- Josh Peck, What Goes Up, 2008. Nine other actors were in (and out) during the much delayed and budget-slashed mess about a New York journo involved with the youth population of the small home of town of “the first teacher in space” Christa McAuliffe – when she dies in the 1986 Challenger Shuttle explosion.
- Jeremy Renner, The Bourne Legacy, 2011. TThree 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 (he was made an Outcome super-agent), Taylor Kitsch, 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.
- Jai Courtney, A Good Day To Die Hard, 2012. With all the superheroes signed up, and Jeremy Renner winning the new Bourne and Mission: Impossible heroes, LAgents agreed that the Young Actor Role of the year was Bruce Willis’ son. “He could inherit the John McClane franchise.” If only Willis and his five other producers could agree on Junior’s age. Until the Aussie Courtney grabbed it, Liam Hemsworth was the youngest at 22, Paul Walker oldest at 40. Only Steven R McQueen (The Grandson) was the same age as the 57-year-old Willis’ oldest daughter: 24. Dano was 28.
- Jesse Eisenberg, Night Moves, 2012. Dano and Rooney Mara became Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning – as two environmentalists on a mission. Blowing up an Oregon dam.
- Travis Fimmel, Warcraft : The Beginning, 2015. And The End… Based on the series of immensely successful medieval video games – orcs vhumans. Oh, it did well, ($433m), but was a bit of a yawn. Johnny Depp was going to star for Sam Raimi in 2012 but Duncan Jones finally directed the Aussie TV Tarzanfor the lion of Stormwind, Anduin Lothar, after checking out Dano, Anson Mount, Anton Yelchin various gryphons, dragons, zombies and werewolves. Dano had something far better – Pierre in BBC’s six-chapter War and Peace. When Anthony Hopkins played him in the Beeb’s 1972 version, it was for 20 chapters.
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 7500, 2017. A scheduline snafu meant Dano had to pass a heroic pilot role to JGL in the airline hijacking thriller – the feature debut of German director Patrick Vollrath. JGL’s next gig was directing himself in an R-rated musical, Wingman.
- Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog, 2020. Westerns were back… So was down-under director Jane Campion, makinbg her first movie for a dozen years – after the two seasons of her Top of the Lake series. She wanted the same star, Elisabeth Moss, but she was booked for Taika Watiti’s film Next Goal Wins. Then, Dano had to leave to be The Batman Riddler. Campion got lucky. She called up another of her favourite US actors, Kirsten Dunst – and she brought her partner with her. Breaking Bad’s Jesse Plemons. The result was interestjng, but not satisfactory.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 7