You’re thinking of Morgan Freeman. There certainly is a passing resemblance, and Morgan Freeman played Nelson Mandela in the movie Invictus, but Mandela was the president of South Africa and far too busy to play The Man in the Yellow Hat in a live action adaptation of Curious George.
I heard he died in prison, while reading a Berenstein bears book.
That was also Morgan Freeman. But he didn’t die, he tunneled his way out with a spork, and he used a shelf full of Berenstein Bears books to cover the hole.
But did he have a tail?
Excuse me, but I think I’m in the wrong universe.
Hollywood was considering Goodnight Moon, The Motion Picture, but everyone fell asleep before the trailer ended.
We need a gritty reboot of Curious George, where George becomes a full grown chimpanzee and the Man with the Yellow Hat has to deal with having that in his house.
They could do Go the Fuck to Sleep.
Excellent!
I would go see that. Its actually gettable audiobook from the library system.
No such luck: Harold and the Purple Crayon (film) - Wikipedia
The Swedish erotic thriller version, I Am Curious (George). An adult chimp George becomes obsessed with simian social justice, bites off the penis of the MitYH, and then interviews Nelson Mandela. or Morgan Freeman.
I suspect this thread is more entertaining than the movie will be.
A French tragedy, La Curiosité de Georges.
The Man in the Yellow Hat is dating a woman, The Woman in the Red Beret. Georges (the French version of George), now an adult chimpanzee, develops an obsession with TWitRB. In a controversial scene that was banned outside of France, Georges watches the couple engage in intercourse.
Eventually the relationship sours, and near the climax of the film, the MitYH is berating Georges for ripping the sink out of the countertop and the WitRB intervenes; the MitYH strikes her, and is then savagely mauled by Georges. The WitRB reveals that she reciprocates Georges’ fascination, and the pair escape into the Parisian night.
The MitYH chases after them, eventually cornering them at the top of the observation deck at the top of the Eiffel Tower. There is a confrontation, and after Georges makes a threatening display, he is shot by security personnel and falls off the tower in a scene that echoes the ending of King Kong.
Ironically that thumbnail could be used to describe the actual Dora The Explorer movie.
Cherchez la femme. Oui.
Nope
As for the trailer: a lovely children’s book is, IMO, untranslateable to a full-length movie. They’re just different mediums, in a way that the one cannot possibly capture the magic of the other.
But people keep trying. Not because they are succeeding, but because there’s a crass cash grab to be made, behind:
Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Despereaux
Ferdinand the Bull
The Grinch
and many more.
Once in awhile, an untranslateable children’s book becomes something interesting in its own right (I’m looking at you, Shrek). But far more often, it’s a cringefest start to finish.
Harold and the Purple Crayon was my absolute favorite when I was a tyke, and I wrote about my love for it in high school. This trailer looks like the mathematical opposite of everything charming about the book.
In the end, this made $18m domestically and $13m abroad. The production budget was supposedly $40m, so a substantial money loser.
I’m mainly updating because I just read that Sony reportedly tried to sell this to Netflix, but even they wouldn’t buy it.