King Kong (2005)

Why So Serious? Off the back of the success of The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson must've been able to handpick the cast for his monkey mash-up. Alongside regular award-magnets Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody, he cast jokester Jack Black as filmmaker Carl Denham.

Black does surprisingly well against the more seasoned cast, not once dropping the dramatic ball. His resemblance to Orson Welles must have been a plus point for Jackson, who never allows the fame-hungry director to become totally unsympathetic.

If they played it for laughs... Black would have had a slacker beard, wielded a guitar rather than a vintage camera, and some misadventure would see him moving out of his parents' place and ending up at Skull Island, where he'd have to survive to prove his societal worth. Or simply scrap that idea and he could just play the big ape himself.

See also: Margot at the Wedding