9 years before 'Oppenheimer,' Cillian Murphy could have played the father of the atomic bomb in another project

• Cillian Murphy could have played J. Robert Oppenheimer in the TV series "Manhattan."
• "Cillian Murphy was on that list," creator Sam Shaw told Vanity Fair of casting for the show.

It turns out Christopher Nolan wasn't the only one in Hollywood who thought Cillian Murphy would make a good J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Almost a decade before Nolan's "Oppenheimer" became a box-office sensation and led to early Oscar buzz for Murphy, a TV show on the Manhattan Project also had its eye on Murphy.

"Manhattan" was a short-lived series on the creation of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico that ran for two seasons on the now-defunct network WGN America from 2014 to 2015. Series creator/showrunner Sam Shaw and his wife Lila Byock, who was one of the writers on the show, recently spoke to Vanity Fair about the making of it, and specifically the casting of Oppenheimer.

"We wanted Oppenheimer to feel both like he possessed a certain undeniable charisma, a presence onstage, but also that he was playing a different instrument. He needed to feel alien — or other — in some ways," Shaw said.

It led to a vast search for someone to play the father of the atomic bomb.

"A thousand percent, Cillian Murphy was on that list," Shaw said.

"There were actually some rock stars we considered," she said.

"David Bowie was not available," Shaw said. "I'm sure we talked about David Bowie, didn't we?"

"We did talk about Beck," Byock replied. "Do you remember if we reached out to Beck?"

"I don't think we can say that we 'reached out' to Beck, but yes, it was something to think about," Shaw said.

Eventually, the role went to Daniel London ("Minority Report").

"Oppenheimer was a guy who was famous for being extremely charming when he needed to be, but also extraterrestrial in his erudition," Shaw said. "And I think Daniel really got to that."