- Orlando Bloom, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, 2003. The first one… Director Gore Verbinski decided that due to The Lord of the Rings franchise. Bloom was more bankable than Masterson, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Tobey Maguire and the fairly unknown UK TV actor Ben Peyton. A tough role as Johnny Depp was stealing everything but the rudder as his wondrous Captain Jack Sparrow, with mascara, gold teeth and a Keith Richards’ rock ‘n’ roll shuffle.
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Orlando Bloom, Elizabethtown, 2004. Auteur Cameron Crowe’s second misstep in six films (after Vanilla Sky, 2001). He wrote shoe-designer (!) Drew Baylor for Bloom. When he was committed to Kingdom of Heaven,Crowe read other possibles: Masterson, Chris Evans, James Franco, Colin Hanks, Sean William Scott – and chose Ashton Kutcher (!) until he projected zero chemistry with co-star Kirsten Dunst. Bloom became free, created shoes yet little magic with Dunst. They were far from Tom Cruise-Renée Zellweger Mk II.
- Jon Heder, School For Scoundrels, 2005. First names inked were Murray as Dr P opposite Christopher Masterson as his confidence-needing pupil. They fled, possibly understanding the script was a disastrous re-hash of the 1959 UK orignal… not that funny, it’s true, but at least it had class… via Alistair Sim, Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, etc.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 3