03/02/2011

RA-NDOM THOUGHTS

WHERE'S JOHN PORTER?

Tonight at 9.00 p.m local time, episode 1 of STRIKE BACK will be aired in Italy on FX, a  satellite channel (Sky Italia) . We Italian fans of Richard Armitage are glad and proud of course, but we all agree that dubbing his velvet voice with an ordinary one spoils the result, deminishes his great performance. Nothing against Giorgio Borghetti, only his voice doesn't fit the idea of John Porter we all have in mind. John Porter is Richard Armitage, body and ... voice!
A second reason of disappointment is that at FX, they decided to publicize the British series Strike Back focusing on the presence of Andrew Lincoln in it, as if he was the protagonist. Look at the official page they prepared on their site!
MA SI PUO'!!! I mean, IS IT POSSIBLE??? I usually forget my English when I get angry. To put ONLY a pic of Hugh Collinson there when the protagonist of the whole series is a JOHN PORTER? We know they did it because Lincoln is more popular than RA in Italy, thanks to his role in Love Actually and his latest series Walking the Dead. But that is simply not fair.
I can't translate all the comments in the page, but among the furious disappointed readers who left one, there's also a Mary and a Margherita (Margaret) I know very well...a very close acquaintance of mine.
Still making up my mind  whether to  turn the TV on FX or not tonight ... My DVD with the original audio is much better. Fingers crossed for Richard and Strike Back on Italian screens, anyway! I hope they will get good reviews.

WE ALL TRUST YOU, JOHN!


WATCH THE ITALIAN TRAILER.  WARNING: VOICE ALERT!!!






HEINZ KRUGER READS ... THE HOBBIT !


Today, back from work , I had a very pleasant surprise. In my awful withdrawal syndrome,  this long article
( HEREHERE & HERE) about Captain American The  First Avenger (coming out July 2011) with a big still of Richard as Heinz Kruger is like fresh water in the desert. Even more,  I liked the comment describing Richard reading The Hobbit in his trailer while shooting Captain America. It was two months before his being in the cast as Thorin Oakenshield was officially announced by Peter Jackson!
I can just imagine what a volcano Richard can be. I have wondered many times and must do it again: "Does he ever actually relax and have a rest"?
Look at that picture above. The last role I'd see Richard in was ... a bloody Nazi. But there he is. And I bet he will be convincing. A bloody convincing wicked Nazi. 

THE ROVER DELAYED 
 
What will Richard be reading now, under a tree down in New Zealand, getting used to wearing a long beard in the heat? Something all about love ? The Rover, of course. But I'm sure he's already thinking of something else... 
By the way, no summer trip to England to see The Rover it seems! The project had to be delayed. Have you read?
English Touring Theatre via www.RichardArmitageNet.com : "The Rover is still in play, but it’s unlikely to be this year. We are still keen to do it but there are lots of t’s to cross and I’s to dot before it’s definite. We do know that there’s a real appetite for it if a certain Mr Armitage is involved, but he’s going to be in NZ filming The Hobbit for the next while so we’ll have to wait and see for now…"
 Thank you Ali for posting this. I knew New Zealand was too far and The Hobbit too huge a task to find  proper  time for a theatrical tour all over England ... but I'm pretty sad, pretty disappointed. I really hoped to see Richard on stage by the end of the year! But that will be some other time soon. Fingers crossed. Delayed gratification always takes greater joy, do you not agree?

6 comments:

lunarossa said...

OMG, the voice spoils everything! What an effeminate one!!!! And Andrew Lincoln doesn't get a better treatment! I hate dubbing...I'd rather out up with our subtitles...Ciao. A.

bccmee said...

Let us know how the John Porter voiceover works out overall. Obviously there is *nothing* like the real thing. Richard Armitage's voice is one of his many assets and nobody else comes close in my opinion. I laughed out loud at the "voice alert!" I think fans of Richard Armitage should watch Strike Back just to increase the ratings. He will soon be much more popular internationally.

Also, Strike Back has been or will be aired in several countries: the UK of course, Germany, Norway, Italy, Canada and Japan. Australian TV has acquired the rights to air SB but there is no date set. Also the DVD is available in Dutch although I don't think the show aired in the Netherlands. More and more people will notice Richard Armitage from these broadcasts even if their first impression of him is limited. They will soon discover, as we have, the impressive range of this talented actor.

Anonymous said...

Hi Margherita, John speaking :P
I couldn't stand listening to Richard with that awful (dubbed) voice: I wouldn't watch SB in Italian even if I had a TV!
Speaking of withdrawal symptoms... I'm off to watch my DVD, instead :)
xx K/V/J

M. said...

I agree...the voice is awful, and so different from his real voice, so deep and manly!
I'll see Strike Back in italian with so much pleasure...but the dubbed voice ruin everything. Lucking, Richard is Richard...and also if without his voice he loose some of his charme...He's He!

Anonymous said...

Subtitles are distracting, but I definitely prefer them to dubbing.

An actor's is a very defining tool of his/her acting. The intrinsic gift for some (who could imagine Richard Burton sans voice?), and for the accomplished actor, the product of voice projection and breath control training.Bring on the subtitles! Leave the voice intact!

Mr. Armitage conveys as much through facial expression and body language, but again, those are also another tool. I prefer the whole, not fragments.

fitzg

Traxy said...

Isn't it weird? Nazis aren't supposed to be "hot" on film, they're supposed to be ugly ... well, or at least not more attractive than random person off the street! And yet, there is RA, and he's a Nazi. I'm going to be ever so confused watching the CA movie.

RA = hot.
Nazis = evil (in a BAD way).
RA as Nazi = ERROR!!