The Jeremy Irons role was first offered to Ben Kingsley
..so says IMDb.
Its the same old story...Irons is so perfect in his way-- HIS voice, HIS (handsome) face, HIS hair, HIS choices of line reading and finger movements -- that you can't picture Kingsley in the role.
Unless you picture Kingsley doing it ins his "Sexy Beast" characterization, just spewing raging profanities at everybody else around the board room table in Iron's big scene.
Just kidding...
"Its the same old story" also means: if we saw Ben Kingsley do the board room scene, we could never picture Jeremy Irons in it...