By Travis Johnson
Remember last year when it was announced that Joseph Fiennes was going to play Michael Jackson in a movie and the internet, as it is wont to do, lost its goddamn mind? It seems the mistake we made was to take the thing seriously. Not that it isn’t happening – Fiennes is playing the late MJ alongside Stockard Channing as Elizabeth Taylor and scotch-lovin’ Brian Cox as a grumpy, acerbic Marlon Brando – but it’s clear from the trailer that what’s going on here is far more sly and tongue-in-cheek than we were led to believe.
Urban Myths is a British series taking a comedic look at, well, the title makes it plain, really. So we get a look at Hitler’s art school career (with poor old Rupert Grint credited as “Hitler’s Friend”), Cary Grant (Ben Chaplin) turning Timothy Leary (Aiden Gillen) onto LSD, and playwright Samuel Beckett (David Threlfall) driving a young Andre the Giant to school.
Clearly these are your celebrity-gossip-style urban myths and not your mutilated-cows-and-alien-abductions kind. Also clear: this is more towards the RDJ-in-Tropic-Thunder end of the spectrum when it comes to racelifting, although whether that’s still offensive is left as an exercise for the reader. Urban Myths is seeing the light of day in the UK from January 19. Hopefully we’ll get word of an Australian release soon, if only to see Eddie Marsan as Bob Dylan.
