Is Igor The Weinstein Co’s Last Hope in ‘08?

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on May 8, 2008

Its been a rough year for The Weinstein Company, hasn’t it? They have continued to take a lot of flack for furthering the spoof movie phenomenon by putting out Superhero Movie, they’ve successfully turned every Star Wars geek on the planet against them by delaying the release of Fanboys and they’ve had a few good flicks that just haven’t gone any where… Morgan Spurlock’s Where In The World is Osama Bin Laden? being the most recent disappointment. Thankfully, they’ve got a few more shots at it before we can say that 2008 isn’t there year, or so we would think.

Besides the SXSW darling comedy The Promotion, Woody Allen’s Vicky Christina Barcelona (the one with the Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem 3-way) and Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno, the other savior for the Weinsteins is Igor, an ill-marketed animated film with John Cusak in the lead voiceover role. I say ill-marketed because up until the other day, I was completely oblivious to this film’s existence — and that’s sad. This is what I do.

The good news is that they have until September to get Igor’s ugly mug into the hearts and minds of America’s children — so I guess its good that they are starting now. The movie itself is the story of a young Igor, voiced by the aforementioned John Cusak, who defies his existence as a mad scientist’s assistant to become a scientist himself. It looks heartwarming, really. It is directed by Anthony Leondis, who has previously written a bunch of straight-to-DVD Disney sequels (Lilo and Stitch 2, The Emporer’s New Groove 2), so I’m not holding out a ton of hope. Then again, I’ve been wrong before — just ask my ex-girlfriend.

Igor hits theaters on September 19th. It will also features the voices of Steve Buscemi, Eddie Izzard, Jennifer Coolidge, Jay Leno, Molly Shannon, Sean Hayes and John Cleese. Have a look at the film’s first teaser poster below, and don’t forget to lay your opinions down in the Sound Off section at the bottom of the page.

Igor Movie Poster

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Chris

On one hand, I hope this bombs spectacularly, as to hopefully lead the Weinstein's down the road to ruination. But on the other, I hope it does well as to piggyback on the success an animated children's horror script I've written.

I hate being torn like this.

Trevor

Come on, why does any studio put a big name actor in an animation movie. Really John Cusak what's the point. His voice is not recognizable, so why pay him millions of dollars to sit and read a script. There has to be hundreds of better voice actors who need the work. The studio could've paid one of them a few thousand dollars and people would have been equally or more entertained. No one goes to see a animated movie just because Brad Pitt did the voice acting. So why, why keep doing this. Comedians, however are given a pass, but still.

Tara

Weinstein no longer is distributing the film, MGM bought it.

Is Igor The Weinstein Co’s Last Hope in ‘08?

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