If you’re cast in a major blockbuster, only to be replaced publicly, it can be hard to get your career back on track again. Stuart Townsend, for instance, shot scenes as Aragorn in “Lord of the Rings,” before Peter Jackson decided he was too young, and replaced him with Viggo Mortensen. Townsend’s heat remained for a little while — he was the lead in “Queen of the Damned,” and one of “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” but, well, we know what happened to those, and Townsend hasn’t had much luck in recent years. Dougray Scott, meanwhile, was meant to play Wolverine in Bryan Singer‘s “X-Men,” but had to bow out when “Mission Impossible 2” ran over, and was last seen starring in British rom-com “Love’s Kitchen,” which took a whopping £121 on its opening weekend in the U.K (although, in fairness, he’s playing Arthur Miller in “My Week With Marilyn,” which could start a comeback).
Of course, it’s possible to come back from this sort of thing, and British actor Rob Kazinsky looks to have just landed on his feet. The more-or-less unknown, a veteran of BBC soap “Eastenders,” was originally cast as dwarf Fili in Jackson’s “The Hobbit,” but for “personal reasons” had to drop out just after filming began, and was replaced by Dean O’Gorman. But it’s clear that he made an impression on someone on “The Hobbit” team, as Guillermo Del Toro, the co-writer and original director of the film, has according to Variety, cast Kazinsky in his looming monster movie blockbuster “Pacific Rim.”
Furthermore, the great Willem Dafoe is also said to be in early talks for the film, marking two more additions to a cast that already includes Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kinkuchi, Idris Elba, Charlie Day and Max Martini (plus, possibly, Ron Perlman), who will all form the human resistance to a series of devastating monster attacks. Kazinsky is said to join them (although considering a vague resemblance to Hunnam, we wouldnt’ be surprised if he’s playing Yancy Antrobus, the brother of the “Sons of Anarchy” actor’s character Raleigh Antrobus), while Dafoe’s part is said to be a “rogue scientist with expertise on alien creatures,” which sounds like Ivo Czerny, the mentor of Day’s character, Newt Gotlieb (seriously, the character names in the script are kind of amazing).
All is coming along very promisingly — we particularly like how Del Toro’s been able to fill the cast, for the most part, with a fresher line-up of names that most blockbusters. Filming on the Legendary Pictures production gets underway in the fall, and its already been slated for a July 12, 2013 release.
