Well, it’s a good day if you’re Sam Nivola, the young son of Alessandro Nivola and Emily Mortimer. For, hot on the heels of news that Daddy has been cast alongside Chris Walken in Five Dollars A Day, comes confirmation that Mummy will return to star alongside Steve Martin, as Inspector Jacques Clouseau, in The Pink Panther 2. So Sam should be good for toys and sweets for a while.
Mortimer – one of the best things about the original film (which was, of course, a reimagining of the classic Peter Sellers-Blake Edwards films, with 25% more mugging) – will play Clouseau’s love interest, the equally bumbling Nicole. Jean Reno, as Clouseau’s loyal but long-suffering partner, Ponton, will also return to the fold for the sequel.
Two key players not returning, however, include director Shawn Levy, who is currently working on inflicting The Hardy Men or The Flash on an unsuspecting world (he’s been replaced by Harald Zwart, director of , erm, Agent Cody Banks), and Kevin Kline, who played Clouseau’s twitching nemesis, Chief Inspector Dreyfus, first time around.
Kline has been replaced by John Cleese, which ordinarily would lead to a snide comment here about this being a great opportunity to watch not one, but two, former comic geniuses in sad decline. But wait! Don’t be so hasty! After all, nobody does repressed rage – Dreyfus’ defining characteristic – as well as Cleese.
Furthermore, though the first Pink Panther wasn’t a patch on the first Sellers-Edwards movies, it was, to all intents and purposes, a kids’ film, Martin was fine in the lead role – as wacky and zesty as he had been in years - and there were some cracking gags, from the Clive Owen Bond-spoofing cameo, to the hamburger scene, and every time we think of Martin’s fevered defence of Beyonce Knowles, “Can’t you see she’s SEXY?!?”, a tear of happiness runs down our cheek.
And with Martin back on scripting duties, along with Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz (gag machines of old), Scott Neustadster and Mike Weber, we’re holding out hope for this one.
And that’s without taking into account the rest of the new additions to the cast. Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina and Aishwarya Rai have all signed on, bringing a healthy dollop of Heavy Duty Acting and Gorgeous Swimming Pool Eyes to the project. The trio will play detectives and experts who assist Clouseau as he attempts, presumably by falling over things and mangling the English language, to stop a thief who’s been stealing artefacts all around the world.
We'd also lay good money on one of the new trio turning out to be the thief, by the way. You'll get especially short odds on Andy Garcia.
The first movie was a hit when it came out in 2006, and indeed the sequel was announced virtually straight away, but it’s taken a while to get to this point. And, if you wish to see Martin do his pratfalling thang, you’ll have to wait a while longer – Feb. 13, 2009, to be exact. Zuts alors!