

MR BEAN FILM SERIES MOVIE
That movie made more than $250 million globally, but just $45 million in this country. You can’t cut out physical comedy if it doesn’t work.” “It’s the most dangerous thing in the world,” Mr. Oz wondered if America had lost the tradition of slapstick comedy to which Mr. They just didn’t laugh as hard or as long.” (“Death at a Funeral” has made $2.9 million since its American release on Aug. Oz said, “but the British crowd was not as boisterous. When the director Frank Oz showed his latest comedy, “Death at a Funeral,” which was shot in Britain with a British cast, he was surprised to find little difference between test-audience reactions in Kansas City, Mo., and London. The comedic disconnect might simply be that American eyes and ears can’t completely accept a movie or television show starring British actors speaking in unfamiliar accents.īut some filmmakers argue that American and British tastes are closer than we realize. Daniels recalled how, in adapting “The Office” for American television, he deliberately gave the lead character (played by Steve Carell here, and Ricky Gervais over there) more opportunities “where he tried to do good things, or at least be competent.” More than that we want our comic losers - our Homer Simpsons and Ugly Bettys - not just to be likable but to have occasional moments of redemption. Bean’s amiable bumbling may be a bit out of step. Now that more caustic comedies like “The Office” and “30 Rock” have come to dominate American television, Mr. Bean character as a throwback to silent-screen clowns like Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp and Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot. Atkinson’s American television deal never materialized.
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“All the TV writers I knew were like, ‘Wow, if we could write for Rowan Atkinson, that would be the complete be-all and end-all,’ ” said Greg Daniels, the television producer who has successfully translated the BBC sitcom “The Office” into the American incarnation on NBC.īut with family comedies like “The Cosby Show” and “Roseanne” then in vogue on American airwaves, Mr. Several television networks and studios were rumored to be contemplating giving Mr. Atkinson, an alumnus of Oxford University and its prestigious Dramatic Society, earned a cult following here for his work in the BBC’s acerbic “Blackadder” comedies, playing a Machiavellian schemer with a cowardly streak. “It’s what makes people laugh, isn’t it, and that’s a funny thing.” “Comedy as an export is quite a difficult proposition,” said Tim Bevan, co-chairman of Working Title Films, the London production company that produced both “Bean” movies.

And its performance here has raised the baffling question of why a taciturn comic character who communicates in the international language of pratfalls and sight gags hasn’t been able to attract the attention of a wider American audience. The modest American debut is a sharp contrast to the film’s blockbuster status throughout the rest of the world, where it has brought in more than $188 million since March, according to the Web site. Bean’s Holiday” fourth for the weekend, behind three returning films (“Superbad,” “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “Rush Hour 3”) and behind the original “Bean” film’s opening a decade ago. That finish, though the best of any newcomer, still placed “Mr.

Atkinson portrayed in a 1990s-era British sketch show and a 2002 animated series, brought in $10.1 million in its first weekend in the United States. Bean’s Holiday,” the second film adventure of the hapless slapstick character Mr. He just can’t seem to win over American moviegoers. Bean, the British comedian Rowan Atkinson has proven adept at blundering his way through all manner of challenges, whether navigating bustling street traffic, making cross-country European journeys or mastering the international box office. When he has performed in the guise of the google-eyed, maladroit Mr.
