Liam Neeson’s much talked about cameo cut from The Hangover, Part II

Once upon a time, Mel Gibson was set to make a cameo in THE HANGOVER, PART II as a slightly unhinged tattoo artist who gives Ed Helms’ character a very Mike Tyson-esque tat. But as quickly as news of Gibson’s cameo broke, did cast and crew begin to voice their displeasure. So Gibson was ditched and Liam Neeson was brought in to play the cameo instead. And now it looks like Neeson too has been bumped.

Director Todd Phillips said this weekend that he was forced to cut Neeson’s cameo from the film after the actor was unavailable for reshoots (Neeson is filming WRATH OF THE TITANS in London). Instead, Phillipps asked friend and fellow director Nick Cassavetes if he would fill in for Neeson and they’ve instead reshot the entire sequence.

So why were reshoots necessary? Nothing to do with quality, just that Phillips had cut the scene directly after the tattoo parlor and the film no longer had the information the audience needed to understand how the stars get to the next scene. They’ve now added more dialogue with the tattoo artist to explain how and why they’re getting from Point A to Point B.

If you see SCREAM 4 this weekend you’ll see that old HANGOVER trailer that was pulled by Warner Bros and a new PG-13 version will be in theaters later this month with the new Tyler Perry film and FAST FIVE.