Richard honestly wouldn't be too hard to pull off. If a live action Joker is possible Richard's certainly possible. Joker is a way harder role than Richard because Joker requires the actor to find a perfect balance between hilarious and kid-scaring.
Deadpool sucked because they completely ruined his character. I don't even consider that a Deadpool adaptation, if they had tried harder he could have worked.
Edit: Honestly? Actors have played dead people/monsters for years now. It isn't that hard, just look at the monsters in Pan's Labyrinth.

still, the glowing runes along the eye? the putre yellow eyes w/o pupils or whites... the lack of muscle? the elbows?

CGI. Ever heard of it? They can use motion capturing on the actor then digitally insert Richard's image over him.

then it could be anybody. besides, itkinda mares the style if one uses such a drastic measure. i mean cartoon over LA is an eyesore.

No it couldn't be anyone because it would still require the actor to make all the movements and mannerisms and provide the voice.

See? That's precisely what I mean, a CGI Richard would be the route I'd go with, that way you can focus more on the actual acting rather than having to worry about looks.



Normally I'd agree, I've always been more fond of old school movie magic, scale models, puppets, stuntmen actually falling off buildings instead of actors pretending to fall in front of a green screen, etc. but there really are just some things best left to CGI.

I beg to differ. If you've seen District 9, you'll know that they've gotten much better about that sort of thing.

And if you have a problem with a digital dick then perhaps they could have an actual model of Richard with conventional makeup who's likeness in transcribed onto the real actor digitally.

well then we need to consider who actually fits the role, personality wise.

Hrm, Eddie Izzard could possibly do Richard justice, he made a surprisingly good Reepicheep.

Here's my list of possible actors (no particular order):
Jim Carrey
Mark Hamill
Johnny Depp
Tom Hanks (no really)
Daniel Day Lewis

hmmm... all seem like good cantidates. we need to go by the following atributes:
1. acting skill
2. humor
3.voice

Carrey, Hammil, and Depp I could all see, not sure who Daniel Day Lewis is, but Tom Hanks? I don't know what movies you've been watching, but I've yet to see a single role that Tom Hanks didn't suck in.

Not to mention that I can't remember a single villain he might have played. He's always such a nice guy.

Could Hanks even play someone as murderous as Richard?

Well, if the only role you had ever seen Mark Hammil in was Luke Skywalker you might be inclined to say the same about him playing the Joker.

Hanks is an amazing actor with a huge variety of roles. If you hate him as an actor then that's a problem but I think he could seriously pull Richard off if he put his mind (and voice) to it.
Daniel Day Lewis is the guy from Gangs of New York, There Will Be Blood, and Last of the Mohicans. His average time spent preparing for a role is like three years. For this reason he's only done 10 or so movies in twenty five years.

I'll grant you, he may be able to do a good job acting, but I know none of the roles I've ever seen him in were good ones, then neither were the movies themselves, so it's possible it has more to do with the fact he keeps getting paired with shitty directors.

Tom Hanks was wonderful as a sorta-villain in Groundhog Day. (he was the guy that tried to sell Bill Murray stuff and eventually Bill just punched him)

But he was still playing "the nice (if annoying) guy".

I'd be more willing to give him a chance if you offered an instance where this was not the case.

You could argue that a villain example would be the weird hobo he played in Polar Express, he was somewhat villainous.

Hrm, Cristopher Eccleston might make a decent Richard, as long as he suppresses his natural accent.

Richard kinda sorta has a faux English (read: standard High Fantasy) accent.

people can fake an accent.
actors can do it with conviction.

Yeah, Eccleston's natural accent isn't an English one though, but he can do a decent English accent like he did when he played Doctor Who.

I just thought of two that I can't believe I overlooked:
Rowan Atkinson (sure he's Mr. Bean but he's also Blackadder, the most stylishly evil British screen character ever in my opinion)
Tim Curry: his voice would be perfect, and he's acted as a villain his entire career.

Yeah, Rowan might work well for Richard.

Rowans to devourer for my liking.
He plays a far more sophisticated arsehole.
I'm a huge fan of black adder but I don't think he would be capable of capturing that sheer malovence that Richard has.
Sure he has the dictation.
But his kind of evil is always steered a little more to the Wesley self preservation.
But Tim Curry.
Now thats interesting.
He certainly has the voice.
Remember hexxus. (how ever it was spelt).
Plus he's no stranger to musicals. Meaning dick could pull out song and dance number or two.
But does he have the physical attributes.
When he was younger maybe.
But now? Isn't he kinda chunky now?
I mean whats paramount to Richard is the gangly physique.

We've been over the fact that Richard would probably be digitally inserted so appearance doesn't matter much. Rowan is perfect because his voice and delivery is perfect and Tim Curry is Tim Curry.

I suppose Rowan could do it well.
Its just hard to imagine him delivering a Richard Esq performance.
Richard is really psychotic. He flits between the sly sophisticated orator to the insane voice changing cynical madman.
I just can't see Rowan being able to capture all sides of him.
And i don't think Richard is far enough removed from a human appear to require total CGI.
He would certainly have to be digitally enhanced. But i don't think its justified to make a complete CG doll.
I'm thinking more like what they did with the people in Pandorum. Or blade II.
Makeup with digital enhancement afterwards.
But since his mouth is always covered you could do what they did with Abe in Hellboy.
Get a perfect physical actor for the part and dub the perfect vocal actor over it.

And the best part is, you don't have to worry about lip synching.

I'd like a young Tim Curry. Richard has something Frank N'Furtherlike sometimes...

Tim Curry would be perfect.

I'd rather see an actual actor just touched up with CGI for the glowing but I have a preference for the old school ways of filming movies and am bothered by excessive CGI. It's possible to get people skinny enough to play Richard, Bubba Ho-Tep was a guy in a suit, skinny as hell and very dead looking all without CGI.

Depp would be good, he's very versitle in his acting, he went from a mute with blades as fingers and then as a drunken pirate with relationship issues...yea i can see him being a good one for Richard, but i dont know if he would keep the costume the same...fan girls woudnt want to see just his eyes.

stil, if they altered the robe to fit him tighter, say, showing off his torso, they would go wild if it clung with sweat, or, as the case may be, ectoplasm and ichor.

I'd throw Alan Cummings (Nightcrawler X2) into the ring, as he can play villans, accents, athletics, and has a thin build.
Another option no one mentioned is Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), nice and skinny.

If you want a separate voice actor from the body actor, Brian Blessed for voice would be good.

The trick to skelletal make-up is to build up ridges, especially around the eyes in this case. While building those up, insert something in the lense to make the eyes glow. (maybe I'll do that next halloween...)
Or use a real puppet!

People have been looking at Lucas' CGI and thinking it can't get any better than that. It can. They said CGI would never get any better than TRON--look how wrong that turned out to be.