Rex Harrison was under contract to play the title character but after the departure of original scriptwriter Alan Jay Lerner, Harrison tried to back out of the project. Christopher Plummer was hired as a replacement. When the studio successfully lured Harrison back they paid Plummer his entire agreed-upon fee of $300,000 to sit out the production of the film. "Doctor Dolittle" grew out of a massive attempt by Twentieth Century-Fox to duplicate its earlier success with The Sound of M ...[Read Story ]