CO said:

I look at an actor like Eric Bana (he was a bit older at the time then Hayden)

A bit older! He's just old enough to be Hayden's dad... and btw they still have the same age gap. He's still older, that doesn't change you know ;-)

I'm not saying Hayden is De Niro or anything but look at Natalie Portman. She's has quite a low-to-modest talent but thanks to working with some of the best Directors in the business, right from her first role, she's put in a few decent turns over the years.

Also I thought Hayden was good in the scenes he shared with Ewan on set. Sadly there are very few of them in the finished movies. Acting is reacting as they say, and Ewan must be better to react to, than a green wall.

At the time I thought Ryan Phillipe would have been a better choice. He had similar looks (If that was what George was after), had a good range from nice to full on evil and had 2 or 3 starring roles already (The experience).