Bill Murray has been in many Comic-Con-ish movies in the past, but he's never actually visited before. That's now changed with his appearance yesterday, promoting Barry Levinson's comedy drama Rock The Kasbah, in part in character as the film's skeezy rock promoter. "Some of the best parties I've ever been to have been with really insane nerds," he cajoled the crowd. "I've done some good [movies] and I've done some maybe I should have been convicted for... but I fit right in here, I think."
Producer Mitch Glazer was there too, and said that while Levinson was a major factor, the film's impressive cast (Bruce Willis, Danny McBride, Kate Hudson, Zooey Deschanel, Scot Caan) were there for Murray. "Once Bill was doing it, people sort of gravitated to the movie," he said. "Billy had a party bus with disco lighting..."
Elsewhere in the panel interview and the Q&A Murray talked about possibly having been in the running to play Han Solo once, "owning" Willis, and liking Miley Cyrus. He also sang Smoke On The Water. Asked what his favourite role was by a cosplaying Ghostbusters fan, he said, "Once upon a time, I did save the city of New York, and I had the coolest damn car to drive around Manhattan..."
In Rock The Kasbah Murray plays a burned-out music manager who heads to Afghanistan on a USO tour with his one remaining client. Through a series of unfortunate events, he ends up abandoned, cash-strapped and without his passport, but then stumbles upon a young girl with an amazing voice who he figures could make it big. So he somehow manages to smuggle her back to Kabul so she can compete in local X-Factor variant The Afghan Star.
Shooting took place last summer (with Caan replacing Shia LaBeouf at short notice), and Rock The Kasbah is out in the US on October 23. We don't have a UK date yet.