30 Craziest Movie Casting Moments

Elijah Wood as Kevin

The Casting Moment: Elijah Wood, whose star was on the rise after enjoying enormous success with the Lord Of the Rings trilogy, stepped up to play a mute, murdering cannibal in Sin City .

Robert De Niro as Josh

The Casting Moment: Tom Hanks almost had to back out of starring in Big thanks to a scheduling clash with Dragnet, prompting director Penny Marshall to offer the part to Robert De Niro instead. Thankfully, Bobby proved too expensive so the studio waited for Hanks to become available.

Nicolas Cage as Superman

The Casting Moment: As Tim Burton prepared his ill-fated Superman movie he cast legendary over-actor Nicolas Cage in the lead role.

Kiefer Sutherland as Dr Schreber

The Casting Moment: In Dark City , a gothic-looking sci-fi brainteaser of a film, mysterious Strangers with psychokinetic abilities are aided by a geeky, socially awkward scientist, as played by bad boy actor Kiefer Sutherland.

Charlie Sheen as Mr President

The Casting Moment: Charlie Sheen – who hasn’t seen much big-screen action of late – is cast as the President of the United States in deliberate exploitation flick Machete Kills .

Leslie Nielsen as Dr. Rumack

The Casting Moment: Leslie Nielsen was just one of many serious, dramatic actors cast in disaster film parody Airplane!

Jim Carrey as Dr Evil

The Casting Moment: When Mike Myers was developing his first Austin Powers movie, he sought out Jim Carrey for the role of Dr Evil, who had to turn it down thanks to a scheduling clash with Liar, Liar .

Tom Cruise as Lestat de Lioncourt

The Casting Moment: The all-american hero of Top Gun , Cocktail and Days Of Thunder takes a left-turn career-wise to play flamboyant vampire Lestat, despicable mentor of new vamp Louis in Interview With A Vampire .

Sean Connery as Henry Jones, Sr

The Casting Moment: Indiana Jones is given his greatest foil yet: his own stuffy, bumbling father, to be played by supposed action star Sean Connery.

Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands

The Casting Moment: Teen idol Johnny Depp is cast as Tim Burton’s mute grotesque misfit in a move that began Depp’s frequent flirtations with oddball characters.

Vince Vaughn as Donnie Darko

The Casting Moment: Before Jake Gyllenhaal made his name in the role, Vince Vaughn was offered the part of this dark and disturbed teenager.

Tom Cruise as Les Grossman

The Casting Moment: In what was supposed to be a surprise cameo before the Internet ruined everything, Tom Cruise was tapped up by Ben Stiller to play the comically horrible Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder .

Channing Tatum as Jenko

The Casting Moment: Jonah Hill announces that he is working on a remake of classic 80s show 21 Jump Street and will be starring in the comedy film alongside… Channing Tatum. Star of Step Up .

Britney Spears as Allie

The Casting Moment: Britney Spears nearly suffered the envy/wrath of all female Notebook devotees, after she auditioned to play the part that eventually went to Rachel McAdams.

Why It's Crazy: Firstly, it would have seemed like a Mickey Mouse Club reunion for Spears and Gosling, which kind of sets the film off on the wrong foot. Secondly, have you seen Crossroads ? The jury is very much still out on Spears’ acting capabilities. Thirdly, who could deny Gosling and McAdams’ real-life relationship when, to this day, everyone is still rooting for them to get back together.

Werner Herzog as Zec Chelovek

The Casting Moment: The best-selling Jack Reacher series of books gave us one film (so far) that was geared as a new Tom Cruise movie franchise vehicle, which obviously needed a fitting, larger-than-life villain. So the filmmakers plumped for… German film director Werner Herzog.

Robin Williams as Hagrid

The Casting Moment: Apparently it was J.K. Rowling who insisted that the Harry Potter films were cast with mostly British actors and actresses. Before then, Robin Williams was being considered for the role of hairy Hogwarts gamekeeper Hagrid.

Kevin Costner as Mr Brooks

The Casting Moment: It seemed like something of a comeback for Costner at the time, as he raised eyebrows playing this eponymous schizophrenic serial killer.

John Travolta as Edna Turnblad

The Casting Moment: Hairspray's portly mum role has always traditionally been played by a man, but even so it was a shock to see Travolta sign up.

Sean Connery as Gandalf

The Casting Moment: Before Ian McKellen took the role, Sean Connery was offered the part of the grey-turned-white wizard in Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings trilogy. He ultimately turned it down because he "didn't understand the script".

Patrick Swayze as Jim Cunningham

The Casting Moment: 80s/90s heartthrob Swayze is cast as the smarmy motivational speaker in Donnie Darko , a man who, it is revealed, is also hiding a stash of child pornography.

Chris Evans as Captain America

The Casting Moment: As Marvel began casting its Avengers, a popular choice in the running was actually The Office's John Krasinski. But then the role went to Johnny Storm instead.

Kurt Russell as Han Solo

The Casting Moment: Before Harrison Ford made the role his own, lots of other actors auditioned to play Han Solo in Star Wars , including Nick Nolte, Christopher Walken and Burt Reynolds. Even among these names, an early favourite for the part was Kurt Russell.

Henry Fonda as Frank

The Casting Moment: Sergio Leone had a stroke of genius for his epic western Once Upon A Time In The West when he cast Henry Fonda as the film's villain.

O.J. Simpson as The Terminator

The Casting Moment: During preproduction on The Terminator , the studio told director James Cameron that they wanted Simpson to play the ruthless robot from the future.

Robin Williams as Seymour Parrish

The Casting Moment: In a bid to escape his comedy typecasting, Williams broke into serious acting, with this creepy stalker role being the furthest departure possible from Mork.

Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan

The Casting Moment: Unconventional biopic I'm Not There took six different actors to each portray legendary singer Bob Dylan throughout six different periods of his life. One of those actors is... Cate Blanchett.

Bill Murray as Batman

The Casting Moment: Before Warner Bros hired Tim Burton to turn in a gothic, comic-book Batman film, the plan was to make the movie in the campy style of the Adam West 60s show, and one Bill Murray was in the frame to star.

Rene Zellweger as Bridget Jones

The Casting Moment: The quintessential British, single everywoman is being portrayed by... a Texan waif.

Daniel Craig as James Bond

The Casting Moment: With Brosnan out and Bourne a big hit at the box office, it was time 007 had a new face and a gritty, down-to-earth origin story.

Heath Ledger as The Joker

The Casting Moment: One of the best-loved supervillains of all time is given a literal makeover for Christopher Nolan's Batman sequel The Dark Knight .

Why It's Crazy: Firstly, how can you top Jack Nicholson's brilliant performance in Tim Burton's original Batman ? Secondly, surely the only way to do it is to take the Joker back to his comic-book roots and have an actor play him who is cigarette-thin and pointy-featured? Sadly Heath Ledger, best known at the time for gay cowboy film Brokeback Mountain , was nothing like this, prompting a huge fan backlash. At least until the film came out and everyone could see that Ledger turned in what might be the most iconic film performance of the past decade.