10 Failed Movie Castings That Were A Blessing In Disguise

6. Russell Crowe As Aragorn In The Lord Of The Rings

Robin Williams Here S Johnny
Universal Pictures

In the late 90's Russell Crowe was the top dog in tinsel town, in terms of marketability and straight up talent. If his name was attached to it you were guaranteed two things, a gruff, yet sensitive performance and a sure-fire box office profit.

So - as touched upon earlier - when Peter Jackson was casting his Fellowship for The Lord of the Rings, he naturally needed someone with Crowe's characteristics to play the ranger, Aragorn.

The only problem was that Jackson didn't wholeheartedly want the L.A. Confidential star attached to his movie, with Crowe even going as far as to state that Jackson seemed to be 'forced into talking to (him), because there was a moment when everybody wanted (him) in everything'.

It worked out in the end as, even though the studio obviously wanted a bigger star to draw more eyes, Jackson got his man in Viggo Mortensen. Although, that was after Stuart Townsend had been chosen and then dropped due to looking too young for the role.

None of that would have happened if Crowe was given the Flame of the West to charge into battle with.

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Lifts rubber and metal. Watches people flip in spandex and pretends to be other individuals from time to time...