Chris O’Dowd has been a very busy boy. Besides the third series of the IT Crowd – out on DVD in the UK tomorrow – and his “second sitcom”, ITV 2′s FM, he also has three films set for release in the UK over the next couple-few months. First up is Richard Curtis’ The Boat that Rocked, then comes FAQ About Time Travel, and, finally, Hippie Hippie Shake will follow before long. The O’Dowdles, as his expanding rank of fans is apparently known, will have a pretty good summer.
To promote all of this hoo-hah, O’Dowd is currently – right now as I type – appearing on the BBC entertainment and cookery show Something For the Weekend. It was during an interview segment a few minutes back that he announced his casting in Gulliver’s Travels and gave some details of the role.
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Doctor Who companion Donna, as played by Catherine Tate, might as well have been dipped head-to-toe in Marmite she so sharply divided folk. Love her? Hate her? Funnily enough, and just like Marmite, I could see the appeal, and I could see the reasons for doubt, but I just couldn’t quite climb down off the fence. Also like Marmite, I thought the first taste had me sold on a Yes! but, unfortunately, my feelings turned to be increasingly ambiguous the further I munched.
Tate has now been granted her first role in “a big, kick-off Hollywood film” – her words, not mine. She’ll be in Gulliver’s Travels, alongside Jack Black as a contemporised Lemuel Gulliver and Emily Blunt as who-cares-because-its-not-the-Black-Widow. Tate will be playing the Queen of Lilliput and anybody who knows work has probably already guessed the voice she’ll be putting on.
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A couple weeks back it was reported that Emily Blunt had been cast in Marvel’s Iron Man 2. But it turns out that 20th Century Fox has an option on the actress from a deal that was made when she co-starred in The Devil Wears Prada that might prevent the Golden Globe winner from entering the Marvel Universe. Fox wants Blunt to star in Gulliver’s Travels, which is set to shot in the UK starting in Late March, while Iron Man 2 begins production this April in California.
However, Variety says that both Fox and Blunt’s reps were feeling optimistic on Thursday that both studios might somehow be able to accommodate Blunt’s dual shooting schedule. Blunt was supposed to play a former soviet spy named Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widdow. During the dueling trade stories, there was even a mention that the character would be Stark’s new assistant, but it was never made clear if that was just another inaccuracy in the reporting.
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Posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 by David Chen
It looks like Jonathan Swift’s classic book, Gulliver’s Travels, is going to have another run at the big screen. Twentieth Century Fox is moving forward with a film version of the book, this time with Jack Black playing the titular character. Shark Tale director Rob Letterman will be taking up directorial duties. Shooting will begin in March, with a screenplay by Nicholas Stoller and Joe Stillman. It should be noted that Variety describes this as a “contemporary re-imagining,” and that Gulliver will play a travel writer going to the Bermuda Triangle, presumably in modern times. In the original book, Gulliver went on to encounter societies that were dramatically different than our own, including a civilization of horses and a land of tiny humans.
Travels has been made into many films (several of them animated) over the years. Most recently, Ted Danson took up Gulliver duties in the 1996 NBC Miniseries. I was really fond of this series, as I thought it struck a great balance between the fantastic and the serious (not to mention the inventive framing of the story using Gulliver’s trial). It looks like this time around, with a comedic lead and a director/writer team who are known for their comedies, they may jettison the more serious and darker elements of the story in favor of a madcap style adventure. I’m not necessarily opposed to re-invention, but there’s a fine line between “homage” and “bastardization.” However, if it can at least make us laugh, then how could we possibly object?
Source: Variety
Discuss: Are you a fan of Gulliver’s Travels? What do you think of Jack Black as Gulliver?
