- Chris Hemsworth, Thor, 2010. That’s what brothers are for…! After Brad Pitt passed, 007’s Daniel Craig was first choice for for the disabled medical student Dr. Donald Blake with the mighty Thor as his alter ego. Next: the future Loki, RoboCop, Tarzan and Magic Mike: Tom Hiddleston, Joel Kinnaman, Alexander Skarsgård, Channing Tatum. Plus Charlie Hunnam, Paul Levesque, Tyler Mane, Brad Pitt. (Then, the ROAR management co-founder William Ward found Chris on an Australian visit, brought him back to LA casting sessions. He read for Thor but was not given a test. His baby brother Liam (another Ward client) did test – and was rejected. Ward met with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige: “You’ve got to reconsider Chris, he’s your guy.” This time Chris tested and everyone said: “Oh my god.” In 2011, Liam won the male lead in the start of The Hunger Games trilogy.
- Josh Hutcherson, The Hunger Games, 2011.
- Jai Courtney, A Good Day To Die Hard, 2012. Justin Timberlake was first chosen for our hero John McClane’s son, Jack, in Live Free or Die Hard, 2006, aka Hard 4. Jack was axed 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, Hemsworth, DJ Cotrona, James Badge Dale, Shiloh Fernandez, Ben Foster, Liam Hemsworth, Steven R McQueen (the grandson), Aaron Paul, Milo Ventimiglia, Paul Walker.
- Max Irons, The Host, 2012. Young Irons beat Hemsworth, among others, to become Jared, Saoirse Ronan’s boyfriend in Andrew Niccol’s film of Twilight author Stephenie Meyer’s sf book. Instead, Liam won Ali Baba in Arabian Nights, 2013.
- Shia La Beouf, Nymphomaniac – Volumes 1 & 2, Denmark-Germany-France-Belgium, 2013. Hemsworth passed on notorious Danish director Lars Von Trier’s offer which was to involve real sex. LaBeouf was asked to send photos of his penis. Instead, he sent a sex tape made with his girlfriend. Finally, porno doubles wrere used in the boring film. Hemsworth eventually co-starred with Von Trier’s star, Charlotte Gainsbourg, in Independence Day: Resurgence, 2015.
- Colin Farrell, Winter’s Tale, 2013. Auteur Akiva Goldman didn’t stray far fom the fantasy troops for his reincarnation romance. Also seen 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 Hiddldston (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.
- Aaron Paul, Need For Speed, , 2013. TV’s Breaking Bad find lost The Missionary that year, but won the DreamWorks video-game adaptation from… The Hunger Games’ Hemsworth, Home And Away’s Luke Bracey and the Maleficent prince Brenton Thwaites.
- Chris Pine, Wonder Woman, 2015. On Warner shelves for a full decade (not helped by David Kelley’s disastrous 2011 TVersion), the demi-goddess daughter of Zeus finally joined the DC Extended Universe in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2015. For her film, four guys were up for her WWII lover Steve Trevor – Hemsworth, Scott Eastwood, Alexander Skarsgård… and Star Trek’s Captain Kirk reboot. 9.
- Charlie Hunnam, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, 2015. On the Warner shelf for almost as long as Justice League, David Dobkins’ Arthur & Lancelot, churned into Guy Ritchie’s Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur as the first of a possible sextet (but there are no Hobbits!). During which time, the guy pulling the sword from the stone was to be Hemsworth, Sam Claflin, Dominic Cooper, Colin Farrell, Kit Harington, the Scottish Hans Matheson (from Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, 2009), Jim Sturgess or Benjamin Walker. Then, Hunnam promised director Ritchie he’d recover his Sons of Anarchy weight loss and then some. Furthermore, dude, he was ready to rumble with the his final rivals, Henry Cavill (Ritchie’s Man From UNCLE) and Courtney Jai. “Bring ’em both in here. I’ll fight ’em both. The one who walks out the door gets the job!”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 9