A picture has been released by Splash News of Russell Brand in full costume and make-up from the NYC set of Arthur, a remake of the 1981 comedy which starred Dudley Moore as Arthur and Liza Minnelli as Linda.

And yes, he has no hair on that English face of his. It feels so weird seeing him looking clean shaven and serious, but that’s before we know what his role is.

Brand plays a jubilant drunk that lacks ambition in life, sounds a bit like Aldous Snow if you ask me.  Much of this demeanor has to do with the fact that he is vastly wealthy and the heir to a large fortune.  But there is some fine print that goes along with the inheritance and that is that Arthur must marry the ‘Susan’ character, played by Jennifer Garner, in order to get it.

Once he proposes there is an obvious snag because then there would  be no movie.   Arthur meets a blue collar worker, Linda played by Gerta Gerwig (Greenberg), who he can actually fall in love with and results in some complications regarding his engagement and inheritance.

This romantic comedy is being directed by Jason Winer and also stars Nick Nolte (The Good Thief), Christina Calph, and Helen Mirren (State of Play), and was written by Peter Baynham, recently of Borat fame, and his work with Armando Iannucci (In the Loop) and Chris Morris (Four Lions) point to very good things indeed.

If Baynham’s work with Sacha Baron Cohen is an example of making the most of a exuberant comic personality then he and director Winer could be the men to hold Brand back from a reliance on his on-stage persona.

Oh, and as Dave posted a few days ago, there’s also a Batmobile on set.

Reported by Alex DiGiovanna.