20 Things You Didn't Know About The Prestige

7. Josh Hartnett Was Shut Out Of A Leading Role

Josh Hartnett Penny Dreadfuls
Sky

We don't really see much of Josh Hartnett on the big screen anymore (at least, not in high-profile projects), even though he was poised to be a major star back in the mid-2000s after roles in Pearl Harbor, Sin City, and Lucky Number Slevin.B ut not only did he come close to landing the title role in Batman Begins (he met with director Christopher Nolan, but eventually turned the gig down), he even briefly flirted with a part in The Prestige.

In a chat with Playboy (via Variety), the actor revealed that, after deciding Batman Begins wasn't for him, he became interested in The Prestige. However, he said that Nolan "didn't want to put me" in the movie, implying that his decision to turn down the Batman role negatively affected his chances of starring in the magician-centric flick.

We're sure Nolan had his reasons for not casting Hartnett and that the Batman Begins rejection had nothing to do with it, but regardless, it's extremely interesting to learn just how close Hartnett came to following Christian Bale's Hollywood breakout.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!