‘This Is The End’ Nearly Scored Daniel Radcliffe, But Script ‘Wasn’t Good Enough’

This Is The End boasts a number of Hollywood’s young stars playing themselves in an apocalyptic comedy, but one star that won’t grace the screen is Daniel Radcliffe.

Co-writers and directors Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg had been tinkering with the idea of the movie for years, one where they would assemble a cast of their Hollywood friends. The idea started from a 2007 short film that the duo wrote called Jay and Seth Versus the Apocalypse, co-starring their friend and frequent collaborator Jay Baruchel.

One of their first choices for the full-length version released Wednesday was Daniel Radcliffe, but the Harry Potter actor shot them down.
Goldberg admitted that they should have developed the movie a little more before pitching it to him.

Goldberg said the plot was too obvious, the characters too close to the actors who played themselves, and the script filled with one too many Harry Potter cracks.

“Two years before we brought it to anybody else, we brought it to Daniel Radcliffe and he rejected it because it was sh—y, it wasn’t good enough,” Goldberg told BuizzFeed in a recent interview. “We got too excited, we jumped the gun on that. If we waited another year, I bet he would have done it.”

Those aren’t the exact words Radcliffe used when he turned down This Is The End, Goldberg admitted.

“[He] very respectfully explained that the material was not quite good enough, and he was right,” said Goldberg. “It was a bad early version. He taught us a lesson. We learned something from him that day.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CYlQOutbjZA

It ended up working out well that Radcliffe turned down the This Is The End role. He was replaced by fellow Harry Potter alum Emma Watson, who plays a cutthroat survivalist.

Daniel Radcliffe or not, This Is The End seems to be doing pretty well. Critics have given it high marks, and some think it will give Man of Steel some healthy competition at the box office.