- Ryan Gosling, The Notebook, 2004. When Steven Spielberg was, as they say, attached, his two possibilities for Noah were Tom Cruise – and Justin Timberlake, whose wife,Jessica Biel, was among the Allie contenders. But new director Nick Cassavetes wanted a “not handsome” unknown. Enter: Gosling, getting in the mood by moving to Charleston for two months, rowing the Ashley River every morning and making furniture (such as the film’s kitchen table) in the afternoons.
- Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Rent, 2005. The Broadway musical, greatly influenced by Puccini’s opera, La Boheme, had a song with the line: “I hear Spike Lee’s shooting down the street.” Alas, it wasn’t for this movie – which he’d tried setting up with Timberlake as the transvestite Angel. Ultimately, Chris Columbus directed with many of the original cast (Heredia, included) yet, none of the show’s power.
- Sam Huntingdon,Superman Returns, 2006.
- Zac Efron, High School Musical, TV, 2006. Disney’s wonder musical franchise – two tele-films and a cinema feature – grew out of… Grease 3. In 1999, Timberlake and Britney Spears were to be the kids of Danny Zucko and Sandy Olsson from the 1978 film. Re-writes were shelved in 2004. Apart from the well-greased angles, the script was, basically, HSM. Also trying out for Troy: Lucas Grabeel, Hunter Parrish, Drew Seely (who dubbed Efron’s singing), Matthew Underwood.
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kill Shot, 2008. Rather than direct a second Elmore Leonard pulp, Tarantino agreed in 2002 to simply act – alongside his Jackie Brown star, Robert De Niro. For UK director Tony Scott, who had, bien sur, made Tarantino’s script of True Romance, 1993. Timberlake was up for the same role of Richie Nix (not Richard Nixon, by the way) when UK director John Madden got it rolling.
- Ryan Reynolds, Green Lantern, 2010. The singer felt he had a breakthrough chance after such movies as as Alpha Dog and Black Snake Moan. Not so. 007 director Martin Campbell spent five months looking for and two months testing possible Hal Jordans – the DC Comic hero with the super-powered ring. (Make of that what you will). Jack Black, Bradley Cooper, Michael Fassbender. Nathan Fillion, Brian Austin Green, Emile Hirsch, Jared Leto, Eddie Murphy, Chris Pine, Sam Worthington – allowing Reynolds to achieve the rare double whammy of playing both Marvel Comics and DC Comics superheroes.
- Vince Vaughn, Lay The Favourite, 2011. The ex-‘Nsync singer was in the mix for Rosie in that rarity – a Stephen Frears flop.
- Sean Hayes, The Three Stooges, 2011. When the shock choice of Sean Penn fell out in 2009 (his marriage was disintegrating), the Oscar-nominated Emmy-winner Paul Giamatti was the Farrelly brothers’ next surprise choice for the simpleton Larry Fine. And next idea was… and the minddoeth boggleth… Timberlake!!! ’Twas obvious from the get-go that thismovie was a loser. The Farrellys brothers may love and adore them (hence their own mindless farces like Dumb and Dumber) but there are just not that many fans of the Stooges fans – and their slap-happy boinks, pokes, slaps, nyuk-nyuks, nyaaahhhs – in one US township, let alone the world.
- Chris Pine, This Means War, 2011. Two CIA Buddies fall for the same girl. (Reese Witherspoon?!!). Mayhem ensues. Not! Way back at the turn of the century, it was to be a black two-hander for Martin Lawrence and Chris Rock. But they’d all read the script – “whose sensible parts,” suggested New York Times critic Louis Lumenick “would fit on a napkin with enough room left over for the Gettysburg Address.” Chicago’s Roger Ebert simply added: “So bad it’s nothing else but bad.”
- Channing Tatum, Side Effects, 2012. Timberlake was in the running for Steven Soderbergh’s alleged, final film, No chance… because Justin hadn’t made three other films with the director. Happily, Soderbergh returned to directing for the cinema with Logan Lucky, 2017.
- Jai Courtney, A Good Day To Die Hard, 2012. The singer was first chosen for our hero John McClane’s son, Jack, in Live Free or Die Hard, 2006, aka Hard 4. Jack was deleted and kept in the Fox fridge until Hard 5. By the time that was ready six years later, Timberlake was gone and the new candidates for McHero Jr were:Courtney, DJ Cotrona, James Badge Dale, Shiloh Fernandez, Ben Foster, Liam Hemsworth, Steven R McQueen (the grandson), Aaron Paul, Milo Ventimiglia, Paul Walker.
- Jamie Foxx, Annie, 2014. Legend insists that both Timberlake and Brad Pitt were invited to be Will Stacks, new name for Daddy Warbucks, in this third moie version of the Broadway hit. Producer Will Smith set it up in 2011 for his daughter, Willow. But during the delays, she growed like Topsy.
- Alden Ehrenreich, Rules Don’t Apply, 2014. Gestating since 1973, Warren Beatty’s film about Howard Hughes is also a Hollywood love story about two kids employed by the fruitcake billionaire. Alas, Beatty is not Bertolucci or Coppola enough to mix the two tales… “I’ve always been, the word I would have to use is, amused by Howard Hughes.” Seeing Hughes’ security team guarding hisfivebungalows and seven suites at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1964, made him Think : Hey, There’s a movie here! Only took him 30 years to make, which it’s probab,ly why it’s more about him than Hughes.. even set in the year Beatty arrived in Film City, When Andrew Garfield switched to Martin Scorsese’s Silence, Ehrenreich and Justin Timberlake were up for the driver falling for Lily Collins what Beatty saw as a treatise on the mid-50s US sexual puritanism. No, really! Beatty also said the film is Titanic – well, it certainly sank.
- James Marsden, Sonic the Hedgehog, 2019. For the new movie version of the video game, 15 actors jostled for Tom Wachowski, the Montana cop helping the speedy blue blur alien from another planet in his fight against Jim Carrey’s Dr Robotnik. They were: Timberlake (!), Jack Black, Ansel Elgort, Chris Evans, Bill Hader(also up for voicing Sonic), Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Adam Pally (also seen for Sonic, he wound up as Wade, Tom’s deputy), Chris Pratt, Paul Rudd, Jason Segal, Milo Ventimiglia, Owen Wilson and Marsden, who was ready for “as many as they want to make. it was so much fun to see Jim enjoying himself again.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls: 14