Alexandre Aja talks Radcliffe casting

Alexandre Aja thinks Daniel Radcliffe having horns is "natural".

The French filmmaker directs the 25-year-old actor in his latest horror fantasy flick Horns. Daniel plays Ig Perrish, a man who awakens to strange growths on his temples after the mysterious death of his girlfriend Merrin Williams (Juno Temple).

Despite having made a name for himself in the wizarding Harry Potter franchise, Daniel was the perfect choice for Alexandre to take on the lead.

"We were talking about that this morning with Joe (Hill, the author of the same-titled book the movie is based on), how different it is, and how at the at the same time legit it is. To see Daniel Radcliffe with horns feels very natural. To see him interacting with snakes feels very natural, obviously because Harry Potter speaks the snake talk," Alexandre explained to Collider.

"Physically all those elements were definitely an obvious choice. He came to us. He loved the book, loved the script. He came to us, and I met him before The Woman in Black so to me he was just Harry Potter at the time. When I talked to him I realised that he was Ig Perrish."

Alexandre enjoyed bringing the book to life and putting the concept across for the mass market. However, had to jiggle the original storyline to make it more of a visual feast.

"Yeah, it’s hard to market. And I’m happy, because it was not hard – it was a challenge in a way because we needed to be able to earn the comedic element and the drama, and the balance of those. The writing of the script was a big challenge to be sure that we were adding enough," he added.

"That’s why we had to reorganise the book a little bit and change it in that vision."