Actor and director Danny DeVito has enjoyed a long career with a variety of projects. The world first met him on One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, got to know him better on Taxi, got to see him bring Matilda to life, and, now, the 77-year-old says he wants back in on a new version of his 1997 Hercules animated film.
DeVito makes his desire known in a new autocomplete interview published by Wired on their YouTube channel today. He played Philoctetes/Phil in the original work alongside Tate Donovan as the titular character, and says in the footage those involved with the piece (which does not have a release date set yet, but does have director Guy Ritchie signed on) would be wrong to discard him.
“If they don’t put me in that they don’t have a hair on their ass.”
DeVito also clarifies his age on a number of projects elsewhere in the piece and also says he directed and starred in Matilda because his kids showed him the book, and, he only made the piece four years after Hoffa after assuring himself it’d be good.
“I just loved it and said ‘if I’m going to make another movie I’ve got to make it so good.’ Because it was for every kid. I imagined; I thought it was. It certainly has been, I think everybody really dug it.”
Danny DeVito’s upcoming work includes Poolman and Haunted Mansion. On television he continues to star on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as Frank Reynolds, is now appearing in Little Demon as Satan, and has appeared on Friends and The Simpsons. Unlike other actors, DeVito has also appeared in video games related to his work on the silver screen. In 1997 he appeared in Disney’s Animated Storybook: Hercules and Disney’s Hercules as his character Philoctetes on the PlayStation and computer. When Detective Pikachu came out in 2019, there was a fan campaign to get him to voice the role, though this did not come to fruition.
