20 Upcoming Movies That Made INSANE Casting Choices
The WTF casting choices that will make or break upcoming movies.
Casting is perhaps the single most underappreciated and misunderstood aspect of filmmaking, because when the casting director does their job, it generally isn't something audiences think about too much.
But when they get the casting wrong they won't stop hearing about it, as viewers bleat about a certain actor being miscast or two star-crossed leads having no romantic chemistry whatsoever, and so on.
Bold casting choices are certainly a gamble, then, but when they pay off they can entirely transform a movie, and perhaps even win the actor in question an Oscar - take Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight and all the early commotion about his casting.
These brave swings don't always work, though, and there is indeed a fine line between inspiration and deranged overconfidence where casting is concerned.
A filmmaker or producer might think they're cooking with gas when, in fact, hiring a particular actor for a particular part seems completely insane to pretty much everyone else.
We'll have to see how things pan out for these 20 movies, then, each of which has made a wild casting choice which may very well make or break the entire film...
20. 50 Cent - Balrog (Street Fighter)
The casting for the upcoming Street Fighter adaptation is totally unhinged, and it's either going to pay off brilliantly or result in an abject disaster - no in-betweens.
There are a number of amusingly bonkers casting choices, like wrestlers Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes playing Akuma and Guile, but the most ridiculous of the lot? 50 Cent playing boxer Balrog.
Now, even ignoring Fiddy's rather lacklustre acting career, it's going to be tough to take the 50-year-old rapper seriously in the role of a prime-of-his-career boxer.
The recent reveal trailer didn't help much either - he looks less like Balrog than 50 Cent in slightly dodgy Balrog cosplay.
At least the movie looks surprisingly fun for the most part and evidently isn't taking itself too seriously, so hopefully Fiddy's performance will strike the right tone and he'll also manage to give a persuasive physical performance as the iconic character.
Again, no in-betweens - it either works or it doesn't.