5. Tom Hardy
Why? Want brooding darkness, do you? Well Mr Hardy has more in his little finger than most actors can manage in an entire career, and he is equally well-versed in playing the sort of necessarily theatrical character that this job would demand. Hardy would also bring genuine menace to the role, which is as key to the trajectory of the character as his fondess for rough sex and the bubbling undercurrent of his own personal tortured back-story. What Hardy also has that arguably none of the other fantasy choices on this list is the ability to channel real raw animalism - something we're hoping to see even more of in The Dark Knight Rises this week - and we can certainly see him convincing in the more colourful bedroom scenes. He might be a bit rough and ready, but Hardy has so far proved himself to be a chameleon, inhabiting his characters with completely convincing results, no matter what end of the social scale they sit on. He is as comfortable playing spies as he is super-villains, and his inclusion would certainly perk up mainstream interest in the adaptation. You would have to wonder whether he's not too big of a star to take the role on, though.