Luke Evans

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

 

  1. Jeremy Renner, The Bourne Legacy, 2011.    Three was enough for Matt Damon. (Until 2015…!)  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 20 hopefuls- Erryn Arkin, Adam Brody, Dominic  Cooper, Paul Dano, Luke Evans, Michael Fassbender, Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Hartnett, Garrett Hedlund, Oscar Isaac, Shia LaBeouf, Kellan Lutz, Logan Marshall-Green, Alex Pettyfer, Michael Pitt and Benjamin Walker. Plus Joel Edgerton and  Tobey Maguire, who were  Great Gatsbying down-under. Renner, Hollywood’s new white hope since The Hurt Locker, 2009, was suggested  for the Mission: Impossible.. if ever Tom Cruise retired.
  2. Joel Edgerton, The Great Gatsby, 2011.    Australian director Baz Luhrmann asked actor Ben Affleck  to be Tom Buchanan opposite the great Leonardo DiCaprio but director Affleck was recreating the 1979 Iran hostage crisis in Argo. Edgerton, who narrowly lost out on being “the new Jason Bourne,” was then chosen. And proved the weakest link of the fourth Gatsby movie since 1926. Either of the other candidates – Bradley Cooper and Luke Evans – would have been superior.
  3. Ryan Gosling, Gangster Squad, 2011.     The City v Public Enemy #1, circa ’49. Apart from Sean Penn’s uproarious make-up as Mickey Cohen (befitting his worst rôle), Gosling won LAPD sergeant Jerry Wooters from Edgerton, Adam Brody, Luke Evans and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
  4. Colin Farrell, Winter’s Tale, 2013.      Martin Scorsese called Mark Helprin’s maelstrom of a novel unfilmable.Steven Spielberg gave up in 1983. AuteurAkiva Goldman didn’t stray far fom the fantasy brigade for his  reincarnation romance. Up for  the Manhattan burglar falling for the heiress who dies in his arms were Hemsworth from Hunger Games, Luke Evans (Bard in The Hobbit), Garrett Tron Hedlund, Tim Hiddleston (Loki in Thor), Aaron Kick-Ass Taylor-Johnson and Benjamin Walker aka Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Long before all those, even Farrell had been Bullseye in Daredevil, circa 2002.  
  5. Ryan Gosling, Only God Forgives, 2012.    Evans was given the lead but The Hobbit : An Unexpected Journey. And so,  after rigorous Muay Thai training (and a Thai diet), Gosling made his second  actioner for Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn – the new Eastwood and Don Siegel! 
  6. Colin Farrell, Winter’s Tale, 2013.    Martin Scorsese called Mark Helprin’s maelstrom of a novel unfilmable. Steven Spielberg gave up in 1983. As the romantic thief Peter Lake, Farrell tried but could not rescue scenarist Akiva Goldsman’s poor directing debut. Evans, Garrett Hedlund, Liam Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Benjamin Walker could not have done better.
  7. Ben Affleck, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2015.
  8. Armie Hammer, Free Fire, 2015.      Change of Ord for the gangland shootout at the Boston warehouse, circa 1978.
  9. Sharlto Copley, Free Fire, 2016.    Vernon changed actors, attitude and styles – he was respun for Copley – when Evans was stuck in Beauty and the Beast. Anything was better than this Reservoir Dogs wannabe which somehow snared Brie Larson… just she won the Best Actress Oscar for Room.
  10. Logan Marshall-Green, Sand Castle, 2016.  Netflix paid for this (very) demi (very demi) Platoon, following Henry Cavill’s GI squad ading a raqui village in 2003. Evans, a very busy Brit, had to pass Sergeant Harper to Charleston’s Marshall-Green.

 

 

 

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