1. – Michael Soll, Pee Stains And Other Disasters, 2004. Luckily he avoided being one of two skateboarding and girl-chasing heroes with the worst title of the year.
2. – Sam Huntingdon, Superman Returns, 2006.
3. – Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 2006. Ben’s kid brother won because New Zealand director Andrew Dominik thought LaBeouf was too young – the very reason he was winning all his other films, Transformers, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
4. – Daniel Radcliffe, December Boys, 2007. Disturbia and Transformers came first. Young Freddie Highmore, 13 at the time, also had to exit (for family reasons). Radcliffe was 16. His (same) agent, Sue Latimer, happened to be… Highmore’s mother!
5. – Bradley Cooper, The Dark Fields, 2010. Lost: an opportunity to co-star with Robert De Niro.
6. – Ryan Reynolds, Safe House, 2011. All the great white hopes – Zac Efron, Jake Gyllenhaall, Garret Hedlund, Taylor Kitsch, James McAvoy, Chris Pine, Channing Tatum, Sam Worthington – angled to be the freshman CIA babysitter having to rescue Denzel Washington from an attacked safe house in the Hollywood debut of Swedish director Daniel Espinosa.
7. – Jeremy Renner, The Bourne Legacy, 2011. Three was enough for Matt Damon. The studio did not agree and kept the franchise alive by rebooting Jason Bourne as Aaron Cross – “There Was Never Just One.” But who to play him from 15 hopefuls? Not the Guatemnala-born Isaac, compensated with a shorter role as #3. Renner, Hollywood’s new (and young) white hope since The Hurt Locker, was also picked as heir apparent to the Mission: Impossible franchise.
8. – Ben Foster, Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father, 2011. Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr downright refused The Son… After numerous discussions with and/or about LaBoeuf, Dominic Cooper, James Franco, Jeremy Renner and Channing Tatum, Foster eagerly rejoined his 1999 Liberty Heights-maker Barry Levinson to become John Gotti Jr. John Travolta was The Father… of New York’s Gambino Mafia family.
9. – Daniel Radcliffe, Horns, 2012. Dan inherits anew as LaBeouf’s agenda had him, leaving the guy with horns growing on his head after his lover’s mystery death. From the novel by Joe (son of Stephen) King.
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Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 9