How David Fincher's Zodiac Cast Was Almost Completely Different

Batman Begins Christian Bale Bruce Wayne
Warner Bros.

Bale apparently lobbied hard to play Graysmith himself, meeting with producers as well as screenwriter James Vanderbilt. Of course, Fincher isn't a director known to budge once his mind is set on a creative choice, and so Vanderbilt returned from his meeting and pitched Bale for the role of Paul Avery, who at the time was proving difficult to cast.

Graysmith reports how a few names had been bandied around for Avery, but none had stuck. The author recalls how Fincher was initially considering Aaron Eckhart (another Batman alumn) to play the journalist, while Vanderbilt suggested Kevin Spacey for the role, which the director was momentarily open to before trying to fit him into another role and then, ultimately, dropping him from the list. With Bale's enthusiasm for the project though and clear acting talent, the producers were keen to get him on board.

Mark Ruffalo Zodiac
Warner Bros

Unsurprisingly, Detective Toschi was also difficult to cast. Hilariously, Graysmith explains that Fincher originally had his sights set on Sean Penn, but was "turned off" after seeing The Assassination of Richard Nixon, a middling drama set around the same period as Zodiac with Penn in the lead role.

After Penn was out, the Fincher-approved Benicio Del Toro solved the production's Toschi issue. And, for a time, it looked as though Jake Gyllenhaal, Christian Bale and Del Toro were set to star as the leads.

There was only one issue, according to Graysmith: money. Del Toro was expecting the same pay as Jake Gylenhaal, which the producers were reluctant to agree to due to Toschi's smaller role in the film. Budgetary concerns are a common theme in Graysmith's book, and at one point he even recalls how Vanderbilt summed up Fincher's approach to paying actors:

"The way he looks at it is, 'If I have a seventy-five million dollar budget, I'm not going to waste ten of it on an actor.'"

So, the production opted to look for someone cheaper, and Fincher settled on Mark Ruffalo - strangely enough - thanks to a recommendation from Jennifer Aniston. After some wrangling with the actor's agent, who essentially worried the producers would take Ruffalo for a ride knowing they could offer him a low wage in exchange for a good role, he officially came on board. As for Avery, Fincher eventually decided on Robert Downey Jr. as talks with Christian Bale broke down.

The extensive casting process clearly paid off, but it's interesting to imagine a what-if alternate reality where Zodiac starred Jake Gylenhaal, Christian Bale and Benicio Del Toro. Not to mention the book reveals that other actors were also in contention for roles, like Philip Seymour Hoffman and Greg Kinnear.

For a bigger insight into the casting process and more from the production, make sure to check out Shooting Zodiac for yourself.

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