- Apparently, CBS was, at one point, pursuing Hugh Grant to fill the Charlie Sheen slot on Two and A Half Men. It's unclear if the idea's dead or just in limbo at this point (Deadline claims negotiations broke down last night over "creative differences"), but man, I might actually watch a couple of episodes with that casting. As About A Boy proved, Grant can do the "lovable asshole" thing really well, and it'd certainly be at least worth trying.
- Woody Harrelson will play Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games. I've seen reactions both extremely positive and extremely negative to the news, and find myself somewhere in the middle. I'm not sold that Harrelson can play the menacing/creepy side that's so important to the character, even if the "dissolute drunk" part and "used to be a naive innocent" part will come easily.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
ALOTT5MA CASTING DIVISION: Let's talk about 2 pieces of casting news in two different fields:
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oh, I think Woody is perfect casting--albeit not a choice that would have ever occured to me. I think he's done enough smaller roles where he walks the menacing/creepy line really well (No Country for Old Men, parts of Zombieland, hell Natural Born Killers!)
ReplyDeletePlus he can get the Appalachian accent down.
Super happy about Woody.
ReplyDeleteI think Grant would be great on 2 1/2 Men, but I'm confused, as he's never been a guy who chased a paycheck - more of a guy who would pass on things b/c he'd rather not go to work unless it's something he loved. (I know his recent film choices might make that statement seem odd, but he's pretty devoted to Marc Lawrence, who directed Did You Hear About the Morgans...)
I'll have to make the mental switch from John C. Reilly, but I've definitely seen Woody be menacing and creepy (I haven't seen the movies Jen listed, so it was something else).
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of casting, I'm reliably informed that there will be a Ted in an upcoming HBO movie. A small part, so probably not a lot of effort put into it, and I doubt I have any say, but I'm wondering if I should lobby for Mark Feuerstein as an inside joke for ALOTT5MA.
ReplyDeleteEh. Not a big fan of Harrelson. He sort of skeeves me out, but I guess when it comes to playing Haymitch that could be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteNo opinion on Item the First, but I think Woody's a good call for Haymitch - I thought Reilly was an inspired idea, but didn't really buy him as a guy who could have won the Hunger Games as a younger man. Mostly because I have a hard time picturing JCR as a younger man, since he's basically always looked the same as he does now (OK, he was once thinner, but still).
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of another 'Mitch, this casting news should not go without comment. (Reminds me that I REALLY need to rent the reboot from last year.)
So, I assume this is "Game Change"? Is it the same group that did Recount?
ReplyDeleteIt's horrible, in a truly enjoyable fun way. (The reboot, that is.)
ReplyDelete...which would be exactly what I'd be looking for in it!
ReplyDeleteI think that they are going at the 2.5 Men casting all wrong. Any kind of misogynist drunk will come off as an imitation of Sheen. Not that many couldn't do it better, but then the game becomes comparing teh Sheen show to the new show. But what if they brough someone in to the other side of Cryer's nebbish and made Cryer the wild-by-comparison one? A kind of Sancho Panza thing, where Cryer's character has become more like Sheen's character over the years (which he has). So we get someone more repressed, nebbishy, straightlaced to play off of Cryer. To me that's a much better solution.
ReplyDelete