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" Chuck Palahniuk has revealed that Heath Ledger was almost cast in the movie adaptation of his novel Choke. Ledger, who died of an accidental drug overdose in January, was among the actors in line to play sex addict Victor Mancine in Clark Gregg&amp;#039;s dark comedy before the role eventually went to Sam Rockwell. Palahniuk confessed that the actors who were circling the role prior to Rockwell&amp;#039;s casting did not appeal to him. He said: &amp;quot;For a long time it was supposed to be Ryan Gosling, who I couldn&amp;#039;t see, and for a brief period of time it was supposed to be Heath Ledger, which I wasn&amp;#039;t sure about. And so in a way I think it&amp;#039;s turned out for the very best.&amp;quot; Palahniuk added that casting Victor&amp;#039;s mother Ida Mancini became difficult when Helen Mirren won an Oscar for The Queen. He explained: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s the same with the mother character... for a while it was Susan Sarandon and then for a little tiny bit it was Helen Mirren. But then with The Queen, apparently her price went way up and they couldn&amp;#039;t afford her anymore!  &amp;quot;But I was very happy with Angelica Huston because I don&amp;#039;t think the other two would have looked very Italian.&amp;quot; Choke is released in cinemas this Friday. &amp;amp;gt; Click here for our review of Choke "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a135818/ledger-mirren-almost-cast-in-choke/>