The Hollywood Reporter recently spoke to Franco Nero, the actor who made his name playing the spaghetti western hero “Django.” In the recent movie, “Django Unchained,” Nero made a nice cameo appearance talking to Jamie Foxx’s Django by a bar as the two shared shots. It was a nice understated moment for the actor, as Quentin Tarantino was able to convince him to appear in the movie that bore his legendary character’s title.
This isn’t the first time that an original actor returns to pay homage to a classic character they played. Here are other instances where new movies pay homage to the men who inspired them.
“21 Jump Street”
In 2012, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill starred in the big screen remake of “21 Jump Street.” The movie takes place in the present day, and the two play young cops assigned to the long-standing division that worked on infiltrating high schools to stop crime. Of course, the original television series starred Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise. In one of the new movies best moment, two members of a biker gang reveal themselves to be undercover agents and help the young officers. It turns out it was Depp and DeLuise playing their same characters, years later in their lives. It not only connected the two properties, but was a big fan favorite moment.
“Invasion of the Body Snatchers”
Not only was this cameo a great look back at the original movie, but the scene it happened in was perfect as well. In the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” Kevin McCarthy was a man trying to get anyone to believe that the aliens were starting to take over the world, in the bodies of his old friends and loved ones. In the 1978 remake, starring Donald Sutherland, he was still running, trying to convince people to listen to him and slammed against Sutherland’s car begging him to listen to him. 22 years later and he was still looking for help.
“Dawn of the Dead”
Three of the original actors from George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” had cameos in Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake. The first was Ken Foree, who portrayed a television evangelist in the remake. The second was Scott Reiniger, who played an army general telling everyone to remain inside for their own safety. However, the best cameo was by Tom Savini. In the original movie, Savini not only played the leader of the motorcycle gang that burst into the shopping mall, letting the zombies in, but he also designed all the zombie effects for the movie and later remade “Night of the Living Dead” himself. In the remake of “Dawn of the Dead,” he plays a sheriff who explains to people the only way to actually kill a zombie is to shoot them in the head. No one would know better.
See also:
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