The TV series that could have cost Cillian Murphy his Oscar: “1000% on that list”
The casting process is long and full of detours, with endless back-and-forth about who the right actor for a part is and the many iterations of ensembles being floated as potential options.
As an A-list director, you are presented with a wealth of star-studded names to choose from, safely presuming that most people would give up their left kidney to work with someone working at the top of their game.
Whether it be Greta Gerwig and her ability to wrangle anyone she wanted into Barbie, including the likes of Michael Cera and Ryan Gosling, or Lynne Ramsay’s appeal to the most fascinating performers of all time, there are many filmmakers who nearly always get their own way when it comes to fulfilling their vision.
But for Christopher Nolan, there were almost too many names being thrown around during the pre-production process for his most successful project to date, with a million stars being considered for the ultimate role of playing J. Robert Oppenheimer and almost going to some else.
Oppenheimer is now seen as the crowning glory in Christopher Nolan’s career, perhaps a title that is always shifting due to the fact that he pops out another epic every other year. There was an endless amount of buzz surrounding the project from the moment it was announced, spawning the creation of ‘Barbenheimer’ and the cinematic frenzy that saw global audiences pile into the cinema for double viewings of Barbie and Nolan’s bomb biopic.
However, while we now cannot imagine anyone other than Cillian Murphy in the role of the mildly stressed-out scientist, there was an alternative version of the story that almost cost him his Oscar, with a television show being made about the same story in 2014.
Manhattan, created by Sam Shaw, was a limited series and severely underseen retelling of the same story that dominated Oppenheimer. However, it didn’t make the impact that was intended, leading many people to forget its existence after Nolan’s version of the story came out in 2023.
But one of the key differences between Manhattan and Oppenheimer manifests in the casting process, with Shaw discussing how their options for the lead role even extended to the musical world. When discussing this, Shaw said, “I don’t think we can say that we ‘reached out’ to Beck, but yes, it was something to think about. We wanted Oppenheimer to feel both like he possessed a certain undeniable charisma, a presence onstage, but also that he was playing a different instrument. He needed to feel alien—or other—in some ways. He stood out.”
However, the creators of the shows also seriously considered Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Cillian Murphy for the lead role, saying he was “100% on that list”. If Murphy had accepted this role, then his career trajectory would no doubt look very different. It also feels like a moment of divine intervention, with fate stepping in and telling Murphy that while he was destined for this character, he wasn’t meant for this iteration of the character. Luckily for him, his time eventually came.
