Glenn Close and Ewan McGregor in Sunset Blvd!- Page 4

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 12:33pm

well that's 10 bucks that won't be leaving my pocket...
do you honestly think sir andrew would cast patti with all they went through? i was hoping for meryl. hugh jackman as max? what planet are they on? anthony hopkins maybe. i loathe any and all attempts to pass off glenn close as a vocalist of any kind.

[Fan2]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 12:38pm

>>hugh jackman as max<<

Hugh would be Joe (a role he played in Australia and won a MO Award for), not Max.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 12:41pm

if hugh is joe, than who is ewan? i thought there is only 1 leading man role in that show. am i having a senior moment?

[Fan2]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 12:48pm

If you are referring to this:

>>According to Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group, Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackman are potential co-stars.<<

I think it means both Ewan and Hugh are still in the running for Joe. The first report from yesterday said Ewan had the role, but this report from today seems to dispute that and just says they are both "potential co-stars" for Glenn.

[SallyBrown]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 12:50pm

Yes I guess only Glenn is for sure.


I found this article though: I don't think it promises Ewan but here it is:

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/050711f.php

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 1:49pm

Ick and ick. I'm not fond of seeing either Close or McGregor in the film. If they're going to miscast actors for character and/or vocal skills they might as well use Roseanne and Hayden Christensen. Jackman is a much better fit, but please, can we NOT use Glenn Close??? I would really like to experience the film without earplugs.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 1:50pm

Matt - EXACTLY.

[Avigdor]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 2:10pm

THANK YOU FINALLY SOMEONE AGREES WITH ME..there are other names and good god..please someone who can act more than the fatal attraction..i mean really isnt that and norma basically the same character...bless you for agreeing.
i can sleep now....(gasp...sigh and hums..as if we never said goodbye)

[gymman]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 2:43pm

I have to confess that I have never heard Close sing, although I know she was in "Barnum" as well. I actually like this the best of ALW's shows--it was so beautifully sung by Betty Buckley, and acted as well.

[XOsweet_dancerOX]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 3:03pm

i am liking the sounds of this... Ewan... enough said ^_^

[CarolynW]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 3:10pm

This is a RUMOR per RUG.

I emailed RUG and someone else on another board did too. Same answer they know nothing about the newspaper article.

I am not sure if the film has been approved by Paramount for the go ahead.

Yours,

Carolyn

[Sant]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 3:33pm

I think Glenn did wonderful job with "With One Look" in ALW's 50th birthday gala. It was much better than her version of the song in the cast album.

Frankly, I'd rather see (and hear) Glenn do the role than Barbra. Maybe she (Babs) could act it, but her "With One Look" is the most emotionless version EVER! I love the changes that were made in the melody for her (the "one tear in my eye makes the whole world cry" parts) and that it was in the original key. But still, it's quite... bland.

I'm still hoping they'd give the role to Meryl Streep.

[NCGuy]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 3:48pm

Ewan McGregor just seems too young for this part. There was a callousness and edge to William Holden’s performance that I just can’t imagine Ewan bringing to the role. Joe Gillis isn’t some young innocent; he’s been chewed up and spit out by Hollywood just like Norma (the only true innocent in the story is Betty). I realize Ewan is now actually older than William Holden was when the original was filmed, but even at 34 he still looks and comes across as too boyish for the character.

[LittleRed00]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 5:45pm

I just got back from London, where I saw Ewan in "Guys & Dolls", mostly because he is my sister's favorite actor. I have to say, he really is a good actor--I've really enjoyed him in other movies, and he was pretty good in G&D. And frankly, I didn't like his singing in "Moulin Rouge", he was too shouty or something. He always sounded strained, and sort of pushing. But in G&D, you could tell that the vocal coaches had been working with him...he was much more restrained, and really wasn't that bad.

Off-topic: Jane Krakowski was heavenly good as Miss Adelaide.

[SallyBrown]

Posted: 7/11/05 at 10:06pm

Did you like it LittleRed? Not to thread jack but I've been hearing a lot of different opinions about it all..I can't wait!

[WonderBoy]

Posted: 7/12/05 at 12:11pm

"Ick and ick. I'm not fond of seeing either Close or McGregor in the film. If they're going to miscast actors for character and/or vocal skills they might as well use Roseanne and Hayden Christensen. Jackman is a much better fit, but please, can we NOT use Glenn Close??? I would really like to experience the film without earplugs." ~ Mister Matt

I couldn't have said it better. Oh and Wildcat, I love your comment on Twenty Million and Marni Nixon!

Is Glenn Close even a name any more? I would think after that made for TV SO PATHETIC or SOUTH PACIFIC, which ever you prefer to call it, that Glenn would never have her singing recorded again. I also saw Patti and Betty as Norma and they were phenomenal. Barbra would have been brilliant casting as she IS a huge name and she would be a very strong Norma and I feel quite like how Swanson played her.

As far as the Hugh/Ewan debate as Joe, I can't believe that a studio would consider Ewan for the part. Regardless of the fact that Hugh has played it before and is a stronger singer but when I think of how Joe should look I see someone more like Hugh and not Ewan.

Unfortunately if it ends up with Glenn and Ewan in the leads, I feel it will sink faster than the Titanic. Like we need another new movie musical with weak vocal performances!

[chess12]

Posted: 7/12/05 at 12:33pm

Glenn Close is now the right age to play Norma. It will be obvious on film. And she's one of the smartest actresses around. Of course she played Norma as a grotesque on stage. She had to play to a house that sat 1500 people. She'll modify her performance for the camera perfectly.

Ewan McGregor is an interesting choice. I didn't know it was down to him and Hugh Jackman. As much as I love Hugh Jackman, Joe Gillis is really down and out and this is his last chance. Ewan McGregor can play that role the best of the two. Hugh Jackman is a tad too slick.

[Avigdor]

Posted: 7/12/05 at 2:02pm

i think she was lipsincing at the bash

[jo]

Posted: 7/12/05 at 8:03pm

"...Hugh Jackman is a tad too slick... "

Have you seen any of his movies?

In SWORDFISH, he played a character who was down and out ...and had to go along with a megalomaniac to survive.

In THE XMEN movies, he was too angry because life dealth him a bad blow ( didn't know who he was and how he turned into a mutant).

In KATE AND LEOPOLD ( for which he won a Golden Globe nom) he was a fish out of water in the 21st century, coming from an age where courtliness and gentlemanly conduct helped him win his lady love.

In Erskineville Kings ( his little known first movie, of which some gritty scenes were shown in the Inside the Actors Studio interview) he played an embittered son who was left to care for an ailing father whom he helped to die eventually.

In the filmed version of the RNT OKLAHOMA, he was a cowboy so in love with a tomboyish beauty that he went about with some braggadocio simply to impress her.


Maybe you might have confused his Peter Allen persona from THE BOY FROM OZ as the reason for saying he is a tad too slick ?

In that show, there is a line which Peter utters when his manager refuses to let him impersonate slick gambler Legs Diamond -- "It's called acting!"

And I am sure Darren Aronofsky saw Hugh's great ability to lose himself in a role when he decided to cast him in his much awaited project THE FOUNTAIN, after seeing him perform in THE BOY FROM OZ.

Also, if you have seen the classic film version of Sunset Boulevard, didn't William Holden ( who got top billing over Gloria Swanson, btw) play the role of Joe a bit slick?




Updated On: 7/12/05 at 08:03 PM

[JenD512]

Posted: 7/12/05 at 9:19pm

That's true...Joe Gillis IS slick (and I have no idea what that criticism of Hugh meant). He knows Norma is crazy, and that her script is terrible. He went along with it because he thought he was in control and could walk away whenever he wanted. But she trapped him, and in the end he couldn't get away from her.

[JGym]

Posted: 7/12/05 at 9:30pm

I love me some Ewan and would be thrilled to see him in another musical performance. I'm a sucker for that guy, what can I say? :)

[thesparklingdiamond]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 12:02am

I think its pretty good casting. I really like Ewan's voice and I think it would work well on this.

[Fan2]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 6:47am

Some people have written to Andrew Lloyd-Webber's company and received replies stating that the news reports are incorrect - they are in early stages of casting and no decisions have been made. One quote was "don't believe everything you read in the press." So I guess it's another "wait and see" until we get really official word.

[chess12]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:28am

Sorry Jo and Jen. Didn't mean to offend. Hugh Jackman is "slick" in a way that is shiny and glorious. He seems to have a golden light always emanating from him. He's my personal Lancelot. I would love for him to sing me to sleep every night.
And yes, William Holden is an Adonis in the movie. When he steps out of the swimming pool, he takes my breath away. But I still see Ewan McGregor as a better fit for Joe Gillis than Hugh Jackman. Joe is really supposed to be average. Good looking, but not model-perfect. Norma is like a vampire drinking his youth. Not his beauty. Joe is a taker and a user, but an average one at that. There has to be some sad sack in him. Maybe it's my rose-colored glasses talking, but Hugh Jackman just isn't a sad sack. He's a god come down to earth. Ewan McGregor is completely human.

[WonderBoy]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 3:47pm

Maybe they will use my favourite Joe, John Barrowman!