Who can picture Tom Cruise as a superhero? Or what about John Cusack? Nah, me neither.

But they were two names attached to the Watchmen movie long before Zack Snyder settled on a bunch of talented, yet barely known actors to carry out the super and not so super deeds depicted in the upcoming live-action adaptation of the greatest graphic novel (comic book for adults) of all-time.

Two of them are probably best known for their roles in a couple of films dealing with pedophilia.



There's 35-year-old Patrick Wilson, who cut his teeth in Hard Candy playing Jeff Kohlver, a photographer who it turns out lures 14-year-old girls back to his apartment and is busted by Juno's Ellen Page.

In Watchmen, Wilson takes on the role of Dan Drieberg, the washed-up Batman-esque superhero Night Owl II, who now sports a non-superhero pot belly.

Then there's Jackie Earle Haley, the now 47-year-old former child star who returned to the spotlight in 2006 for his Oscar-nominated role as pint-sized registered sex offender Ronnie J. McGorvey in Little Children.



As masked vigilante Rorschach (aka Walter Kovacs) is only supposed to be about five-foot-six anyway, not to mention freaky-looking without his mask, the diminutive - and equally freaky-looking - Haley is perfect for the role

Both Wilson and Haley have proven to be good actors, and Hard Candy and Little Children, which also stars Wilson incidently, are pretty powerful, confronting films well worth a look if you haven't seen them.

But, their casting in Snyder's Watchmen a couple of years back did raise a few eyebrows. More so for the pair's lack of 'knownability', if that's a word. They join Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian), Malin Ackerman (Silk Spectre), Matthew Goode (Ozymandias) and Billy Crudup (Dr Manhattan).



They are certainly not the most unlikely of actors to have donned the superhero garb though as this list below shows. Of course not all were intended to be serious, but some were seriously bad. Others were inspired choices ...











7. Chuck McCann
as Captain Flash in The Projectionist (1969)

A comedian, McCann has been most recently seen as a judge in oddball courtroom drama Boston Legal with William Shatner and James Spader, but has been in just every damn TV show since he entered the business in the early '60s, including Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

A great impressionist, he's lent his voice to many a superhero cartoon, including Ironman and Fantastic 4 (as Ben Grimm) as well as other animated series like GI Joe and Pac-Man, so he's no stranger to a bit fanciful action. But he certainly didn't look the part in The Projectionist.

That's about as fanciful as you can get. In fairness, his character, a lonely projectionist, escapes his dull life by imagining that he is the superhero Captain Flash. He takes on his evil boss, the theatre manager, who is played by legendary comedian Rodney Dangerfield (Back to School, Caddyshack) in his very first film role.

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6. Robert Townsend
as The Meteor Man (1993)

One of Eddie Murphy's great mates, who actually directed him in Eddie Murphy Raw (1987), Townsend is probably best known for his debut feature as writer-director-star Hollywood Shuffle (1987).

Though he has remained hard at work behind the camera, it all kinda went downhil for him after those two aforementioned films. And his honourable attempt at creating a genuine, if light-hearted black superhero didn't help.

He plays 'mild-mannered' schoolteacher Jefferson Reed, who one night gets hit in the chest by a chunk of meteor. He gains all kinds of powers, including the ability to fly, but being gutless, he's terrified of heights.

The movie was light on for a plot - but featured a who's who of African- American actors, including James Earl Jones, Don Cheadle, Bill Cosby, Eddie Griffin and others - and it absolutely bombed at the box-office.

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5. Rob Lowe
as The Weevil in The Specials (2000)

The consumate '80s heart-throb, Lowe's career looked 'gone' following his infamous appearance in a certain tape featuring a certain underage girl. He picked up some good work in the Austin Powers movies, but was by and large left to wallow in low-budget films like the comedy, The Specials.

As the retarted cousin of X-Men and brother of Mystery Men, both of which were released about the same time, the story sees the "sixth or seventh best superhero team in the world pursue their rightful place in the harshly competitive world of toy tie-ins and fighting evil".

Lowe is part of that team as The Weevil, who is equipped with super strength, super agility, super senses, super vainness and a super ability to have an affair with Ms. Indestructible, the wife of the group's leader The Strobe (played by Thomas Haden Church). Naughty, naughty Rob Lowe.

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4. William H. Macy
as The Shoveler in Mystery Men (1999)

Oh, geez, you never woulda picked the guy playing that weakass car salesman Jerry Lundergaad who has his wife kidnapped and then killed in the Coen Brothers' classic black comedy Fargo (1996) as a superhero.

But, of course, Mystery Men was not your average superhero movie. It was a light-hearted look at the genre, co-starring Ben Stiller as Mr Furious, Hank Azaria as the Blue Raja and Paul 'Pee Wee Herman' Reubens as The Spleen, and while it was a bit hit and miss, Macy's was one of the stand-out performances.

In the film based on a 1980s comic series, he plays a guy whose special gift is being able to "shovel well", though his wife thinks he is probably just digging his own grave.

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3. Michael Crawford
as Condorman (1981)

Crawford is best known for playing the obnoxious Frank Spencer in British sit-com Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em in the '70s, and of course whining "Betty!", and then making The Phantom of the Opera his own in Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit stage production.

In one of his very rare big screen performances, Crawford plays comic artist and writer Woody Wilkins, who becomes the superhero he normally draws, the Condorman, in real-life, and using an array gadgets he helps a Soviet spy defect to the West - dressed ridiculously I might add, even for the early '80s.

During one take, when Condorman falls into the River Seine, Crawford nearly drowned after the strength of the current was miscalculated. He was dragged five to ten feet under the water before two lifeguards pulled him out just in time.

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2. Michael Keaton
as Batman (1989)

Apparently Mel Gibson was in fact first choice for the duel role of Bruce Wayne and Batman, and he would've been more than adequate, but had committments to Lethal Weapon 2 (1989). Bill Murray was also considered earlier int he film's development.

In the end Michael Keaton was at the time a rather odd choice by director Tim Burton as he had made his name as a rather odd comedic actor more associated with playing a house husband (in Mr Mom) or a ghost with the most (in Beetlejuice).

Warner Bros. was deluged with thousands of letters of complaint from Batman fans, but Keaton, all 175cm of him, pulled off a memorable performance, matched by only Christian Bale's turn as the Caped Crusader 16 years later.

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1. Robert Downey Jnr
as Ironman (2008)

Over a 10-year period Downey Jnr was in and out of court, in and out of jail and in and out drug rehabilitation clinics. Who would've thought he would go on to create one of the most memorable and entertaining superheroes of all-time.

Apparently Nicholas Cage and Tom Cruise were both interested in the role of the suave billionaire industrialist Tony Stark aka Ironman while Clive Owen and Sam Rockwell were also considered, but no-one could've topped Downey Jnr.

The story goes director Jon Favreau wanted the 173cm Downey because he could make Stark "a likable asshole", but also depict an authentic emotional journey once he won over the audience.

To prepare for his role as Iron Man, Downey Jnr spent five days a week weight training and practiced martial arts to get into shape.

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