- Jamie Bell, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, 2009. Delays in the Steven Spielberg-Peter Jackson production meant the British kid was far too busy. Before Tintin finally opened in 2011, he had been Ferb in the animated TV series, Phineas and Ferb, part of Jane Campion’s 2009 Cannes entry, Bright Star, playing the young Paul McCartney in Nowhere Boy and a damaged, teen animation genius in the German-Irish Death of a Superhero.
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Will Poulter, The Maze Runner, 2013. The former UK kid star Thomas Sangster (Love Actually and the ten-year-old Adolf in Hitler: The Rise of Evil) was the only cast member who had never read James Dashner’s dystopian novel. He tested for Gally and won Newt. (Vice-versa for Poulter). Floridian director Wes Ball called it: Lord of the Flies meets Lost. (Rather than mention Hunger Games or Divergent !) As Thomas alone pointed out, the maze would have easy to conquer if someone had simply built a ladder.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 2