Bewitched to the Big Screen... (1 Viewer)

[David*P]

There is a new picture from the set of the BW movie that is from a wedding scene....one MILLION points to whoever can tell me who the bald guest is that is to the right of and behind Nicole.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

It's either Robert Duvall, Terry Bradshaw or Gerald Ford.

 

[David*P]

Hee hee....he sure looks like a combo of all three of those guys...but no....

Anyone else want to take a guess?

I will say he is very close to the original show....

 

[David Owens]

Is that William Asher? (Show's producer and Elizabeth Montgomery's ex-husband)
How sad is it that I know this?!?!?!?
Think Erin Murphy or Bernard Fox are somewhere in that scene?

 

[David*P]

David Owens, you win ONE MILLION points!!! That is William Asher. He also directed many many episodes of Bewitched (and I Love Lucy, for that matter).

In an April version of the movie script the character of Dr. Bombay is in there. I keep in contact with Bernard Fox and he told me he had a meeting with the casting director's about possibly reprising his role. After that initial meeting he never heard anything. I took it upon myself to call the studio and make sure they knew that Bewitched fans would love to see him play the role he originated. The last time I spoke with them they said that they had cast the role but they wouldn't say who.

I'm hoping that they used him and are going to have it be a pleasant surprise.

Someone who saw a little piece about the BW wedding on Extra said they thought they saw Erin Murphy there....

p.s. It's also been reported that the trailer for this movie will be attached to "Spanglish" the new Adam Sandler movie that is opening Dec 17.

 

[David Owens]

Man, watching the E! True Hollywood Story really paid off!!! I knew I'd seen him somewhere before.
Are my eyes deceiving me or is that Cybill Shepherd standing to his left??
Glad to hear Bernard Fox is still alive and well, I had lost track after "Titanic" came out, and was surprised that he didn't look much older now than during his days on the show.
Hope this one turns out well, looking forward to it, as well as the other childhood fave, "I Dream of Jeannie" (except I assume that one will be a much more literal remake.) As long as they don't cast the teenage bimbette of the moment in the title role.

 

[Richard Gilmore]

You guys got it all wrong. It's the same alternate universe where Dick Sargent fell for Elizabeth Montgomery.

 

[David*P]

Well, I'm so mad about this new piece of info about the BW movie I could spit!!!!! One of the last roles to be cast was that of Dr. Bombay. The actor who originally played him, Bernard Fox, is still a working actor and has played the role on other TV shows such as "Tabitha" and as recently as "Passions" in 1999. He met with the casting director in May but they never got back to him. I called a couple of times advising them that fans of BW were really wanting to see him reprise the role. They said they would note it and took my info but they also said that they weren't sure if that part would even be in the movie.

Well this was posted on USA Today online Nov 7. It was part of an article about the premiere of "The Polar Express":

In more realistic TV remake news, premiere guest Fred Willard has won the role of bumbling Dr. Bombay in Bewitched, and next week will shoot a scene with Nicole Kidman in which "an elephant comes crashing through Nicole's backyard."

I think it's sad that they have to go with all new actors...I realize Bernard Fox is one of the few remaining actors left of the original series but it would've provided great continuity between the show and the series if he was kept in the role, even if it has been about 40 years since he was on there.

 

[Steve Phillips]

Since the movie is a behind the scenes look at a BEWITCHED movie being made, it doesn't bother me.

It's not like this a reunion movie with the original characters or cast.

They could write a scene where Bernard Fox is mad at the casting director because he was replaced by Fred Willard....

 

[David*P]

I just hope Bernard at least has a cameo, such as one that you suggested....

 

[David*P]

The webmasters of the best Bewitched site on the net Harpies Bizarre.com posted this picture of a poster for the upcoming movie which they say is found under July in a 2005 United Artists calendar.

I'm hoping to see posters with actors in them soon.

 

[David*P]

According to a Kristin Chenoweth fansite (she plays Marie, friend to Nicole's character) there is a 46 second preview trailer for the BW movie at the beginning of "The Spongebob Squarepants Movie". It shows Nicole riding a broom and Will Ferrell hanging from it.
Anyone know if this trailer is online anywhere? I tried googling "Bewitched movie trailer" but didn't find anything.
Update: Sony has a premlinary BW movie site up at http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/bewitched/. You can register for updates.

 

[David*P]

I hate to be the only one that posts in this thread...I was hoping to hear that some of you had seen the trailer (which Entertainment Tonight is showing tomorrow 11/23). Being a big Bewitched fan with a lot of expectations for this movie, I wanted to hear from someone who isn't too familiar with the movie or the show.
...first of all I will give you a "play by play" run down. My sister was with me and she said she was so excited to see it she could hardly breathe...after watching 35346879845 commercials they finally got to the previews and the Bewitched one was first. Keep in mind the visuals of the trailer mirror what is shown in the preview poster shown above. Also, this may not be exactly how it was but it's how I remember it.
You see the Columbia Lady standing there and these clouds roll in and the camera pans away. A different version of the Bewitched theme song is playing. You see the very tip of a broom come into view from the left hand side of the screen and it cuts to more clouds with the words "Be Warned"...there is yelling from Will Ferrell and you see more of the broom and that someone is hanging from it and there is also a woman sitting on it..more words appear that say "Be Ready" and then it shows a full view of Nicole on the broom and Will hanging for dear life. Nicole, I believe, is wearing a red dress that is knee length. She is smiling and she twitches. The words appear "Bewitched" and then it shows a close up of Will's face and he's angry, yet scared, and says, "I'm hanging from your broom!" It then cuts to a shot of a cloud trail that forms the letter "B" in the style of the tv show's opening amongst billowy clouds. Then it shows the title card again with Nicole and Will's names, the name of the movie and opening Summer 2005 and the website www.sony.com/bewitched.
Now for my opinion....*sigh*
...it all seemed cool and awesome UNTIL Nicole twitched. *disappointed sigh*
Let's pray that this preview trailer was one of the first things filmed because Nicole's twitch needs a lot of work. She focused too much on trying to get her nose to actually wiggle rather than moving her upper lip, which is what Elizabeth Montgomery did. My sister felt that Nicole didn't understand the spirit of the character as though she was saying, "Yeah, I'm Nicole Kidman and I'm in the Bewitched movie so I'll twitch my nose but only because I'm supposed to but really this is just my version of Samantha." I was just dumbfounded that Nicole has said she's been practicing and it just didn't work.
I had also wanted the font of the title to be the same as it was on the show but the more I think about it the more it makes sense that it isn't. Because the font from the show designates the show, therefore the movie should have it's own font. I would've really liked to have polled the audience and asked them what they thought and if they knew that Nicole isn't really playing Samantha.
All in all I'm hoping that future trailers will show that the movie is NOT a direct remake and also that Nicole can really twitch her nose, because it's the reason Will Ferrell's character (Jack Wyatt) wants her to play Samantha in the Bewitched remake he's doing in the movie.

 

[David*P]

The trailer for the movie can be seen on Sony's site listed above.
The first official stills from the movie came out last week.

This is from the beginning of the movie when Jack sees Isabel at the bookstore and is awed by how much she resembles Elizabeth Montgomery.

This comes from a scene in the movie where Isabel, Jack and Iris are at the Museum of TV and Radio promoting their remake of Bewitched. I think Nicole's dress looks like it came out of first season Samantha's closet. And it's awesome that Shirley's outfit is purple as Agnes Moorhead loved the color.

 

[Anthony Neilson]

The version of the theme tune in that trailer is horrible ! This doesn't look good.

 

[David*P]

I actually liked that version of the theme song...because it sounds so close to the original...but that twitch Nicole did...that's a different story....all though I've found that other BW fans on different boards didn't think it was that bad.

 

[Sean Laughter]

I honestly haven't seen the original show in so long I can't really remember how the "real" twitch looks anymore to compare. I thought it was more a nose thing than Kidman did in the trailer, but maybe I'm remember wrong. In any case, it doesn't bother me really, if something as superficial as the "twitch" is really what defined the show for some people than so be it, but I'll take a good film with merely a passable "twitch" any day.

Does anyone have a link to a video of the original "twitch" or anything?

Of course, if it is very different, it'd be funny if they did a whole scene ala the Star Trek Vulcan hand thing, where Kidman just gives up and goes with the new one because she can't do the old one, like some actors on Star Trek just stopped even trying to do the Vulcan hand sign.

 

[Steve Phillips]

Elizabeth never twitched her nose anyway; it was mostly an upper lip movement.

Besides, Kidman is not playing Samantha, she is playing a witch who gets the part of Samantha in a "Bewtiched" remake.

 

[John Chow]

Just saw the teaser. Hm..should be interesting to see how this turns out, I was a pretty big fan of the tv show when I was younger and have seen quite a few episodes.

My memory of the twitch thing was always more of a mouth movement rather than nose, but I think Nicole has her lips pursed too much, but it's been too long since I've seen the tv show. As already mentioned, since she's not actually playing Samantha, it should be fine.

 

[David*P]

Yesterday on Barbara Walters' Oscar special she interviewed Will Ferrell. They also showed a brief clip from the upcoming movie which you can view over at Team Nicole Media, a website devoted to all things Nicole Kidman.
I'm hoping that a full trailer for the movie will be in theaters soon.
BTW, John Chow, I agree about NK's lips being "too pursed". Hopefully the other twitches in the movie will look more 'authentic'.