Up until a few weeks before his death, Chris Farley was recording the voice for the animated lead character in Shrek (2001). Although the Saturday Night Live alum had recorded the overwhelming majority of the movie before his untimely death at age 33 in 1997, it still was not finished so producers had to re-record the part with Mike Myers taking over the lead. If you have ever wondered what Farley might have sounded like as Shrek, now you can find out.
A newly released video features storyboard drawings with Farley voicing Shrek and Eddie Murphy as the voice of Donkey. Check it out.
After Farley’s death, the voicing of Shrek still took awhile. After Mike Myers was cast, he insisted on a rewrite of the script. Myers tried various accents throughout the process, and it was only after he had recorded the part that he asked to re-record it again with the now-familiar Scottish accent. While Shrek came out very well and Myers did a wonderful job, I still cannot help wondering what the movie might have been with Chris Farley.
What do you think of Chris Farley as Shrek? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Seven years after the release of the excellent film Sideways director Alexander Payne released his follow-up film, The Descendants. I hear Oscar buzzing. . . .
Slate reconsidered Blue Velvet 25 years after the film’s release.
For Veterans Day, the Los Angeles Times chose the best war films from American cinema for each war.
The “Atlas Shrugged, Part 1″ producer is planning Part 2 despite the poor box office for the first movie.
Television Piers Morgan quit “America’s Got Talent” to focus on another talent show: the 2012 presidential election. In related news, Howard Stern might join “America’s Got Talent.”
The producer of next year’s Oscar telecast, Brett Ratner, stepped down after making a stupid gay slur. After Ratner’s announcement, the Oscar host, Eddie Murphy, announced he would no longer host the show, apparently because he had only agreed to do the show because he had worked with Ratner on Tower Heist. Vegas just announced that the payout on bets for “Eddie Murphy wins an Oscar in the next decade” went up 1000%.
Regis Philbin’s last week on Live! with Regis and Kelly will include guests Kathie Lee Gifford, David Letterman and Tony Bennett.
13-year-old “X Factor” singer Rachel Crow started out life in a crack house before she was adopted. Although I had been favoring Josh Krajcik to win, Crow’s performance this week was probably the best of the group.
Other News ‘Family Circus’ creator Bil Keane died at age 89.
Slate had an interesting discussion of “The New Classics,” enduring books, films, ideas, etc. since 2000.
“This is Nixon unplugged“is how Historian Stanley Kutler described new recordings of the former president available online for the first time, including Nixon’s grand jury testimony.
In honor of Joe Frazier, who passed away, Life magazine presented a slideshow of never-seen photos from “The Fight of the Century” of Ali vs. Frazier in 1971
Two new biographies about Charles Dickens are out. In related news, I have had a two-volume Dickens biography on my shelf for more than a decade that I have yet to read. Now, I do not know where to start. Maybe I will watch a movie. . .
What was your favorite pop culture story this week? Leave your two cents in the comments.
