Michael Moorcock on casting Elric
Michael Moorcock commented on who he felt should be cast as Elric in this FAQ from Multiverse.org. Here is an excerpt:

If Keven Costner got to play Elric I would probably kill myself. He's not smart enough for Elric. Ralph Fiennes has always been a possibility. But there are far better actors around and I have one or two in mind to ask, should it ever go that way. The only certainty in casting is Christopher Lee, who has insisted on playing Arioch (now he believes himself too old for Elric) and the part is there for him. Did you see him in the most recent TV Ivanhoe ? Best bit in it. An underused actor, frequently. My main problem is not whether an actor looks like Elric physically, but what sort of character and experience the actor reflects. Someone had Brad Pitt lined up. No way again. Not enough experience in the face -- too bland. Most of the other young faves are equally bland -- boy blands -- and I'd rather have an older actor with character in the part, if that was the choice. As someone who went to the theatre more than once a week in London (and Stratford), I don't get to see the new actors so frequently. There's a particular pleasure in seeing the likes of Alan Rickman developing on stage (he was by far the best lead in 'Dangerous Liassons' when it was first put on -- sadly, like so many very good English actors, he becomes merely a good villain in Hollywood pictures) and again he would have made a wonderful Elric. You need a level of ambiguity which very few LA actors can produce because it's not asked of them. Again, it's frequently the actors with good stage experience who bring those ambiguities to TV characters. I have huge admiration for much that's produced in LA -- but the kind of demands and aspirations that you get, say, at the RSC -- along with the criticism -- tends to produce a much more substantial actor -- as several great modern Hollywood actors would probably tell you, where they had the chance to study, say, with RADA. There are higher demands and far less patience with mediocrity. Bit more baptism of fire, which I'm all for in the arts, if not elsewhere. So I suppose, if I was going to suggest where the actor to play Elric would come from, I'd say check out the RSC in a production, say, of Titus Andronicus! Or a Globe presentation of a Jacobean melodrama or a Restoration farce. Christopher Walken, as in Heavens Gate, might have worked, too.

MM then goes off on a rant about how intelligent sounding actors keep getting cast as villains...

I'm not sure who I'd cast. The same actor I have said in the past that I would cast as Anne Rice's Lestat come to mind: Julian Sands. (Not suprising. The characters have a lot in common.) Julian Sands is getting a little older but I have to agree with Michael here that I'd rather see an older actor than some pretty face who doesn't fit the part. Christopher Lee or Christopher Walken in their prime would have been really cool. I like the idea of Alan Rickman a lot.