By Casting directors have a tricky job. They have to find the perfect actor to play a role, but not be too obvious and pick only from a pool of studio-endorsed stars who happen to be free at the right time and want the gig. Sometimes it works (like Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight), but other times… Yeah.
1. Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher
We'll give it to Tom, he's actually pretty good in Jack Reacher and its follow-up Never Go Back. But only if they were original action films with no source material.
In the Lee Child novels, Jack is 6'5" tall with a 50-inch chest. This isn't superficial information – his being a hulking giant defines most of his encounters. He's essentially The Mountain in Game of Thrones. Reacher killed someone with a single punch once. So casting Tom Cruise, who is well under 6 feet tall and not exactly a threatening presence was a bit of an odd one.
2. Gary Oldman as a dwarf in Tiptoes
Everything about this film, let alone the casting, was just wrong. In it, Gary Oldman plays a person with dwarfism by walking on his knees. That's all you need to know really.
Not only that, but he's meant to be Matthew McConaughey's twin brother. Plus, they had Peter Dinklage among the supporting cast rather than the main role. It went straight to DVD, as you'd expect.
3. Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist in The World is Not Enough
Back when James Bond movies were still camp and silly, having Denise Richards play Dr Christmas Jones was just one in a long line of "suspend your disbelief" decisions.
Look, we're not saying that Denise Richards isn't smart, or that nuclear physicists can't be sex bombs – this is 2017 and a nuclear physicist can be anything she or he wants to be – but we're also sure they don't generally go to work wearing crop-tops and super short hotpants.
4. Elijah Wood as a football hooligan in Green Street
We know that Elijah's character doesn't start out as a footy thug, but still. Really? Elijah's one of the sweetest, friendliest-looking boy-men out there. They might as well have cast Daniel Radcliffe. In 2005.
He did his best and just about got away with it, but we can't help but think they could have found a more believable American actor.
5. Keanu Reeves as the very British Jonathan Harker in Dracula
Look, we actually really like Keanu. He might not have the greatest acting range out there, but in the right roles he's excellent.
It was weird enough that he gave Shakespeare a go in Much Ado About Nothing, but his oddest role is probably as vampire hunter Harker. For some reason, Francis Ford Coppola demanded he use a British accent, even though he clearly couldn't do it. Gary Oldman must have been seething. Kevin Costner didn't have to bother in Prince of Thieves, so why did poor Keanu have to? That reminds us...
6. Kevin Costner as Robin Hood in Prince of Thieves
Robin Hood is one of the most iconic British characters of all time. So who did they cast in the role? That's right, Mr California, Kevin Costner.
The film isn't terrible, and Costner sort of gets through it while playing Hood as a deadpan rogue rather than a flamboyant hero. But we would love to have seen a charismatic British actor go up against Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham. Sean Bean, anyone?
7. Colin Farrell as Alexander the Great in Alexander
Oliver Stone directing an epic drama about Alexander the Great? Sounds pretty good, count us in. Oh wait, you've cast famously Irish Colin Farrell as the Macedonian Alexander. Right.
Again, Colin has proved himself a fine actor in many films, but this was a misfire from start to finish. And the dodgy wig certainly didn't help. Why blonde? He's Macedonian.
8. Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates in the Psycho remake
The fact that this shot-for-shot remake of the Hitchcock classic was even made was odd in the first place, but they could have at least cast someone with the weird, bird-like frailty of Anthony Perkins in the role of Bates. Someone like Andrew Garfield, maybe, if he hadn't been only 15 at the time.
But they plumped for Vince Vaughn. Okay, back then he wasn't the beefy frat pack joker that he eventually became, but he just wasn't able to capture what made the original character so simple yet terrifying.
9. Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels
Poor Hayden was actually a decent young actor before landing the role that changed his life forever, and on paper he made for a decent young version of Anakin.
But then he probably saw the awful script of Attack of the Clones and freaked out. Because his performance was one of the most wooden in Hollywood history, and we simply can't buy him as the guy who became the supremely evil – and massive, and huge, and massive – Darth Vader. It's so bad that it's retroactively ruined Darth and made him a bit of a joke, knowing that it's just Hayden underneath the armour.
10. Rosie O'Donnell as Betty Rubble in The Flintstones
The 1994 live-action remake of the animated classic wasn't exactly great, but at least they perfectly cast John Goodman, Rick Moranis and Elizabeth Perkins as Fred, Barney and Wilma. But Rosie as Betty?
In the cartoons, Betty was known as a rather timid and friendly wife of Barney, but those aren't exactly the words often used to describe Rosie O'Donnell. Critics panned her performance and she grabbed the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress the following year.
