Let's face it- Peter Sellers is always going to be Clouseau. But the series will go on, because it just won't die.... With or without him. The Pink Panther has enough interest, and Pink Panther 3 is allegedly (meaning its a rumor right now) already in talks with Ed Helms taking over for Steve Martin.
Who would you cast as Clouseau in a sequel/remake/reboot/whathaveyou?
Mike Myers. Should have done it from the getgo.
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Ed helms would have been awesome.
But my first choice would be Sacha Baron Cohen.
Mike Myers would be my absolute last choice.
Tesla was robbed!
Jimmy Fallon?
Hmmm let me think...
Kevin Kline
shareMike Myers is the only physical comedian that comes close to Peter Sellers. Sellers was the funniest comic actor ever. Steve Martin is still playing the Jerk and sucks horribly as Inspector Clouseau. Jim Carrey could pull it off as he is physical too.
shareI am trying to rewatch these movies now to be fair, as I happened to bump into these modern remakes, so I got interested in the whole 'The Pink Panther-phenomenon', as my previous opinion was that only 'The Return of the Pink Panther' is worth watching, and even that has boring bits when Sellers is not on screen.
It's pretty amazing how many movies they made, how much they ABSOLUTELY MILKED this whole phenomenon, and that they even made a cartoon (or few) about this stuff.
It's also amazing how they didn't seem to have ANY idea about what to do with the characters or the whole premise, so they experimented with all kinds of stuff. If I remember correctly, the best part was the commissioner completely and utterly hating Closeau, and yet Closeau innocently being able to escape the consequences of his hatred.
In some sense, the modern remakes, as COMPLETELY AWFUL as they are, aren't that far off the mark, considering there are some real stinkers among the movies, sometimes even with Peter Sellers in them.
So, as I am re-watching these, I am also re-evaluating each movie and this whole 'franchise' as a whole, and trying to understand what the core point of all of it is (so far, it looks like Peter Sellers' unique comedy style is the main reason for the existence of these movies, not the story or the usefulness of the big diamond or whatnot)
These modern remakes are not really that different from the 'Johnny English' movies, except that even those movies are better than these ones (then again, what movies wouldn't be)?
BTW, why the heck does a real japanese actor mis-pronounce 'Kenji' so badly? The way he stretches the 'i' is just ridiculous.. 'Kenjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'
In any case, what kind of casting would make sense in a franchise that makes no sense from the beginning to the end? I guess right now I would evaluate this whole thing only through 'The Return of the Pink Panther', so if I had to make a casting choice, it would have to reflect that.
Who could bumble as convincingly and yet seriously as Peter Sllers? The world is rapidly losing all the good comedians, like Leslie Nielsen, who is also best when he's doing something very deadpan.
Jim Carrey, even at his prime, would be too wacky.
Rowan Atkinson could possibly cut the mustard, as he's also quirky and good at bumbling, but it would just become another Johnny English, which he has already done, so it wouldn't be quite the same. He would of course be too old anyway already.
Robin Williams had same kind of amazing improvisational ability, but his style would be also perhaps too different, and also, he also left this world a long time ago.
If only one could go back in time and choose people from their prime, like some of the Monty Python people could possibly fulfill a role like this, as well as some people from the old TV show ''Allo 'Allo'.
Michael Richards? I mean, he seems to be kind of ... something... but the Kramer character does resemble Closeau somewhat sometimes.
Stephen Fry?
Yeah, I think maybe Mike Meyers would've been pretty good match, except that he can also be tediously and seriously unfunny, and there seems to be something genuinely weird about him, I wouldn't want to hire him for anything after watching that 'Let's mock indian culture'-movie, the name of which I forgot. Love Guru or something?
It's surprisingly hard to find a comedian able to pull off what Sellers did seemingly so effortlessly in these movies, although it doesn't seem like he's doing anything THAT special or doing anything that complicated.
Steve Carell
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