2. Willem Dafoe As Batman
Actors can be great, but still wholly unsuitable for roles they are rumoured for or briefly attached to. Willem Dafoe is a case in point: he's dark and menacing in most of his roles and has a disarming but ever so slightly disturbing on-screen charm that makes him an ideal solution for anti-heroes and villains. But Batman, he decidedly isn't. It could have happened though, as Dafoe told MTV...
"Very early, they talked to me about playing Batman. I hate to spread these things because unless you remember it well, you're stoking the fires of bulls---. But I remember . I've had my brush with these things."
Even with Tim Burton in charge, 1989's Batman wasn't dark enough for what Dafoe would have brought to the role, and he would have been a far more suitable choice for the Joker (as he was infamously and wrongly linked on his IMDB profile not so long ago). His Batman would have been a picture of obsession, brooding but broken, and it wouldn't have fit in Burton's more comicy world. If given the chance to see that sort of Batman now, I'd jump at the chance, as it would offer balance to Nolan's over-fascination with Bruce Wayne, and the chance to see more of the Dark Knight himself is definitely the way to take the character next. Dafoe's casting as The Dark Knight would have been doubly destructive since it is highly unlikely the hero would have successful turned heel for Raimi's Spiderman, and it's hard to imagine anyone quite so well-suited to playing the Green Goblin after that performance. But, then, I suppose we'll soon find out if it's possible when someone inevitably takes on the mantle in the current line of Amazing Spider-Man films...