Hollywood's Worst Casting Choices - Photo Gallery - LIFE

Hollywood's Worst Casting Choices

They ALMOST got all the deserving candidates in here, but they missed the all-time #1: Mickey Rourke as a tattooed St Francis of Assisi. (Although that was technically not a "Hollywood" movie, so I guess they're OK, given their narrow definition.)

Mickey Rourke? What were they thinking? The Mick never combs his hair, and he whips it out in public a lot. Francis did those things. Do you think that was the basis for casting him?

To the movie's credit, it was really about the 1200's, and not about the 1960's like Zeffirelli's sappy version of the life of Francis, and the film is a reasonable (if utterly boring) speculation of what this great legend might really have been like as a man. With Edward Norton in the role, this might be a pretty good flick.

But Mickey Rourke?

I'll tell you one thing - Rourke has several nude or shirtless scenes, and I learned that St Francis had some pretty good pecs on 'im. I'm guessing that he was probably our most buff saint.

Not to mention our most tattooed.

This shed a new light on the dimensions of the man: mystic, servant of God, gym rat. I guess his vow of poverty didn't force him to give up his membership at Gold's

This film gets tiresome very fast, but you have to rent it some day just to see a couple minutes of the Mickster being full of beatific grace.

Yup, he was full of it all right.