Robert Downey Jr. Will Be Doctor Doolittle
Adding a touch of whimsy to his heaving roster of literary characters, Robert Downey Jr. will talk with the animals, grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals as the titular Doctor Doolittle in Stephen Gaghan’s The Voyage of Doctor Doolittle.
Gaghan will be directing after rewriting a script by Tom Shepherd, from the work of Hugh Lofting, who created the eccentric doctor who claims he can talk to animals for a series of children's books in the 1920s.
Doctor Doolittle is no stranger to the big screen. In 1967 the good doctor was played by Rex Harrison, and despite so less than favourable reviews, went on to win an Oscar for Best Original Song. The concept was then give a 90’s sheen with Eddie Murphy, taking on the role of the Doctor…no, not The Doctor, in two Doolittle movies in 1998 and 2001.
While Gaghan seems like an odd choice – bear in mind, this is the man who brought us Syriana – it’ll be interesting to what he and Downey Jr. bring to the Doctor Doolittle character.
