HOLLYWOOD -- It was an appropriately scary experience the day Marlon Brando arrived on the set of Scary Movie 2.

Brando had been hired to play a priest in a spoof of The Exorcist.

Brando, who had been hired for $2-million US, lasted only one day as he was suffering from walking pneumonia.

He was replaced by James Woods.

"We all went to (director) Keenen Ivory Wayans and told him no movie should kill Brando -- least of all Scary Movie 2," recalls comedian Andy Richter, who plays the exorcist's assistant in the skit.

"It was really surreal. I kept shaking my head and thinking that this coughing, hacking priest was really the great Marlon Brando. Between takes he'd shuffle back to a nurse who was guarding his oxygen bottle and strap on a mask."

Natasha Lyonne, who plays the possessed teenager in the spoof, says "Brando really wanted to do the role. He thought it was a hilarious idea and had so many good ideas. He'd rework a lot of his dialogue so that it was so much funnier coming from him. He has a great self-deprecating humour as he showed in The Freshman."

Lyonne adds that pneumonia had not robbed Brando of his trademark mischievous humor.

"He was thrilled that his character was going to smoke pot and he loved the idea that, at one point, he was supposed to leap on me. I can tell you that prospect had me just a little worried. He's kind of large to say the least. We never got to the leap but he stayed long enough that day to fake groping me. We really felt sorry that he had to pull out because he was convinced he was fit enough to continue filming."

Wayans says when his brothers Shawn and Marlon presented him with the scene for The Exorcist spoof they all agreed they had to cast it "with an actor audiences wouldn't normally expect to do this kind of broad humour. To put someone like Leslie Nielsen in it is far too obvious.

"When Brando's name came up we all agreed it would never happen but we sent the offer to his management any way. We agreed to frame the rejection letter."

To his surprise, Wayans received a call from Brando's agent to say the legendary actor wanted Wayans to come to his house for a meeting.

"Brando was the perfect host. He said he'd rented Scary Movie and had laughed.

"It was such a coup for us to get Brando, so to lose him was doubly tragedy. He really wanted us to postpone his scene until he'd recovered but we couldn't wait."

Wayans says though he got "a good amount of footage of Brando" none of it will appear on the DVD. "That would be unfair to him because he forfeited his salary."


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