9:24 am - 11/14/2012
With so many talk show hosts elbowing for our late night TV viewing attention — Jay and Dave and Jimmy and Jimmy and Craig and Conan and Jon and Stephen and Chelsea and Carson — it’s hard to remember that there was a time when there was just Johnny. For 30 years on The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson dominated the late night landscape along with his stalwart sidekick Ed McMahon, putting the nation to bed with a formula of monologue, celebrity interview, occasional skit, and musical guest that remains more-or-less intact to this day.
But while Johnny was a fixture of American culture, part of his legend is that he remained essentially a mystery — an intensely private man who granted few interviews and all but disappeared from public view from when he retired in 1992 to when he died in 2005. That may soon change. Deadline is reporting that a biopic about Carson is currently in the works, with screenwriter John McLaughlin (Black Swan, this month’s Hitchcock) adapting journalist Bill Zehme’s forthcoming biography Carson the Magnificent: An Intimate Portrait. There is no studio or director yet attached to the project — and since the book has yet to be released, everything remains in the embryonic stages. But with a subject who looms so large in American pop culture, all producer Tom Thayer (Hitchcock) would likely need to do is hook an A-list star to play Carson — and perhaps another A-lister as McMahon — and he could be well on his way to a greenlight.
So who could play Carson and McMahon? We held several envelopes to our heads and came up with a list of prospective actors, some more obvious than others.
JOHNNY CARSON
Kevin Spacey: It’s actually kinda unfair to start with Spacey, because anyone who saw his Carson imitation on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon knows the Oscar-winner has the guy nailed. Watch it here, and marvel. Basically, this role is Spacey’s to lose.
Robert Downey Jr.: Crack comic timing and a wry deadpan delivery? Check. Plus, it would be really nice to see Downey in a film where the biggest fight scenes involve Zsa Zsa Gabor.
Jim Carrey: He understands the power of Carson better than most: He bombed in very first appearance on American television doing a meta Elvis Presley impression on The Tonight Show. Plus, Carrey’s performance as Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon has already proven he can bridge the gap between an imitation and a lived-in performance.
Bill Hader: There may not be a better impressionist working today, and the SNL MVP is long overdue for a breakout feature film role.
ED McMAHON
Will Ferrell: Especially if producers go with a non-comedian for the Carson role, Ferrell could bring some welcome comedy chops to the production.
Josh Brolin: As George W. Bush in Oliver Stone’s W., Brolin showed he is a crackerjack mimic — and his SNL hosting gig earlier this year proved he’s no slouch at comedy either.
Jeffrey Tambor: He knows this role better than most, having played hapless sidekick Hank Kingsley on HBO’s brilliant late night send-up The Larry Sanders Show. Plus, his baritone would be perfect saying “Herrrrre’s Johnny!”
Bill Hader: He’s such a versatile impressionist, Hader could play both Carson and McMahon.
Source
Who should play Johnny Carson (and Ed McMahon) in new biopic?
With so many talk show hosts elbowing for our late night TV viewing attention — Jay and Dave and Jimmy and Jimmy and Craig and Conan and Jon and Stephen and Chelsea and Carson — it’s hard to remember that there was a time when there was just Johnny. For 30 years on The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson dominated the late night landscape along with his stalwart sidekick Ed McMahon, putting the nation to bed with a formula of monologue, celebrity interview, occasional skit, and musical guest that remains more-or-less intact to this day.
But while Johnny was a fixture of American culture, part of his legend is that he remained essentially a mystery — an intensely private man who granted few interviews and all but disappeared from public view from when he retired in 1992 to when he died in 2005. That may soon change. Deadline is reporting that a biopic about Carson is currently in the works, with screenwriter John McLaughlin (Black Swan, this month’s Hitchcock) adapting journalist Bill Zehme’s forthcoming biography Carson the Magnificent: An Intimate Portrait. There is no studio or director yet attached to the project — and since the book has yet to be released, everything remains in the embryonic stages. But with a subject who looms so large in American pop culture, all producer Tom Thayer (Hitchcock) would likely need to do is hook an A-list star to play Carson — and perhaps another A-lister as McMahon — and he could be well on his way to a greenlight.
So who could play Carson and McMahon? We held several envelopes to our heads and came up with a list of prospective actors, some more obvious than others.
JOHNNY CARSON
Kevin Spacey: It’s actually kinda unfair to start with Spacey, because anyone who saw his Carson imitation on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon knows the Oscar-winner has the guy nailed. Watch it here, and marvel. Basically, this role is Spacey’s to lose.
Robert Downey Jr.: Crack comic timing and a wry deadpan delivery? Check. Plus, it would be really nice to see Downey in a film where the biggest fight scenes involve Zsa Zsa Gabor.
Jim Carrey: He understands the power of Carson better than most: He bombed in very first appearance on American television doing a meta Elvis Presley impression on The Tonight Show. Plus, Carrey’s performance as Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon has already proven he can bridge the gap between an imitation and a lived-in performance.
Bill Hader: There may not be a better impressionist working today, and the SNL MVP is long overdue for a breakout feature film role.
ED McMAHON
Will Ferrell: Especially if producers go with a non-comedian for the Carson role, Ferrell could bring some welcome comedy chops to the production.
Josh Brolin: As George W. Bush in Oliver Stone’s W., Brolin showed he is a crackerjack mimic — and his SNL hosting gig earlier this year proved he’s no slouch at comedy either.
Jeffrey Tambor: He knows this role better than most, having played hapless sidekick Hank Kingsley on HBO’s brilliant late night send-up The Larry Sanders Show. Plus, his baritone would be perfect saying “Herrrrre’s Johnny!”
Bill Hader: He’s such a versatile impressionist, Hader could play both Carson and McMahon.
Source
I'm sorry to say that every time I think of him now, that ALLEGED dogging incident in London comes up.
Over here, the English have a habit called 'dogging' when you meet some random and have sex in each other's cars. It is ALLEGED that Spacey met up with a man for dogging, but he either got mugged on the way to a dogging, or the doggee (sexual partner he was hooking up with) mugged him instead.
He escaped, stumbled across a police officer who asked him about his business and he told him that he got mugged whilst walking his dog. So they tried to find the dog, no dog. It came out that he was mugged, and he decided to drop the charges even though the Met were willing to do a follow up. It's a situation that's haunted him since.