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J.J. Walters
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Latest Movie "News"

#1 Post by J.J. Walters »

Filmrot.com, IGN.com, Rotten Tomatoes and a few other sources are reporting that Rawson Marshall Thurber (director) has announced the major cast of the movie (link), (link), (link).

The source of the information comes from a Teletext UK article, which I can't find. It's not 100% official, but this looks like it could be it.

Ahem ....

Magnum - Matthew McConaughey
Higgins - William H. Macy (!)
Rick - Steve Zahn
T.C. - Tyrese Gibson

Whoa

:shock:
Last edited by J.J. Walters on Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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#2 Post by Waltstasz »

Hmm, well that's a lot of big stars anyway. I think Macy as Higgins is a good choice. He's a great actor. I can't recall him doing a British accent in anything though?
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#3 Post by KC »

I shiver at the thought of McGonaugy portraying my beloved Thomas Sullivan Magnum but what could I expect from the director of Dodgeball. At least he didn't cast Ben Stiller!
Oh, by the way, did you notice that McConaughey, Zahn and Macey were all in that terrible movie Sahara? I'm sure adding the guy from The Fast and The Furious 2: Faster and Furiouser will make everything better.

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#4 Post by Shermy »

I can actually see Matthew McConaughey being cast, but that probably means it will be a much shallower version of the character. (And similar to McConaughey's past roles which relied heavily on charm.)

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if someone watched Failure To Launch and said, "Hey, here's a guy just like Magnum who lives rent free and does whatever he wants." :roll:

As for the rest, I really can't see any of those actors in those roles. The suggestion of Steve Zahn pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the tone of the film, though.

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#5 Post by J.J. Walters »

Shermy wrote:The suggestion of Steve Zahn pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the tone of the film, though.
Quoth my wife, "Steve Zahn!? The guy from Reality Bites!?"

I actually think Matthew McConaughey could be quite good in this role. He's certainly an A-List leading man, which is good for a movie like this. I think can pull this off. And he's done some good stuff IMHO, Dazed and Confused, U-571 ........ Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. :? They could have done a lot worse, believe me.

William H. Macy excites me. They better make Higgins British, however, or I'll be ....

Don't know much about Tyrese Gibson. He's doesn't have many acting credits. It's interesting to note that he grew up in the Watts district of LA, just like Roger E. Mosley.

And it looks like the Iraqi War backstory is confirmed now, which means no 80s setting. :(
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#6 Post by KC »

The casting of McConaughey raises a question with me about Magnum's background. He has a Texas accent so will Magnum be from Texas? Magnum was from Virginia but Selleck was orignally from Michigan and was natually a Detroit Tigers fan, so Magnum was a Tigers fan.

It's well known among sports fans that McConaughey loves the Texas Longhorns college football team. So will Magnum be wearing a Longhorns ball cap or will they have him affiliated with some other professional team from Texas, i.e. the Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, Dallas Cowboys, ect.

I would have less of a problem with MConaughey as Magnum if he doesn't try to copy Selleck's portrayal of the character and attempts to make Magnum his own.

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#7 Post by J.J. Walters »

Gosh I hope not! I'll tell you right now, if he wears a Cowboys hat I flat out WILL NOT see the movie! ;)
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#8 Post by Waltstasz »

I think it would be a bit much to let McConaughey 'recreate' Magnum. There were some things about Magnum that were created for the character by Selleck: Detroit Tigers fan, that Magnum wasn't a perfect 'ladies man' that always got the girl and always won a fight. But those things are a part of that character and too many liberties with them would be an issue (for me at least).

If I dressed up for Halloween w/ a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and a Detroit cap, then I'm Magnum. If I put on a Cowboys hat or something, then I'm just some guy with a colorful shirt who likes Dallas. :lol:
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Movie thoughts

#9 Post by Pete Walkup »

I saw McConaughey in We Are Marshall and he does a good job at creating the needed dialect to convince viewers he is a native of Ohio that is the new coach of a rural West Virginia college football team. Thus, I do not worry that he can take his Texas persona and create a Tidewater, VA/HI dialect. Further, I believe he has the chops and star power to not disappoint as TSMIII. He will pay the proper respects to the character that Sellect created and demonstrate the proper balance of drama and comedy.

Wm. H. Macy could be good as JQH but I was really hoping for Paul Giamatti (Sideways).

Steve Zahn will be great as Rick. While Sahara was not the best of screenplays or scripts, I thought he was one of the stronger parts of the film.

Last, I must say I am disappointed with Tyrese as TC. I thought that a good choice would have been Michael Clark Duncan from The Green Mile. He has the vulnerability that TC often demonstrated without the 'over the top' cockiness of an actor like Tyrese.

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#10 Post by KC »

I saw We Are Marshall as well but I was distracted by McConaughey's accent and delivery. He seemed to be doing an impression of G.W. Bush. I've yet to see a film of his where he doesn't have a Texas accent. Sometimes he plays it up more than others, but it’s still there none-the-less.
I’m not happy about this casting rumor but after all my huffing and puffing I’ll still end up schilling out ten bucks to see this movie.
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Re: Movie thoughts

#11 Post by Waltstasz »

Pete Walkup wrote:Wm. H. Macy could be good as JQH but I was really hoping for Paul Giamatti (Sideways).
I like that suggestion. I think Giamatti would be a good Higgins. He looks a little more like Higgins should at least.

Welcome to the boards, BTW. :)
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#12 Post by Danno »

James J. Walters wrote:Gosh I hope not! I'll tell you right now, if he wears a Cowboys hat I flat out WILL NOT see the movie! ;)

Me too...

They're not going to have Harrison Ford not wear the beloved fedora in the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones film... the Detroit cap is as iconic as that, imho.
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#13 Post by Gritty »

Michael Clark Duncan would fit if there were another cast altogether. Zahn, Tyrese and McConaughey are more in the same age range I believe.

Obviously as a fan, I don't think there's a need to make Magnum a movie, I don't believe the fan base is going to make a difference today. There's an appeal for McConaughey and when I heard he was the one, I had no problemo with it. I have my negatives about the whole thing only cause just making every single television show into a feature is stupid. But "Charlie's Angels" was a giant hit and I have to say it wasn't half bad for something with no substance whatsoever. "Starsky and Hutch" was a goofy send up that got good reviews and was another hit.

We dig our Magnum but Magnum's gonna be made for a new group of folks all over the world now.

I just wish that with attention paid to big budget features made from favored television shows there would be reunion shows made with original casts. Make a new Crockett and Tubbs with Don Johnson and Phillip Michael Thomas for television. Make a Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul reunion on television... I think that would pay some respect to the fans if the shows were well known and recognized for what they were all those years ago. ( We can do without another damn "Dukes of Hazzard" reunion though, they've made tons of them and that movie was even shunned by the Almighty!!! )

Gritty

PS Higgins better be friggin' British!!!!!!!!!! "Oh My God!!!"

PSS Who would be the voice of Robin Masters if they use him at all in a feature movie right off the bat.

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#14 Post by grapeshot »

My sister went to see the Miami Vice movie and came away so disappointed that I decided to skip it altogether. She didn't have any problems with the new cast or the story, but missed what she felt were the essential elements of the original show, which in her mind was the bright sunshine and pastels of Miami, the art deco architecture, and the cool theme song. She thought that the look of the movie was too dark to really evoke anything about the original TV show, and the movie that played out in front of her eyes didn't offer anything equally compelling in its place.

I guess I don't have a problem with remakes per se. After all, the two Adams Family movies worked. With the right cast and production crew, it can be done right. However, too often it isn't done right.

There are some essentials to Magnum the show that I think need to be in the movie, otherwise it's only a movie about people who coincidentally share the same name as the characters on that old TV show. Notice in the example of the the two Adams Family movies, nobody reimagined the premise. It didn't get set into a different place or time, and the characters weren't twisted around to fit the actors. Rather it was the actors that recreated the original characters AND were able to do so while adding more depth to the originals.

It seems to me that one essential aspect to the Magnum story is that these are all Viet Nam vets. Making the new characters be Gulf War vets makes it a completely different story, because Vets from 'Nam carry around a vastly different set of baggage than Vets from the first Gulf War.

Re-watching the Magnum episodes, I'm struck by how carefree and slacker-like Magnum, Rick, and TC are. (The word "slacker" wasn't invented at the time this show was made, but that's how they come across to me now.) The three friends are, at the time of the show, in their mid to late 30's, but they fool around and play around like people half their age. Yet, it doesn't strike us as something to shake our heads over, because these guys came back from a terrible, long drawn out, miserable war, which had no redemptive ending, and because of which they missed out on their early adult years. The shadow of the Viet Nam war hanging over these characters is what kept this show from being completely silly. I have no doubts whatsoever that McConaughey and Zahn can play the part of high-spirited slackers, but I wonder what sort of "serious ballast" the Gulf War will provide to the overall story.

Although I have nothing against the announced cast, and nothing against the production team, I have no hopes of this project being a success.

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#15 Post by eegorr »

grapeshot wrote:It seems to me that one essential aspect to the Magnum story is that these are all Viet Nam vets. Making the new characters be Gulf War vets makes it a completely different story, because Vets from 'Nam carry around a vastly different set of baggage than Vets from the first Gulf War.
You are close, but, IMHO, the central theme to the show was the comradery of a group of buddies who shared life threatening experiences and literally owe their lives to each other. This is with the exception of Higgins, of course, but he had plenty of similar experiences of his own which allowed him to relate to the rest of the group, and them to him.

So I don't think it is important that they cling to the Vietnam war as the backdrop, any more than it is important that Magnum drive a 308GTS -- it doesn't even have to be a Ferrari, it just needs to be some kind of flashy red car that Magnum can't afford to buy or maintain himself! :lol:

Far more people alive today (aka moviegoers) can relate to the Gulf War than Vietnam, including most of the cast of the movie, so I think it is a good choice. In fact, when the original show first aired it had only been 6 years or so since the US pulled out of Vietnam. By the time the movie comes out it will be almost 20 years since the Gulf War -- maybe the Iraq war or Somalia would be better.

Frankly, I like the casting, including Matthew McConaughey. He has done some good stuff, like Sahara and Contact. I can't think of anyone they could have picked to do it instead. Bill Macy is a great actor and will do a fabulous job (and he is older than the rest of them, unlike Giamatti, as some have suggested for this part), and I like Steve Zahn for Rick. I know nothing about Tyrese Gibson (he seems to be too young for the part), but who knew anything about Roger Mosley before Magnum, either?

I think I would like the idea of a remake a lot less if they tried to make it too close to the original. At least that has been my experience in the past. Now, if it was a reunion film, obviously they would have to pick up where they left off, but it seems that nobody (especially Selleck) from the original series had any interest in doing it that way. It would be sorta cool to see some cameos, though! Maybe they could put Selleck in a red 308GTS driving down the Pali Highway in traffic with Magnum (McConaughey) driving Robin's RED Lamborghini LP640 Roadster! :lol:

BTW, when are they supposed to start filming? There is no mention of it on IMDB, at least not on McConaughey's page. In fact, it looks like he is lined up for 4 different films next year, so I am guessing it would be 2009 at the earliest.

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