Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed “Oppenheimer” is in cinemas, a film featuring an absolutely stacked cast – including two actors who almost played Batman for Nolan.
Almost twenty years ago, multiple actors tried out for the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Nolan’s 2005 film “Batman Begins” – the movie that launched his whole Dark Knight trilogy.
Ultimately Christian Bale won the role, though the “Oppenheimer” leading man came close enough to film a costume test for the movie before losing out. Murphy still managed to make it into the movie in the role of villain Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow.
Another candidate was Josh Hartnett, with the actor confirming to Playboy back in 2015 that he talked with Nolan about taking on the role. Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Nolan confirmed those talks took place, but it didn’t go much further than that. Asked if he was screen tested, Nolan said:
“No, it never got that far. I met with Josh and if I recall, he was a young actor whose work I was very interested in. I had an initial conversation with him but he had read my brother’s script for ‘The Prestige’ at the time and was more interested in getting involved with that. So it never went further than that.”
Hartnett was not cast in either “Batman Begins” or “The Prestige” with Bale ultimately taking on the leading role in both. Hartnett finally gets to work with Nolan on “Oppenheimer” as Ernest Lawrence, a nuclear physicist and the inventor of the cyclotron who befriends Murphy’s character.
Nolan was also asked if he would ever direct a James Bond movie. Whilst he may be done with superheroes and said he would pass on a “Star Wars” movie earlier this week, it has long been known Nolan is a massive Bond film fan. He responded:
“The influence of those movies in my filmography is embarrassingly apparent. It would be an amazing privilege to do one. At the same time, when you take on a character like that, you’re working with a particular set of constraints.
It has to be the right moment in your creative life where you can express what you want to express and really burrow into something within the appropriate constraints because you would never want to take on something like that and do it wrong.”
“Oppenheimer” opens in cinemas on July 21st.
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