James Mangold considered contacting Joaquin Phoenix to play Johnny Cash in 'A Complete Unknown'

Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon in "Walk the Line."

"Walk the Line"/Twentieth Century Fox

• James Mangold considered Joaquin Phoenix for Johnny Cash in "A Complete Unknown."
• Phoenix played Cash in Mangold's 2005 movie "Walk the Line."
• Mangold decided Phoenix would be too old and didn't want to service "meta-movie universe stuff," he told BI.

"A Complete Unknown," James Mangold's look at the life of Bob Dylan, almost gave us another taste of Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash.