Cook did in fact spend a great deal of time drinking and being witty, but Moore did not. People just thought he did because of his role in Arthur and because the disease that ultimately killed him gave him the appearance of intoxication. His brilliance in Arthur had everything to do with his ability as a comedic actor and not because he drank.
If this is turning into a general discussion of upcoming remakes that have no apparent reason to exist, I offer Yellow Submarine.
“Being staggeringly drunk & brilliantly witty” =/= “Drank himself to death.” For sure they were both the former for much of their Derek & Clive material.
Holy shit, they are turning Arthur into Amy Winehouse
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
Russell Brand?
They’re trading charm for smarm.
I predict a semi-decent opening weekend with no follow up. Hollywood blames television, and not themselves.
1- Why? – To a lot of today’s target audience, anything released more than a decade ago is an “old movie”. Something like Arthur might as well have never existed. So the bean counters figured it would be worth the risk to make a “new” Arthur for the younger demographic.
2- What are your expectations? – Nil.
3- Will you probably see it? – Nope.
The remake could have been freakin’ awesome, if they’d gotten Liza Minnelli to reprise her role.
Strangely, I’d be more disturbed by the sight of Liza romancing Russell Brand because…well, because he’s Russell Brand, rather than because he’s something like 40 years younger than her. Russell Brand just squicks me out. I’m not sure what it is, but there’s something about him that’s completely off-putting, and it’s something physical and visible, but I don’t know just WHAT. All I know is that all I have to do is catch a glimpse of him to get a wave of disgust running through me. Doesn’t even have to talk.
Now, Ricky Gervais? That I might have watched.
Seeing as he’s also riding Rik Mayall’s coattails and working on a remake of Drop Dead Fred, I suppose it can’t be too long before he gets around to taking a stab at Bernard and the Genie.
A remake of Drop Dead Fred?
You have got to be kidding me.
Wait a minute…so this is not about Marc Brown’s cartoon character? No Buster, no Francine, no Binky?
I’ve got to start watching things without my kids…
I physically wince every time I hear “guess what they’re remaking!”
The first scuttlebutt about a Weekend at Bernie’s reboot and I swear to God I’m getting fitted for a martyr’s belt and buying a ticket to Hollywood. I’ve always wanted to fly first class.
Alcoholism just doesn’t seem as funny in 2010 as it did in 1981, Russell Brand aside. There will never be another Foster Brooks.
Amen—The completely bereft of original ideas state of Hollywood calls for some bold initiative—I am convinced that Leonard Part 7 is only a matter of time…
(I guess even that would be original at least)
I had no idea who Russell Brand was, so I went to google, found an image and clicked it to find that not only is he remaking Arthur, but is apparently planing to reprise Tim Curry’s role in the Rocky Horror Picture Show:
Me neither. I don’t recognize any of the films/TV shows in his rather short filmography on IMDB, either (besides the remakes). Who is this guy to evoke such a reaction?
I think it’s more likely that the disturbingly large percentage of the people who have the power to grant access to large amounts of money in the film industry are slick well-packaged but terminally shallow overachievers who lipread at stop signs, so rather than actually read a new script full of words and stuff, they will instead greenlight a project that can be summed up in four words or less (“Arthur with Russell Brand”), and if they half-remember the original they can save the 2 hours of watching a DVD too.
I wish I had a dime for every dime I have.
Remaking Rocky Horror???
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
A part of me just died.