Igor News Roundup
Exodus Animated Film Stars John Cusack, John Cleese, Jay Leno
Here's some more information about Exodus Film Group/The Weinstein Company's Igor, starring the voices of John Cusack, John Cleese and Christian Slater.
After a short lull, the Exodus Film Group and The Weinstein Company is finally ramping up the publicity for their CGI animated film, the mad-scientist comedy Igor.
Exodus invited CNN's Mylene Klass to visit their studios and interview several people involved with the project. Her interviewees included executive producer Max Howard, director Anthony Leondis and comedy legend John Cleese, who voices the character of Dr. Glickenstein.
After showing Klass the character she will be voicing in the film, Max Howard explains what the movie's about.
"In this (kingdom) of Malaria," Howard explains in the interview, "every village has to have an evil scientist. And the evil scientist spends the entire year inventing something that's really horrible.
"And then they have to battle it out at the Evil Science Fair, held once a year," he continues. "And the greatest invention is used to blackmail all their neighbors. This entire kingdom actually survives by blackmailing all the others."
CNN's cameras followed Klass as she stepped into the recording booth, in order to voice her evil scientist character ("Igor! Pull ze svitch!").
Igor's Plot
Here's the film's synopsis, courtesy of the Exodus Film Group's website:
"Igor is a playfully irreverent comedy that brings a new twist to the classic monster genre. In a world filled with Mad Scientists and Evil Inventions, one talented evil scientist's hunch-backed lab assistant has big dreams of becoming a Mad Scientist himself and winning the annual Evil Science Fair.
"The stellar voice cast includes Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Jennifer Coolidge, John Cusack, Arsenio Hall, Sean Hayes, Eddie Izzard, Jay Leno, Molly Shannon, and Christian Slater."
Christian Slater Still an Igor
Contrary to previous news, John Cusack's presence in the film didn't mean that Christian Slater got the boot from Igor. Slater was originally slated to play the title character, but was bumped in favour of Cusack who has a higher profile in Hollywood. Slater is now voicing a supporting role, the hunchbacked assistant (also called Igor) of Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard).
You can check out the other characters in Igor (and the actors who voice them) over here.
According to Exodus' site, The Weinstein Company will give Igor "a wide theatrical release on October 24, 2008."
Extra Tidbit: One of the central notions in Igor, that every evil scientist has their own Igor, is remarkably similar to a plot point in Terry Pratchett's bestselling Discworld series. In the 40+ book series, which earned author Pratchett an Order of the British Empire in 1998, there are a clan of Igors who have their own company name: Igors 'R Us.
On December 11, 2007, Pratchett disclosed that he had "a very rare form" of Alzheimer's Disease.
