BATMAN BEGINS: The B-Cast

Old news but hey. It's interesting to talk about what could have been...

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

I meant to write about this the other day but for whatever reason I never got round to it. Back in 2002-2003, Christopher Nolan and his crew held several massive auditions for Batman Begins, a Warner Bros. blockbuster event movie that was one of the most sought out pictures for both young and veteran actors who saw it potentially as being successful for them as movies like Spider-Man, Lord of the Rings and X-Men had been for their respective casts. The last seven days has seen both Joshua Jackson and Chris Cooper reveal they had auditioned (in Joshua's case) or turned down (in Chris' case) the roles of Batman and Commissioner Gordan respectively something that any self respecting Batman fan who kept up with the pre-production of Begins five years ago will know about already.

Joshua Jackson on loosing out on the role of Batman, from MTV...

I went and did the screen test, Shutter star Joshua Jackson revealed to MTV News. I was one the last four or five guys I dont like to lose any job, but they cast the right guy, he said. I mean, Christian Bale was excellent. I dont really think of myself in a sort of comic book hero way, you know what I mean? This might be why I didnt get that job.

For those wondering, the other guys who made the final group were... Jake Gyllenhaal (who screenwriter David Goyer wanted for the part but Nolan wanted Bale... and Goyer later said that was the right decision), Cillian Murphy (who Nolan was so impressed by his intensity, he cast him as Scarecrow), Hugh Dancy and Billy Crudrup. Others had auditioned but I believe those were the final guys it came down too. Don't you just wish they had recorded those audition sessions (maybe they did, would love to see them?). Gyllenhaal would have been an interesting choice but he still kinda looks a little fresh faced for me... possibly suiting the role of Spider-Man more. Jackson would have been interesting but his casting would be reminiscent of Michael Keaton but again rewind five years ago and he looked fresh faced too. Billy Crudrup would have been the only other name I could have seen do the part it's full justice but of course, this was Bale's part all along. Everyone could kinda sense it. Sadly none of these names resurfaced when the Batman role was up for grabs again with the Justice League movie.

And then there's Chris Cooper who also spoke to MTV about turning down the role of Commissioner Gordon. I've said it for years that I thought Cooper would be an amazing Gordon. But hey, we got Gary Oldman so it's all good...

I was approached about that and chose not to do it, he matter of factly confessed. If Im going to choose a particular role and be away from home for months on end whether its a long shoot or a short shoot, Im going to put my energies into it its something I want to be totally involved with, he insisted. I dont like to work back to back just work for works sake. I like to do one job, go home and recuperate and look for another piece of material once Im ready. Theres any number of scripts that I passed on some that got huge recognition but I have no regrets.

Even with the talented names that either turned down the picture or lost out on roles to other actors, it's difficult to really argue against how amazingly well cast the movie was. Christian Bale, Michael Caine (who looks nothing like the character from the comics but is superb as Alfred), Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson (was amazing), Tom Wilkinson (wish he had more screentime and it sucks he ain't back for the sequel), Cillian Murphy and even Linus Roache's performance as Thomas Wayne which should not be under-estimated for it's value to the picture, were incredible. The only sour casting was Katie Holmes as the obligatory love interest (which Batman doesn't need by the way, unless they do a Talia storyline) but she had a likeability about her as an actress before Begins, and you can see why they cast her. And then you see the names he cast for The Dark Knight... and how incredible they look to have been moulded into the universe. Christopher Nolan is genius at casting, especially but not limited too the supporting roles (David Bowie as Tesla in The Prestige... AWESOME!). Can't wait for Batman... and can't wait to see which actors he might one day find for roles like The Penguin, The Riddler, Catwoman and characters like Talia Al Ghul and Dick Grayson (who I don't want to see for a VERY long time by the way) if they are ever to make an appearance in his universe.