been the best Lex Luthor of all time, but sure, cast Mark Zuckerberg Jesse Eisenberg.