You may remember the up-and-coming comedian/actor from the JJ Abrams monster mash-up Cloverfield. He played Hud, the guy with the video camera fearlessly and, it's got to be said, implausibly documenting the creature's New York rampage for historical posterity. He was also the most quotable character in the whole movie - a neverending series of quips ensured his position as the only key player you didn't want to see dead at the hands of an evil, rampaging beast. Take, for instance, the classic, "it matters because I need to talk about something...otherwise, I'm actually probably going to shit my pants in this stairwell." That's some nice work right there...
Anyway, Miller's landed himself a bit of a plum comic role in an upcoming big-budget, big-screen reboot (or should that be reimagining?) of Hanna Barbera's ever-hungry ursine hero, Yogi Bear. He'll play Ranger Jones, hapless human foil to Jellostone's favourite picnic thief.
The reason why we're posting about this is the manner in which Miller got the part. After failing his initial audition (idiots!) Miller took matters into his own hands and filmed this hilarious showreel, which somehow made it in front of the producers and is now presented for your pleasure in amazing Yodpod-ovision...
Yogi Bear Audition With Real Bear - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.
Funny, yay? Sadly, Bam Bam will not be appearing in the movie and Yogi himself will be 100% pure CG. And yeeeeees, there's always the chance this could go the way of Scooby Doo, which drowned in lifeless effects and uninspired sight gags...
Despite this, the signs are good. The screenplay's been polished by Brad Copeland, a credible TV writer whose credentials include writing gigs on Arrested Development and My Name Is Earl. The director is Eric Brevig, a former FX man (he worked on The Abyss, Total Recall and The Day After Tomorrow, to name just three) who made his directorial debut with last year's 3D fun Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. Oh, and Yogi will be voiced by the legend that is Dan Aykroyd (we won't have a bad word against him, despite occasional forays into quackery.)
But it's Miller we're excited about. Yogi Bear may not exactly make him a prime candidate for the next Atom Egoyan film (every cloud etc) but it will give him an international platform and hopefully cement his reputation as a Very Funny Man. And maybe next time he won't have to work so hard on the audition.
Yogi Bear will be released in 2010 and for what it's worth, we reckon it will be incredible.
In the meantime, here's what happened the last time Dan Aykroyd came face-to-face with an over-eager grizzly...
No comments:
Post a Comment