Marvel's Most Notorious Flop Could Have Starred A Beloved Singer-Songwriter

In terms of actual financial losses, Willard Huyck's 1986 bonkers fantasy/comedy "Howard the Duck," based on a Marvel Comics character, is hardly the biggest bomb of all time. It earned $38 million on a $37 million budget. That's a large bomb by the weird standards of Hollywood accounting, of course, but "Howard the Duck" didn't lose nearly as much money as, say, "Krull" from three years previous. It's also not the first Marvel movie, as some believe. 

In terms of its reputation, however, "Howard the Duck" might be one of the most notorious bombs of all time. It was a weird concept to receive blockbuster levels of cash, and many were baffled by the fact that George Lucas was one of the film's producers. The film is about a live-action anthropomorphic duck named Howard (voice of Chip Zien) who is sucked to Earth from a parallel duck dimension. He is lost on Earth and becomes embroiled in a plot involving Dark Overlords from the deepest recesses of the universe. He also engages in a strange, bestial romance with an aspiring rock star named Beverly (Lea Thompson), and the two almost have a sex scene. This was a mainstream blockbuster, recall. 

"Howard the Duck" is so famously bad that there have been numerous post-mortems over the years. Lea Thompson has gone on record about her audition experience on DVD extras and the like. She admitted to getting her audition outfit from local thrift shops to look more punk; her character played in a pop punk band called Cherry Bomb. 

It wasn't until years later, in a 1998 interview on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," that audiences learned that Thompson was being considered alongside another notable performer. It seems that, of all people, Tori Amos was vying for the role of Beverly.

In 1986, Tori Amos was still making a name for herself, fronting the band Y Kant Tori Read. Amos wouldn't break into the mainstream until the 1992 release of her solo debut album "Little Earthquakes." That was the one with "Crucify" on it. After that, Amos shot into the middle of the 1990s musical mainstream, continuing her success with "Under the Pink" in 1994, "Boys for Pele" in 1996, and "From the Choirgirl Hotel" in 1998. It's hard to stress how important she was to the Lilith Fair crowd, and what a presence she was on MTV in the '90s. I saw the "Cornflake Girl" video so, so many times. 

In 1998, she appeared on an episode of "The Tonight Show" to hype her latest record, and Jay Leno asked her about her early days in the Los Angeles music scene after she moved there in 1984. She admitted that she made ends meet by playing in a piano bar for a spell and that she performed at weddings. She had to play The Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" a bunch. 

She then admitted to auditioning for "Howard the Duck." Amos said: 

"I was trying to pay my rent by doing ... I would try to make a little extra money doing commercials. And I tried to get the part in 'Howard the Duck.' But [there] was a band [in the movie], so I thought I could audition as one of the band members. I could do better than some stupid actress."

Amos doesn't say if she was auditioning for the part of Beverly explicitly, or just a member of Beverly's band, however. She also clearly didn't land the gig, otherwise we'd know all about it. Amos didn't make her film debut until 2003, appearing in Mike Newell's "Mona Lisa Smile," one of Julia Roberts' best movies. Her last album, "Ocean to Ocean," came out in 2021.