Just when it looked like Mike Meyers career might have been derailed for good (see “The Love Guru” and the critics that savaged the film to shreds; many filled with tons of personal attacks on the comic), the cinematic gods decided to take pity on him and give him a second chance.
That savior came in the form of Quentin Tarantino who cast Meyers as the British General Ed Fenech in his upcoming WWII epic “Inglorious Bastards.”
Speaking to MTV for the first time about the role, Meyers was naturally “thrilled” to have been chosen for the role. Man, he really dodged a career-killing bullet there. “I can’t believe I got the call, to be honest with you. It’s one of those unbelievable, magical calls that you get,” Meyers marveled.
Meyers might want to put in a call and thank Adam Sandler. Sandler confirmed to the Irish press earlier in the year that Quentin had wanted him for a role in the film, but he had to drop out of the project because the scheduling conflicted with Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” (both films are shooting within the next two weeks). But according to MTV, the Fenech role was the exact one Tarantino wanted Sandler to play.
So yeah, call and thank him or thank Apatow, Mr. Meyers. Either way, Meyers is like a pig in shit. “I am so thrilled. I have spoken [with Tarantino]. Our conversations are supposed to be, like, 20-minute check-ins, and we end up speaking for three hours just about different films that we love.”
If you haven’t already read the “Inglorious Bastards” script, Meyers describes his character for you, but just remember it’s basically a cameo and he’s only on screen for about seven pages. “I get to play a British general,” Myers said of the military mastermind he plays who dreams up Operation Kino; the plan to infiltrate the Nazis in occupied French. “I get to be in a World War II movie, which has been my goal since I think I was, like, 6 years old. And I get to play one of those brainiac British generals.”
A reported nightmare to work with on his own projects, maybe this good fortune will change Meyers attitude.
