Owen Wilson speaks on a panel for "Loki" at Deadline Contenders Television 2024 held at the ... [+]
The director of The Juice said that Owen Wilson was offered a lead role in the upcoming film examining O.J. Simpson’s innocence during his 1995 murder trial.
Simpson, of course, was back in the news on April 11 after the disgraced NFL star and actor died of prostate cancer at age 76. The one-time Buffalo Bills running back and Naked Gun movie trilogy star went from fame to infamy in 1995 when he was found not guilty of the 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, director Joshua Newton said he offered Wilson the role of Douglas McCann. Newton told THR that the film’s plot involves McCann, a real-life attorney who bought into conspiracy theories about Simpson during his murder trial.
Newton told THR that Wilson — whose long list of credits includes the recent movies The French Dispatch and Haunted Mansion, as well as the streaming series Loki — wanted no part of the project.
“Owen Wilson was perfect for the role. I actually had a meeting with him in Santa Monica,” Newton recalled for THR. “Everybody loved the script. His agent wanted him to do it. We offered him $12 million. But at the end of the lunch, Owen stood up and said, ‘If you think I’m going to take the lead role in a movie about how O.J. didn’t do it, you’ve got to be kidding me.’ ”
‘The Juice’ Is Still In The Works
Joshua Newton, who has been working on The Juice since 2015, told THR that he found another actor to play Douglas McCann, but didn’t reveal who it was.
The director, however, has cast the roles of O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson, who will be played by Boris Kodjoe (Station 19) and Charlotte Kirk (Ocean’s 8), respectively.
The Juice already has a short teaser trailer, where Simpson is being zapped in an electric chair, saying, “Think of the real O.J. … not this lost person.”
The Juice trailer noted that the film will be released in 2025. Simpson has been the subject of a movie before in the 2016 Oscar-winning documentary O.J.: Made in America.
The Juice also stars British actor Catherine Bailey as Marcia Clark, the lead prosecutor in Simpson’s 1995 murder trial.
