Lord of the Rings with Stuart Townsend

The first live-action adaptation of Lord of The Rings had been pursued by The Beatles, who wanted Stanley Kubrick to helm the film. In 1970, John Boorman tried and used many of his ideas in the film Excalibur. In 1978 Ralph Bashki made an animated version. Finally, in 2001, the first film in the trilogy was released with Peter Jackson at the helm. However, he would replace his original choice for Aragorn before filming started. Had he not though, we may have had this:

                                          

The Set-Up 

Originally, Stuart Townsend had been cast as Aragorn after Russell Crowe, Daniel Day-Lewis, and that's right Nicolas Cage turned it down. We could probably have completely separate posts for all of those. For whatever reasons (some rumors suggest Jackson realized Townsend then 28 was too young for the part. There are other rumors which state he was difficult to work with.) He was replaced by 42-year-old Viggo Mortensen, who read the book on the plane to New Zealand and received a crash course in fencing upon arrival. 

The Execution 

The Lord of the Rings trilogy became an international success culminating in a sweep of the 2003 Oscars for the final film in the trilogy The Return of the King. It also influenced filmmaking techniques for the foreseeable future. 

What might have been

Mortensen, while already a working actor, became well known after Lord of the Rings. However, had Townsend stayed with the film, perhaps we would have had this (that's Thomas Jane)

I don't dance on Sundays.