Did you hear the one about Joseph Fiennes being cast as Michael Jackson? Well, turns out it’s not a joke. It has been reported that Ralph’s brother will indeed be playing the King of Pop in the upcoming TV movie Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon, something that, predictably, provoked outrage in certain quarters, with people angry over the decision to hire a white English man to play an African-American musician. For the most part, though, people were just stunned.
Fiennes isn’t alone in being a real left field choice in the world of moviemaking (he’s not even alone in being a bizarre casting choice for Jackson – did you know Diego Luna played Jacko once?). Over the years, producers have been making all kinds of ridiculous casting decisions, swapping gender and even race around like logic was just being tossed to the wind.
It’s happening more and more often these days, too, and so, we’ve decided to look back on ten utterly batshit casting decisions that made no sense then, and sure as hell don’t make any sense now.