LA Noire writer Daniel McMahon has revealed how close Man Men star Jon Hamm came to taking the lead role.
Jon Hamm was almost cast as Cole Phelps in LA Noire.
The 2011 detective game shared a casting director with Man Men, which meant there was plenty of crossover between the two, with Aaron Staton being cast as protagonist Phelps.
Daniel McMahon, who was a writer on the Rockstar game, told IGN that Hamm was in the running for the role.
The casting didn’t come to fruition, as he explained: “It was never said at the time, but now, I understand the vision which was Jon Hamm is a wonderful actor, but he’s not Cole Phelps.
“Jon Hamm would’ve been a much better Jack Kelso because he’s a character of great power, he’s a character of control. Jon Hamm knows what he’s doing and gets s*** done.”
McMahon praised Staton for his portrayal, and how he managed to fit the character perfectly.
He added: “Aaron Staton was much better at portraying Cole’s fragility.
“A lot of the time, Cole’s flapping around having no idea what he’s doing. He’s very smart, but he’s also young, not very experienced, and he’s just trying his best.
“So, I think Jon Hamm would’ve been incredible, but expensive, and probably, in the end, not as good casting for that character as Aaron Staton was.”
Gamers have been clamouring for a sequel for the last 15 years, and a planned spiritual successor – Whore of the Orient – ended up getting cancelled.
Earlier this year, there was a glimmer of hope as Strauss Zelnick – the boss of Rockstar’s parent company Two-Two – refused to close the door completely.
Speaking at video game executives conference iicon, he said: “Broadly, we’re looking at doing something in the future with all of our intellectual property.
“There’s nothing to announce on LA Noire specifically, and if there were, it would be Rockstar announcing it, not me.
“But in any case, with regard to our legacy IP, the teams are always looking at what we have and we’re always thinking about it.
“The question is, at any given time, do we have a team that’s passionate about working on that?”
Jon Hamm almost played Cole Phelps in LA Noire
