Bloody Disgusting says Statham was deep in talks for the Bullseye role, but when that story hit the Internet early it soured the deal. Here's how they sum things up...
He was legitimately in heavy negotiations for the role and the leak killed it. Perhaps his agent saw the positive uproar and instantly upped the actor’s asking fee? Perhaps the studio spotted the same excited reaction and preemptively killed the deal out of fear of Statham’s management going for more money? Who knows. The bottom line is that yesterday the Crank star was at the top of the list and deep in negotiations and today Marvel has moved on to other pastures.
In this business everybody is scrambling to be the first to report on anything. That's why you see some sites posting huge "confirmation" stories when often that simply isn't the case. We saw something similar happen with Joaquin Phoenix when he was up for the Doctor Strange role. The Internet community went nuts when it was reported he had the role, but was it true? Hardly. And all of that buzz, all of that pressure, caused the deal to collapse. This is why you see me rail against certain sites (*cough*Moviepilot*cough*) that jump on the tiniest, shakiest rumor and report it as a done deal. What we do has a real impact on legitimate business dealings.
Oh well. With Daredevil set to begin production in the next few weeks, expect Marvel to cast someone soon. Will he be as cool as Statham would have been? Doubtful.
