…these men have no dicks. Well, that’s what I heard.
Seriously though – observe a lesson in being too cool for school. As Chad spotted over at GB.net, Kotaku (the gaming wing of the Gawker network of blogs, infamous for their remarkable snark to effort ratio) contacted Sierra to find out why Rick Moranis wasn’t going to be voicing Louis Tully in the Ghostbusters video game.
The brief to the point of flippant Sierra response;
He made so much money off of Honey I Shrunk The Kids that he retired. He just doesn’t want to work anymore.
The snarky to the point of dickitude Kotaku analysis;
Oh. Well. Good for you, Rick Moranis.
Which then turns into a Rick Moranis-bashing free-for-all in the comments. Unfair, and uncool. While the Sierra rep is correct, I can only hope he said much more than that, and that Kotaku cut it down to size, making it seems so glib. If only someone had thought to, you know, maybe ask Rick why he would or would not do Louis Tully every again. Oh wait, someone did. And it’s a lot deeper an answer than “He’s rich and doesn’t want to work.”
[UPDATE] Sorry, Kotaku didn’t talk Sierra, Das Gamer did. They were just reposting and snarking. Like they do. But still… tacky.
I can’t fault a man for wanting to quit the biz. Just let the man be i say.
Poor Rick Moranis. If he doesn’t want to do Ghost Busters for whatever reason – that is up to him and him only. On his Wikipedia page he is quoted as saying the following: “I pulled out of making movies in about ‘96 or ‘97. I’m a single parent (Moranis’ wife died in 1991 of liver cancer), and I just found that it was too difficult to manage raising my kids and doing the traveling involved in making movies. So I took a little bit of a break. And the little bit of a break turned into a longer break, and then I found that I really didn’t miss it.” Makes what the Sierra spokesperson allegedly said seem quite cruel I think…
I didn’t think Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was even that much of a hit. But I’m not holding a grudge about him not being involved.
Well, consider that Honey… had two sequels and the TV show. Having spoken to Disney guys in the past, they consider it an important franchise. And given his star status, the Sierra guy is right, it is the main reason Rick doesn’t have to work if he doesn’t want to. And as everyone here says, that’s his call, more power to him. You can’t fault a guy for wanting to hang with his kids more than go through the hassle of working just for the sake of working.
That said, I hear the Bob and Doug cartoon is finally going to take off (every pun intended, eh.)
That’s a good point, Castewar. I had forgotten about the two sequels and definitely had forgotten the tv series. Anyway, I can’t think of a better reason to retire than raising his kids. It’s refreshing actually.
If it’s one thing I would’ve liked to see Rick do before he retired was Home Brew. That sequel was in development hell for years.
gotta love internet immaturity.
i can’t blame moranis at all… i would probably do the same thing. while GB is a film that’s near and dear to us… for him, it was probably just another gig. not everyone wants to revisit work…
is moranis voicing the bob and doug toon?
Its bullshit what they pulled but I wouldnt have even granted them the effort of reproducing what they did.
On the flipside though, I am at least curious as to how dubious his involvement in the game would have been to his life? Theres business politics, but really, its just a day or two of voiceover work…Still, he’s an educated guy much more in the know of the business than we, so let restful Ricks lie…
So, are they gonna have someone else do the voice of Louis Tully, or is the character not going to be involved in the game since Moranis declined?
Funny, didnt think of that til you said, Im curious now too…
I might be wrong, but maybe the Sierra guy tried (and failed) to be funny with his answer.
There is a question of context on the Sierra guy’s answer, and I give some slack for that, but there were smarter answers to that question, particularly since Moranis not being involved is a minus for the project – in those situations you want to play it as positive as possible, not say “he doesn’t need to work anymore, so he’s not interested.”
The Kotaku guy on the other hand…
Ugh… just ugh…
re: play it positive
Right. After all, Sigourney Weaver passed as well, and Sierra et al have played up how there is a new female romantic interest this time around.
Ummm .. How much work do you have to go through to show up a few days and read print into a microphone? C’mon Rick. You’re leaving loose ends in the Genre, step up and do your part. You don’t just create a character and leave him on the side of the road.
I’m glad that Rick, and even Sigourney – and their respective characters – are not going to be in the game. The characters played too big of a role in GB2, which is one of the reasons that film sucks. The simple fact is that Louis and Dana are ancillary characters. They may be played by big name stars, but if “Spook Central” in GB1 were someplace else, those characters wouldn’t even exist. Or thought of another way, if the events that brought them into the story took place on the floor above theirs, they wouldn’t exist. There is no need to bring back every character that appeared in the first film into the new game. Bringing back too many elements is how you make a bad sequel – see GB2. So far they’re doing everything right with the game in terms of which characters are being brought back.