Here's Who Nearly Played Noah In The Notebook

After Sparks's book was released in 1996, New Line Cinema scooped up the rights to its inevitable film adaptation. In 1998, Steven Spielberg expressed interest in directing. His number one choice for the role of Noah? Tom Cruise (via E News). However, due to scheduling conflicts, Spielberg eventually had to let the project go.

At another point, Paul Newman was eager to star as the older version of Noah, and he wanted George Clooney to play his counterpart (via Us Weekly). "We were going to do The Notebook together, Clooney revealed during a virtual panel for the 64th BFI London Film Festival. "Basically, I was going to play him as a young man, and it was funny. We met and said, 'This is it. It's going to be great."

So where is the Clooney-Newman version of The Notebook? Well, Clooney went home, watched some of Newman's old movies, and subsequently got a case of cold feet.

"He's one of the handsomest guys you've ever seen. We met up [again] and I said, 'I can't play you. I don't look anything like you. This is insane,'" Clooney said, via Us Weekly. "We just wanted to do it because we wanted to work together, [but] it ended up being not the right thing for us to do."