One way the Twilight films have differentiated themselves from most other modern movie franchises is their low budgets. The initial Twilight film had a $37 million budget, while the most expensive Twilight film, Breaking Dawn – Part 2, had a $136 million budget. Sure, it's a bit bigger, but that's way shy of your average Transformers or Avengers budget. Because of this, the films have largely utilized unknown or character actors to keep costs down.
At one point, though, the series could've utilized a very well-known Oscar nominee in the form of John C. Reilly. The actor was eyeballed for the role of Charlie Swan, Bella Swan's father. The casting came directly from Stephenie Meyer herself, who posted on her website that Reilly was her dream pick for the role. However, her ambitious choice never materialized, and there's no evidence that Twilight distributor Summit Entertainment ever approached Reilly for the part. Instead, Billy Burke ended up taking the role. Interestingly, this isn't the first major YA role that's slipped through Reilly's fingers. The Chicago actor was actually offered the part of Haymitch in The Hunger Games, a role that eventually went to Woody Harrelson.
The inherent nature of alternate casting means we'll never know for certain if Reilly would've been able to utilize his talents as a performer in the Twilight movies. However, given Reilly's track record for constantly impressing, it's likely he could've made the Twilight movies a beautiful ride.
