George Clooney considered playing Marvel's Nick Fury until he saw this unbelievably gory scene

Warning: Unbelievably gory scene below.

Before Marvel signed Samuel L. Jackson to play Nick Fury, it was in talks with George Clooney for the same role.

Clooney would have been a natural fit for the rakish veteran-turned-spy.

The actor reportedly pulled out, however, after reading the unusually and ludicrously violent "Fury" comic series by Garth Ennis, which was published from 2001 to 2002. He was particularly upset, according to Sean Howe's "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story," about the part where Fury choked an enemy soldier with his own intestines.

We tracked down a copy of the book, and it sure is gruesome. Here's a lightly censored version:

In fact, "Fury" is a smart and enjoyable comic, portraying the spy chief as an aging Cold Warrior who on some deep level wants nothing more than to get his hands dirty again. Still, it's understandable that this portrayal of the character scared Clooney away.

At the same time, another Marvel series - "The Ultimates" by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch - was demonstrating just how marketable an Avengers movie could be, including a bold change for their version of Fury from a white man to a black man who looked exactly like Jackson, and the rest is history.