Christopher Lloyd Has Joined The Cast Of Nandor Fodor And The Talking Mongoose Alongside Simon Pegg
That Christopher Lloyd sure likes to keep busy, doesn't he? In addition to his already announced roles in "Spirit Halloween," "The Conners," and "The Mandalorian" season 3, news broke Monday that he was joining the cast of "Nandor Fodor And The Talking Mongoose." The title of the film may sound like a one-way ticket to Banana Town™, but the upcoming film from writer/director Adam Sigal ("Stakeout," "Chariot") is inspired by a real event.
Simon Pegg ("Shaun of the Dead," "Star Trek," "The World's End") stars as the titular Dr. Nandor Fodor, a real-life Hungarian-American psychoanalyst, author, and parapsychologist. You read that correctly: parapsychology, as in psychic phenomena and other paranormal claims like hauntings.
The film centers on Dr. Fodor's pursuit of "Gef," a mongoose from the Isle of Man that could apparently talk. Gef was a superstar in the 1930s, and was the subject of a lot of British tabloids and ghost hunters of the era. Think of him like a Bigfoot or Bat Boy, but, you know, a talking mongoose. The film is currently shooting in Leeds in the United Kingdom, with Lloyd set to arrive on set sometime this week to play Dr. Price, a competing psychic researcher trying to get to the bottom of Gef's mystery. Rounding out the cast is Minnie Driver ("Grosse Pointe Blank," "Phantom of the Opera," "The Riches") who is playing Nandor's assistant Anne as they work together to track down Gef. Tim Downie, Ruth Connell, Paul Kaye, Gary Beadle, Drew Moerlein, Jessica Balmer and Edmund Kingsley were also previously announced as part of the cast.
Let's talk about Gef
Okay, the Simon Pegg, Christopher Lloyd, and Minnie Driver casting news is awesome, but the world deserves to know more about Gef the talking mongoose. The animal had allegedly taken up residency in the farmhouse of the Irving Family with some investigators believing that Voirrey Irving was using a ventriloquist dummy and convinced her family to help keep up the charade. While that is likely the logical conclusion, that's way less fun to think about. As Irving tells it, Gef showed up one day and said he was an earthbound spirit, merely a ghost in the shape of a mongoose. He apparently promised to serve as a "guard dog," keeping watch for weirdos and animals, as well as helping with tasks like turning off the stove if it was left on.
The press was obsessed with Gef, but obviously physical evidence of the ghostly mongoose was lacking. The Irvings left the farmhouse in 1945, but were forced to sell at a loss because all the Gef mess ruined the home's reputation, and people believed the home to be haunted. Voirrey Irving claimed until her death in 2005 that Gef was real, and not something she made up.
As "Nandor Fodor And The Talking Mongoose" is currently filming, we do not have a release date at this time, but will absolutely be keeping track of this increasingly interesting project.