Manderlay (2005)

Just because an actress stars in a successful movie, doesn’t mean she wants to stick around for all or any of its sequels. Such is the case for Jodie Foster who won an Oscar for her turn as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991). When Hannibal (2001) came along, Foster was gone and the role went to Julianne Moore. And although Rachel Weisz was game to play Evelyn in The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001), she left the franchise and her part was given to Maria Bello in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor  (2008). Similarly, Katie Holmes portrayed Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins (2005) but declined to reprise the role in The Dark Knight (2008) wherein Maggie Gyllenhaal stepped in. Following this trend, Nicole Kidman opted out of the Grace Margaret Mulligan part in Manderlay (2005) despite having played the character in Lars von Trier’s controversial drama Dogville (2003). So, the Danish iconoclast had to cast another ginger in the second installment of his Land of Opportunities trilogy. Indeed, Lars castigates the pre-Civil War American south the most powerful way possible: by having Bryce Dallas Howard (the real-life daughter of actor/director Ron Howard) strip completely nude while she gets it on with a black dude! That’s right, Opie’s girl shows off both of her Mayberries and her Aunt Beav! In the end, the gloomy movie teaches us two important things: first, that slavery is bad and, much more crucially, that Bryce is a natural redhead!