Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. A few years back I sold a script called The Home about old people fighting monsters in a nursing home. It got really, really, really close to happening (like sets were built close), but then we lost our financing and everything fell apart.
It was a fascinating experience being involved heavily in prep and casting. I was there as our cast solidified. There was a character who was essentially the lead of the elderly cast, the mentor of our main character. It's one of the best characters in the script if I don't say so myself. We had Brian Cox for a bit, but lost him when our schedule pushed. We figured why not go for the other Hannibal and inquired about Anthony Hopkins. He had an opening in his schedule and was down to do it without even looking at the script, but we just plain couldn't afford him. He wanted something like $2 million a week. We ended up casting Hal Holbrook in the role and he would have been incredible if we could have made the film work.
The point of the story is Hopkins likes money. The great thing about him is that he might like a payday, but he doesn't treat any project like it's lesser. He never phones in a performance, which is why it was so exciting for us when we very briefly flirted with the idea of bringing him in on our little horror movie.
So it wasn't a surprise to me when he joined up with the new Transformers film. The man likes to work and he likes getting paid. This is a huge benefit to Bay and his team as no matter what this part is, man or machine, Hopkins is going to bring it.
Here's the announcement:
The man, the myth, the legend – help us welcome Sir Anthony Hopkins to the #transformers universe. pic.twitter.com/PfkTuWZHD9
— #TRANSFORMERS (@transformers) June 3, 2016
I still can't muster much excitement for a new Transformers movie, but I gotta give them their props for grabbing a real talent to elevate this project.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
