With tales of production issues, director struggles and script changes, Dolittle could use some good publicity. The reaction to the trailer was.... not kind, to put it mildly. So now the marketing team behind the Robert Downey Jr.-starring comedy is going with a new teaser video that doesn't actually feature footage from the movie.
This quick vid finds Downey Jr. overseeing a gathering of his creature co-stars, who are all auditioning for a variety of other movies, from Scarface to Meet The Parents and Jurassic Park. Essentially anything else the studio has in its back catalogue.
The story of Dolittle itself finds Downey Jr. as the eccentric Dr. John Dolittle, famed doctor and veterinarian of Queen Victoria’s England, who loses his wife. Seven years later, he has shut himself away behind the high walls of Dolittle Manor with only his menagerie of exotic animals for company. But when the young queen (Jessie Buckley) falls gravely ill, a reluctant Dolittle is forced to set sail on an epic adventure to a mythical island in search of a cure, regaining his wit and courage as he crosses old adversaries and discovers wondrous creatures.
Dolittle's cast boasts a host of well known names voicing the animals, including Octavia Spencer, Ralph Fiennes, Emma Thompson, Kumail Nanjiani and John Cena. It'll be out in cinemas on 7 February.