Mondays beware because Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso, Game of Thrones), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One), Nicholas Hoult (The Great, Tolkien), and Cecily Strong (Saturday Night Live, Schmigadoon) are joining the cast of Alcon Entertainment‘s Garfield movie. Chris Pratt and Samuel L. Jackson also star in the film, which Mark Dindal (The Emperor’s New Groove, Chicken Little) is directing.
It should come as no surprise that Alcon’s Garfield movie is based on Jim Davis’ celebrated comic strip focusing on an orange, lazy, lasagna-loving feline, his owner, Jon Arbuckle, and Jon’s pet dog Odie. When Garfield isn’t making life a living hell for Jon and his canine companion, he waxes rhapsodic about the world, his perpetual hunger, and hatred of Mondays. Plot details about Alcon’s Garfield movie are unknown at this time. However, we know Pratt is voicing the iconic cat while Jackson is playing Garfield’s father, Vic.
Reports do not indicate who Waddingham, Rhames, Hoult, and Strong will play. However, if I had to venture a guess, I would not be surprised if Waddingham steps into the role of Arlene, Garfield’s witty one-and-off girlfriend. Maybe that leaves Strong to play Nermal, the cute grey tabby cat and bane of Garfield’s existence. Again, I’m just firing into the air here, so don’t take any of this to the bank.
The last time Garfield graced the silver screen was in 2004, when Bill Murray voiced the character for a live-action film directed by Peter Hewitt. A sequel titled Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties was released in 2006, seeing Jon and Garfield visit the United Kingdom, where a case of mistaken identity finds Garfield ruling over a castle. Reviews for both films were all over the map, though most skewed toward the negative. When word broke that Pratt would voice Garfield for the new movie, film fans threw their hands in the air in despair.
Are you at all excited about Alcon Entertainment’s Garfield movie? I am, now that I’ve laid out some casting predictions. If I turn out to be correct, you can bet I’ll find a way to crow about it. Get ready for epic levels of obnoxiousness if my dream cast comes to pass.