Jason Lee joins Chipmunks
will play David Seville in upcoming live-action/CGI flick
Say it ain't so: Jason Lee will portray David Seville in Fox Animation's upcoming live-action/CGI hybrid Alvin and the Chipmunks.
(Source: www.variety.com)
Jason Lee is cashing in his cool. The demon in Dogma, the 70's rock god in Almost Famous, and the thief with a new lease on life in TV's My Name Is Earl is now portraying David Seville in Fox Animation's Alvin and the Chipmunks.
The flick will be scripted by Jon Vitti (The Simpsons) and directed by Tim Hill (Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties). Production starts March 28th, and they're aiming for a December 2008 release date.
Alvin and The Chipmunks is based on the fictional musical group created by singer David Seville in 1958. Seville (real name Ross Bagdasarian) first hit #1 with his novelty single "Witch Doctor," which featured him singing a duet with a sped-up version of his voice.
Seville went one step farther with his next single, "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)," where he created three distinct characters by varying the playback speed of the tape machine. He then called the group the Chipmunks, and named them after the top executives at his record label, Liberty Records: Alvin (Bennett, Liberty Records president), Simon (Waronker, owner) and Theodore (Keep, the chief engineer). The song was a #1 hit for four weeks and received 3 Grammy awards.
The act was so successful that Seville managed to spin Alvin and The Chipmunks into several animated series and a 1987 feature film, The Chipmunk Adventure. After Seville's death in 1972, his son Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and his wife Janice Karman took over voicing the characters.
Fun Fact: Some colossal idiot gave the guy who made Garfield 2 money to make another movie?!!
