Good morning, afternoon, evening or night and welcome to the second stage of Russell Brand Trailer Week. It’s like shark week, but with more hair. The promo for comedy remake Arthur has now arrived online and you can watch it below.
Arthur, as many of you will know, is still the title of the fondly-recalled 1981 Dudley Moore comedy that ended up winning two Oscars (including a Best Supporting Actor gong for John Gielgud) and is widely regarded as boasting one of the best laugh-generating scripts out there.
Now comes the update, with Brand in for Moore, Helen Mirren doing a gender change on loyal servant Hobson and Borat veteran Peter Baynham aiming to live up to the screenplay legacy.
This time around, we also get Greta Gerwig as the girl Arthur is willing to risk his inheritance for, Jennifer Garner as the socialite his mother (Geraldine James) would much rather he marry and Luis Guzman as chauffeur Bitterman.
So how does it look? Well, we’ll reserve final judgement for the finished film, but there are some definite chuckles here. The wayward charmer fits Brand like a glove, and while he’s still no Dudley Moore, we’re willing to see more. Plus, Mirren, Garner, Gerwig and James provide some able support. The pop culture reference in the promo (Arthur dressing up as Batman with Bitterman as a tubby Robin) feels like a hand-me-down Only Fools and Horses joke, but otherwise, this could be much better than anyone feared.
We’ll know for sure when the film opens on April 22.