Bale, who returned to play the character in The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) – recently revealed that he didn’t rate his performance of Bruce Wayne in Nolan’s trilogy.
Cillian Murphy, who is currently wreaking havoc as Tommy Shelby in BBC2 drama Peaky Blinders, is an actor who has proved he can just as easily play a hero as effectively as he can a villain.
Murphy went on to reprise the role of Crane in the final two Batman films and also worked with the filmmaker on Inception.
“I then was able to go to the studio and ask to put him in as Crane, as Scarecrow, in Batman Begins.”