10 Failed Movie Castings That Were A Blessing In Disguise
8. Cillian Murphy As Batman In Batman Begins
Christopher Nolan's work on casting his Dark Knight trilogy has to go down as some of the top decision making in cinematic history.
Seriously, just look at this list.
Heath Ledger as The Joker.
Tom Hardy as Bane.
Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle.
Liam Neeson as Ra's al Gul.
Take your pick, he rarely got a choice wrong in terms of building a believable and charismatic array of Gotham inhabitants. However, the titular hero of the flicks very nearly had a completely different interpretation altogether, as Cillian Murphy was at one point shortlisted as a potential Batman/Bruce Wayne in the build up to Nolan's first excursion into the DC universe.
Murphy's original screen test was so impressive that, in failing to convince Nolan he was his Dark Knight, he actually steered his way into the terrifying mask of The Scarecrow.
The Irishman's turn as the first film's villain put him in the limelight as a serious character actor and Murphy hasn't been out of interesting work since.
As far as failures go, you can bet he wouldn't change a thing about this one.