Disney still has a ways to go until they’ve made live-action redos of all their animated films, but on the docket is Hercules, their 1997 take on the Greek/Roman myth he-man. Guy Ritchie, who semi-improbably handled the Aladdin one, is back, and it’s unknown who will play who, but they’ll have a hard time topping Danny DeVito, who voiced the satyr Philoctetes, usually just called “Phil.” But DeVito has an idea: Why not cast him again
In a new chat with Wired, in which he has to answer “the web’s most searched questions,” DeVito was asked about the new Hercules. And he had (profane) thoughts.
“If they don’t put me in that, they don’t have a hair on their ass,” DeVito responded. Or maybe he meant playing the lead, not Phil. “I am the live-action Hercules!”
Why not! After all, DeVito has long been a diminutive badass. It was he who had one of the most explosive (and succinct) responses to the out-of-control, Trump-appointed Supreme Court going Medieval on the country early in the summer. And it was he who managed to get another onscreen Hercules — that would be Hercules Goes Bananas star Arnold Schwarzenegger — high as a prank. The live-action Disney remakes are more often slavish remakes. Why not think outside the box and cast the erstwhile Louie De Palma as the strongman who captured Cerberus.
You can watch DeVito’s Wired chat in the video below.