- Josh Holloway, Lost, TV, 2004-2010. When he was due to be a con man in a suit, three of the series future stars auditioned to be Sawyer: Fox (who became heroic Jack), Jorge Garcia (big Hurley ) and Dominic Monaghan (little Charlie).
- Tom Welling, The Fog, 2004. “I turn a lot of stuff down – big, big movies, the kind I wouldn’t want to go to the cinema to see. I know some Hollywood studios see me becoming a leading man on the big budget vehicles, playing the kind of roles that Steve McQueen used to excel at. But I’m not in any hurry. I’d be just as happy sitting back and watching the seasons change.” Fox was not the sole member of the soon-to-be Lost TV elite to be invited aboard the bad re-make of John Carpenter’s 1979 horror hit, Dominic Monaghan tested for Spooner as Maggie Grace beat Emilie de Ravin to the hero’s main squeeze. “If the roles I fight to get all go to Matt Damon,” said Fox, “then I won’t work. There’s a possibility I’ll give up acting and do something altogether different. Become an astronomer, maybe.”
- Channing Tatum, GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, 2008. The Lost TV star and Chris Evans, Mark Wahlberg Sam Worthington were in the loop for Duke in Hollywood’s crazy toys-as-source-material movies. Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers skewered this one: “I don’t know what to say about the acting, writing and directing… because I couldn’t find any.”
- James Badge Dale, World War Z, 2011. After beating Leonardo DiCapro to the rights, Brad Pitt found two of his co-stars jumping the zombie ship – Fox and Ed Harris. Obviously, The Boss had the best role.
- Ezra Miller, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2015.
- Ezra Miller, The Flash, 2019. Feleaswd in 2023… After their Gotham triumph, the Batman boys, Jon Peters and Peter Guber, planned the first Flash movie as long ago as 1991. Much later, Ryan Reynolds was up for what would have been the first of his three superheroes (counting Captain Excellent in Paperman). Next? Chris Pine in 2016. They never happened. But 28 years later, Bradley Cooper, True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten, Scott Porter and Daniel Radcliffe, were in the mix. Plus the Lost star Matthew Fox… back in ’91 the choice was another Fox – Michael J Furthermore, the actual writer-creator (with artist Harry Lampart) of the three scarlet speedsters was yet another Fox – Gardner Fox, 1911-1986. (What? Oh no, the fourth Flash, Barry’s grandson, Bart, didn’t arrive until 2006).
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 6