Live-action remakes of beloved animated classics are, it seems, inevitable, and a remake of How to Train Your Dragon is next in line. If you believe one of its stars, Gerard Butler, though, this one’s actually going to be pretty good.
Of course, Butler is not the most unbiased source of information. He is reprising his role as Stoick in the new film, a character he voiced in the animated trilogy. In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Butler talked about seeing the new film without effects and also said that it was a real struggle to go through costuming for the role.
“It was like five pieces of hell. Hours every day and then another hour just to get into the costume,” he explained. “I’d always wondered making those movies, you know, seeing the animated version, ‘What would it be like to actually have to be that size? To be that character and to live?’ Because, for me, one of the great things about being an actor is you get to live in those other worlds, but you don’t when it’s animated. But now they’ve made the live-action, and suddenly you’re in those arenas, and you’re in that Viking village.”
Stoick, at least in animation, is a burly mass of hair and plays a crucial role in the film’s plot as protagonist Hiccup’s father and the man who he most frequently butts heads with. Butler continued, though, by saying that he’s seen the new film.
“The movie’s incredible. I’ve seen it without effects. It’s amazing. But I cannot wait for the world to see it,” he said.
Given the source of the information, we’ll have to take it with a grain of salt, but that teaser trailer definitely looked enticing.
