Benedict Cumberbatch to voice the Grinch in a remake: unnecessary or great?

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Ever since Benedict Cumberbatch became a celebrity – approximately after Sherlock’s first season aired – he’s been offered consistent voice work. And he takes it, which is nice. He has a great voice, and he probably loves doing a few days here and there on animated films, documentaries, commercial voiceover gigs, etc. He’s good at it too, so when I heard this news, I wasn’t really upset at all. I think it’s a good fit, actually! Benedict Cumberbatch is going to voice the Grinch in another animated version of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Benedict Cumberbatch will voice the villainous Grinch in Universal’s animated The Grinch. Chris Meledandri, Illumination Entertainment CEO, made the major casting announcement Wednesday during Universal Studios’ presentation at the CinemaCon convention of theater owners.

“Choosing the actor to voice The Grinch, we were determined to make a choice that would not only define this version of The Grinch as absolutely singular, but most importantly, we were looking for a voice to express comedic wickedness while embodying vulnerability,” said Meledandri. “It is that vulnerability that allows us to create a character that is not only highly entertaining, but also has an irresistible appeal.”

The animated project is expected out Nov. 10, 2017 — 17 years after the live-action version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey. The classic rendition of the Seuss story is the TV version directed by Chuck Jones and featuring the voice of Boris Karloff as The Grinch.

The green Grinch lives in a cave bitterly watching the happy people of Whoville below him and vows to take Christmas away from them. Meledandri promised the movie version would be “both modern and classic.”

[From USA Today]

I never saw the live-action version with Jim Carrey, but I’ve seen the original animated film a million times – it was already a classic when I was growing up. And isn’t the original animated film always shown on network TV around the holidays too? My point is that they really don’t NEED to remake the animated film. But if they are hellbent on redoing it, I’m glad they got Bendy to do the voice.

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Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

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