Over the course of cinema history, there’s been a long lineage of characters with whom audiences fall in love, even though they’re of the more unscrupulous variety. Whether they’re leading a ragtag group of baseball underdogs like Walter Matthau did as Coach Buttermaker in “The Bad News Bears” or Billy Bob Thornton as Willie spreading yuletide cheer in the like-minded “Bad Santa” – these characters continue to work onscreen despite their flaws.
Vulture reports that Universal may look to be providing another character who could potentially enter that very pantheon by extending an offer to Jeff Bridges, with Michael Douglas as a second option, to take a role in “Dirty Grandpa.” Well the title pretty much says it all with this one, and with “Bad Santa 2” scribe John Phillips on board, we pretty much get the gist of where this is going. “Dirty Grandpa” will follow an uptight grandson who’s set to be married, but is then tricked into escorting his pervy former Army general of a grandfather down to Florida for spring break. Sounds like a road trip comedy of sorts, only we’re guessing there will be lot of “Death’s Waiting Room” and elderly sex jokes in tow.
We feel as if Douglas could actually be the better option here — as much as we love Bridges as a performer. From “Fatal Attraction” to “Basic Instinct,” Douglas has always been the one with the dirtier mind. Perhaps this will be another entry into the long series of characters we previously mentioned, or maybe it’ll just end up being like the Robin Williams and John Travolta-starring “Old Dogs,” just with more T&A.
No filmmakers have been announced yet and we’re curious to see who they pick as the grandson, but we’ll have to wait it out and see how it plays.
