• ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ Daniel Radcliffe star was originally cast in the lead role.
• Lesley Paterson revealed that the ‘Harry Potter’ actor was set to play the role of Paul Baumer.
• Lesley explained how Daniel’s name alone was not enough to generate funding.

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ star Daniel Radcliffe was originally cast in the lead role.

According to reports, screenwriter Lesley Paterson revealed that the ‘Harry Potter’ actor was set to play the role of Paul Baumer in one of his first film projects after the wizardry franchise ended in 2011.

Casting Daniel, 33, was thought to secure the necessary funding for the project based on Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel, but this proved not to be the case.

Lesley told the a newspaper: “When we optioned the book 16 years ago, the landscape was so different. There’s no way you could have done a German-language film and raised any money for it.”

“So we decided pretty early on, we would probably have to pitch it as English speaking with a German accent. And we thought, ‘What names are going to raise finance?’ And at that time, Daniel Radcliffe was coming off the back of Harry Potter,” Lesley added.

According to reports, Lesley explained how Daniel’s name alone was not enough to generate funding for the film because it was the ‘Harry Potter’ brand that had made him so well known.

The 42-year-old triathlete said: “We realised pretty quickly that although he’s a wonderful actor, he wasn’t right for this and his name actually didn’t raise any finance.”

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