back to article Russell Crowe to play Bill Hicks?

It appears we have the leaves of Sherwood Forest to thank (or blame, depending on your viewpoint) for a possible outing of Aussie thespo Russell Crowe as legendary US comedian Bill Hicks. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, filming on Crowe's latest project Nottingham has been postponed until at least March next year " …

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  1. Chris Haynes

    Dear <non-specific deity>, No!

    Bill Hicks deserves much much more than Russell Crowe can deliver.

    You think if Bill Hicks comes back, he's ever going to want to see Russell Crowe play him?

    Fuck, no!

  2. Hud Dunlap
    Paris Hilton

    Bill Who??

    I am an American and I never heard of the guy. I went to the web site link and he reminds me of George Carlin without the style.

    Paris, because at least I heard of her.

  3. Alf Faiweather
    Thumb Down

    Gosh darnit Bill...

    You think when Bill Hicks comes back he ever wants to see a fucking Russell Crowe movie?

    I think I've died a little inside.

  4. ahahaha you won't catch me that easy again
    Alien

    wtf???

    ...i imagine that mistah hicks'd be mighty excited...the great russell crowe eh?

    Alien coz i hope he's helping them devise a plan to get us off this f'ing planet

  5. Ferry Boat

    Review of development issues

    That git is not suitable to play Bill Hicks. Nobody is suitable to play Bill Hicks.

    There does not need to be a film about him. He recorded some live shows, watch those.

    Bloody forest.

  6. alphaxion

    hrmph

    No no no no no

    Do not want

    We still have dennis leary, the substandard clone, why do we need what is very much against the philosophy Hicks actually held.

    Why don't we just try to channel him from the other side instead? anyone got the requisite dosage of mushrooms and lsd to perform this?

  7. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: Bill Who??

    Well, I've heard of him. Then again, I'm a reader.

  8. Jon Double Nice

    'Marketing & Advertising'

    From 'Arizona Bay'

    by Bill Hicks, go listen to it. I'm not entirely sure he'd be happy about this Crowe vehicle.

  9. Ralph B
    Joke

    Why Russell Crowe?

    Wasn't Denis Leary available?

  10. Eddie

    no, no, and thrice no

    Great actor, but totally wrong for this.

  11. arran
    Jobs Halo

    Im wondering

    if the Mac zealots are the same ones who are screaming at the idea of crowe playing hicks....

    anyway Ive heard of hicks as well. but then Im not Under 20 and think comedy starts and finishes with little Britain.

    steve, because Im sure he is a hicks fan.

  12. Peter Thomas
    Joke

    Re: Bill Who??

    I've heard of him, and I'm a waffle waitress.

  13. Chris Collins

    I'm Bill Fucking Hicks

    I'm going to squeegee your third eye with my fists

  14. Rob
    Gates Horns

    well....

    Goatboy is displeased at this travesty...

  15. Tom
    Unhappy

    @ Hud

    That's a sad indictment of America today. They forget the genius who spoke the truth and they remember Bu$h. Twice. Or is it just because you're too old / too young to have taken notice of one of the most revered comedians of the late 20th Century?

  16. Steven Raith
    Thumb Up

    Ms Bee - reader

    What you reading for?

    Anyone who doesn't know who Bill Hicks is, I demand you immediately get pretty any Bill Hicks DVD or CD and beat yourself to a pulp for missing out on his pretty much perpetually correct, cutting and almost always hilarious social commentary.

    His stuff about George Bush Snr is pretty applicable to his son, as it happens.

    Steven "How far up your ass does this guy have to be before you realise he is fucking you" Raith.

  17. Rob Crawford
    Unhappy

    Here we go again

    Personally I would rather have Russell trying (but probably failing) to play Bill rather than put up with to Dennis Learys existence.

    Personally I think Hicks would be pissing himself laughing at people getting upset about who plays him in a film. Tis a pity he isn't around as he would have had so much material concerning Bush II (the sequel).

    Perhaps the world (particularly the US & UK) need to be reminded of how angry we should be, and if that takes Mr Crowe then so be it.

    @Hud you need to broaden your horizons, theres a couple of decent books about Hicks which may put him in perspective

    Sad, because he is gone, when we needed him more than ever

  18. Lloyd

    Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

    and nnnnoooooooooooo some more.

    Hoprfully Mr Crowe will be assassinated by pro Castro pigeons pulling a coup for common sense.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Bill Hicks almost unknown in the US

    I moved to the US some 7 years ago, I was astonished that Hicks was virtually unknown to the general population. Seems his style of attack humour was not popular with the TV moguls, hence little or no TV exposure of his style. Denis Leary is a pale reflection of Hicks at his best.

    On a newly elected president

    "No matter what promises you make on the campaign trail - blah, blah, blah - when you win, you go into this smoky room with the twelve industrialist, capitalist scumfucks that got you in there, and this little screen comes down... and it's a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you've never seen before, which looks suspiciously off the grassy knoll.... And then the screen comes up, the lights come on, and they say to the new president, 'Any questions?'

    "Just what my agenda is."

    Efros

  20. Garth
    Coat

    Very shrewd

    They're sure to get the anti-marketer dollar with that one. Very strong demographic.

  21. Mark
    Pirate

    Re: Bill Who??

    Only an evolved being could play Bill Hicks - Crowe's still asking "Where's my thumbs ?"

  22. drunk.smile
    Thumb Down

    Chas Early...

    ..doesn't do a bad showing playing Bill Hicks in Slight Return, but it's still not Bill Hicks.

    Russel Crowe though...

  23. Robert Ramsay
    Thumb Up

    Good one Sarah Bee :-)

    "Wellll, lookee here, we got ourselves a reader!"

  24. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse
    Joke

    @ Sarah Bee...

    What you reedin' for Sarah...

  25. Cap'n wotsit

    With a bit of luck

    Crowe will get so engrossed in being a character actor for this role he will smoke too many cigarettes, take too many drugs, and drink too much liquor that he himself will keel over in a heap somewhere.

    ah I can but hope.

    and I am afraid I won't put hand in pocket to see this film (if it makes it as far as completion) I will just sit at home and watch my collection of Bill Hicks DVD's

  26. Edwin
    Coat

    Re: Bill Who??

    I remember Bill Hicks.

    He used to run a body shop in the tiny southwestern town I grew up in. Of course, he had kids, but said small town at one point featured a 27 y.o. grannie, so I guess it's possible.

    Don't remember him being particularly funny though, although I guess it could be a paint fumes thing.

    Gosh - to think he's famous now.

  27. Adrian Jackson

    @Sarah Bee

    Whut you reading for?

    And given that Bill Hicks has already been brought back to some extent in Slight Return, is this really necessary? Unless, of course, Bill Hicks is *actually* back from beyond the grave, with a half-hour weekly show that he will host, entitled 'Let's Hunt and Kill Russell Crowe'.

  28. A
    Jobs Horns

    Commercialism

    Remember Hicks' bit about New Kids On The Block? Well...

    To the prospective makers of this documentary: if he wasn't good enough for you to do a biography while he was alive, why all the interest posthumously? "Stop putting a fucking dollar sign on everything," as he said.

    I suggest a boicott of the proposed movie; please tell your friends not to support the cheapening of Hicks' work.

    Incidentally, this project smacks of a marketer's revenge on Hicks for his marketing sketch ;)

    Dick Cheney, because he's the master hard seller.

  29. Hallainzil
    Thumb Down

    Dinosaurs...

    I think God put Russell Crowe here to test my faith...

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Someone once asked me,...

    if Russel Crowe is an Australian or a New Zealander, I just replied that he was a wanker and left it at that.

  31. Stuart Harrison
    Alert

    Hmmmmmmm...

    If this project does come about, and Russell Crowe does a good job, who's to argue? If, as a result, more people become aware of the great man then it's a win win!

    Although he could completely f*ck it up of course...

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Should have...

    ...subpoena'd Manuel from the local Video store......

    Just remind me not to drink any coffee, I'm not sure I want to stay awake that long through another Russell Crowe movie.

  33. Anon Koward
    Stop

    Final Statement

    FYI Russell Crowe is a k1w1, he was born in NZ and whilst he moved to the lucky country at an early age he is not from god's country..

    He does prefer to be classified as an Australian but we don't want him, any country in need of a has-been actor? You can adopt your very own chubby, racist beer swilling*, no good actor.

    *Although beer swilling has been put in here as a detriment it is only for effect and is certainly not considered a detriment by this poster

  34. Rob Holmes
    Jobs Horns

    Said in a dead-pan kind of a way...

    I can see it now:

    "My name is Maximus Goatboy Meridius...

    I want to wear you like a feed-bag."

  35. Haku

    Re: Bill Who??

    Hud Dunlap: watch this okay?

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1366476727111157120

    Somehow I can't see Russell stepping into Bill's shoes very well. Have to agree on Denis Leary, he's just a Tesco Value Bill Hicks. Bill is probably waiting patiently for Denis on the other side... http://www.haku.co.uk/b3ta/BillHicksDenisLeary.jpg

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    I have an idea for a new reality show

    It's a half-hour weekly show that I will host, entitled Let's Hunt and Kill Russell Crowe. It's a fairly self-explanatory concept: Each week we let the hounds of hell loose and chase that no-talent Ocker motherfucker across the globe until I catch him by that fruity ponytail, pull him to his knees, and put a shotgun in his mouth like a big black cock of death *BOOM*

  37. Burch

    I am an American and I never heard of the guy

    This is why everyone else in the world looks down on you.

  38. Name
    Unhappy

    Love and fear

    Sigh, I hear kittens dying.

    About the only person I could take semi-seriously as Bill is.. No, wait, there no-one. Maybe Chris Morris with a strap-on merkin accent, but even that's a stretch.

    Sarah Bee:

    I'll start the pump up, you drive your truck on around back..

    (RIP Bill, you irreplaceable fucker)

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    Russell Crowe

    can go suck satan's cock for all I care...

  40. Lloyd
    Alien

    Dennis Leary

    Please don't mention that moronic piece of shit on the same page as the blessed St Bill of Hicks, anyone that unoriginal that they have to steal Hicks' worst material because it was more "tv friendly" deserves to suffer in tripe like Rescue Me, has it been cancelled yet?

    Alien, because that's what "network friendly" was to Bill Hicks.

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Hud who?

    "I am an American and I never heard of the guy."

    Oh my God, you're an American? Well, fuck me pink, gets the flags out guys, this prick's American. Shit, if he hasn't heard of Bill Hicks then obviously he never existed!

    I now have an amusing vision of Bill Hicks running around on stage with a falsetto voice shouting "I'm an American, I'm an American". Well, congratu-fucking-lations dickhead, no fucker's heard of you either.

  42. Ash
    Thumb Down

    Bill Hicks doesn't need a movie about his life.

    If you don't know who he is, check out some of his material on YouTube. Very wise man indeed...

    I'm off to listen to "Hooker with a Penis". It reminds me of the RIAA.

  43. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Am I having a nightmare?

    Russell Crowe, the U2 of acting.

  44. Burch

    On the positive side

    It could be Mel Gibson.

  45. Graham Jordan

    Am I the only one for it?

    My girlfriend despite having amazing breasts doesn't have a clue as to who the genius that Bill Hicks is. Have Russell Crowe play him and she'd be interested in finding out for herself... So would many others.

    Hicks is a legend, his material is still relivent today, I'd truely love to know his thoughts on the war "against" terror, Hicks would be on fire if he were alive today.

    Plus with any luck they may take some of his ideas into count, in particular the special effects.

    "Do you want your grandma dying like a little bird in a hospital room... her translucent skin so thin you can see her last heartbeat work its way down her blue veins? Or do you want her to meet Chuck Norris?"

  46. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ironic

    but the first bill hicks dvd i bought, i felt a bit like i'd been raped after i watched it, cause it cost me £7 and it was only about half an hour long. fuckin hilarious though, and i dont blame him for it.

    personally, id go with bill bailey doing bill hicks. that could work well. not in an "accurate portrayal" kind of way, more of a "watch bill bailey act like a twat" kind of way. yes.

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No, no, no

    Please stop now. Don't destroy my memories.

    Where's Satan's pecker when you need it?

  48. Bryce Prewitt
    Unhappy

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

    Insert picture of Vader here.

  49. This post has been deleted by its author

  50. Eddie Edwards
    Thumb Down

    @ everyone

    I ask the readers to strike the mention of Denis Leary from their memories. And if anyone knows where I can get a copy of Demolition Man with his scenes removed please let me know.

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