While I cannot get too excited for Robert Zemeckis’ mo-cap update of the 1968 animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine, the casting announced today on Heat Vision blog perks a few iotas of interest.
Firstly Peter Serafinowicz as Paul McCartney is the highlight for me, one of the funniest people around at the moment (his twitter is a constant guffaw-fest) and there’s very few people who can do a decent portrayal of Paul McCartney, Thomas Sangster missed nailing it in Sam Taylor-Wood’s recent Nowhere Boy, but Serafinowicz is the man Zemeckis picked and I think he’ll do it justice.
Cary Elwes will play George Harrison, Dean Lennox Kelly is Lennon and the man chosen to blister up his fingers on the drums as Ringo is Adam Campbell.
So, if the remake will follow the sublimely surreal original, the only two parts of note to cast are Old Fred (my pick is Albert Finney, or Captain Birdseye) and Jeremy Hilary Boob, Ph.D.
I am a huge fan of George Dunning’s film and I’ve no doubt that Zemeckis loves him some motion capture, but will the remake capture the dark, delicious spirit of the original or will it seek to become a Mamma-Mia musical mess, aping the madcap mood of the Fab Four’s other films?
Either way it’s a good cast with enough talent in the mix to point to a decent re-imagining.
