D&D Movie/TV Hugh Grant To Play Villain in the D&D Movie

Tom Cruise as Lestat also springs to mind, and he did such a good job that Anne Rice issued a formal apology.

ccs said:

I remember alot of people (including myself) saying that upon learning Michael Keaton was signed to play Batman....

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Possibly? I think it also depends on your movie tastes. Sir Christopher Lee is considered a horror legend, absolutely. I first saw him in late-night Hammer films. But his career is so much more than that. Dude even hosted Saturday Night Live back in the 70s. And McKellan's Richard III was Oscar-nominated (that's where I remember seeing him in a movie for the first time).

LOTR cast a bunch of new and relatively obscure folk, but they did not lack for heavy-hitters.

bedir than said:

I think we're seeing a divide between Anglo and American movie fans.

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Stattick said:

Picked the wrong damn Hugh. They should have gotten Hugh Laurie. Dave Bautista as his trusted but dimwitted bodyguard.

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Definitely. She was great in I Am Not Okay With This and the recent It adaptation.

John R Davis said:

Sophia Ellis is a rising star.

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I think Hugh Grant is a good choice for a villain. I wonder if he'll be buried in special effects and CGI or play a basically humanoid being? I could see him as a dragon, or even a mind flayer, though I suspect not.

Stattick said:

Picked the wrong damn Hugh. They should have gotten Hugh Laurie.

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If they had, we'd all expect his D&D villainy to be snarky and then break into our houses to rifle through our medicine cabinets while we're not there.

I'm starting to get cautiously optimistic about the film, and specifically that the script is likely pretty solid. Bad scripts don't attract this much talent to it (there is a reason that recent fantasy flops like John Carter and Warcraft didn't get this much high level talent attached), and the writer/directors are people who clearly knows what they are doing (Game Night, Spider-Man). It's no guarantee (making movies is hard, making good movies is nearly impossible), but at this point, there is good reason to believe that the film could work. I mean, we have:

Chris Pine - Star of the reboot of one of the most popular Sci-Fi franchises of all time and co-star in a franchise based on one of the most popular DC heroes of all time

Michelle Rodriguez - Co-star of one of the biggest action franchises of all time

Hugh Grant - Hugely recognizable name who has made a comeback by switching to villain roles

Rege-Jean Page - Up and coming star of a hit Netflix show likely looking to break into big screen films

Sophia Lillis - Co-star of one of the biggest horror film franchises of all time and still looking to grow her career

Justice Smith - Part of the Jurassic World franchise, looking for a breakout roll

Chris, Michelle and Hugh all have no need to attach themselves to a project just for the cash, and all could hurt their careers by being on a massive flop. Rege-Jean, Sophia and Justice all are trying to break out into the next level of stardom, and definitely can't afford to be part of something that flops.

Again, that's no guarantee that the film will work, it still needs to be shot and survive studio notes (the Vacation reboot I'm sure looked great on paper but ended up failing), but the foundation looks very, very solid.

Zardnaar said:

He's a good actor but being honest I don't think to many people get to excited about a movie with him in it.

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It's not every actor's role to "open" a movie -- i.e. draw them in. Most actors are meant to be good in their role.

The brand here is the big opener, followed by Chris Pine, Gina Rodriguez and Mr. Sexy Bridgerton.

So maybe this is a coming of age movie where the parents are captured and the kids go out looking for them discovering their parents boss is behind their capture. They rescue their parents and confront the villain who flees because the kids brought back up. I envision he's imprisoned lots of people to support his plan and freeing them they normally wouldn't work together but choose to do so when the kids ask for their help and given it involves going after the villain who imprisoned them I can see them grinning and helping just for the chance to get revenge on him!

Oh god I just described Spy Kids and I like that movie!

I quite like Hugh Grant, but I mostly see him as a positive character. I wonder how he'll do as a villainous character.

DigestPantheon said:

I quite like Hugh Grant, but I mostly see him as a positive character. I wonder how he'll do as a villainous character.

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If you watch Cloud Atlas (2012) or most of his post 2016 work, he seems to be in a very morally complex/outright villain phase to his roles. The ones I've seen, he does well.

If the script is up to it, I suspect he'll do a great job (and if the role is mediocre, he's a good enough actor to probably elevate it).

So this is good news for me. I certainly don't think he'll be the reason the film sinks.

Stattick said:

Picked the wrong damn Hugh. They should have gotten Hugh Laurie. Dave Bautista as his trusted but dimwitted bodyguard.

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for what its worth whenever I read the Malazan Book of the Fallen series I pictured Tehol Beddict as Hugh Grant and Ublala Pung as Dave Bautista

Morrus said:

Depends how true you need your Scotsman to be, I suppose.

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It’s a very reasonable claim. It had probably been at least a decade since Lee had been in the papers in any major way, or been otherwise a current big deal.

He was very much a guy who was a big deal because of decades past, not because of any recent work.

DigestPantheon said:

I quite like Hugh Grant, but I mostly see him as a positive character. I wonder how he'll do as a villainous character.

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See any of his recent work. He's likely going to get an Emmy for his villainous role on his new HBO show.

And he's great in Paddington. (Yes, Paddington. There's no earthly reason those movies should be so good, but they're both stupendous.)