More on Will Ferrell as Ignatius Reilly

Will Ferrell's signed on to play Ignatius Reilly in the big screen adaptation of Confederacy of Dunces.

I've written a little about this.

I like Will Ferrell. A lot.

And I like Confederacy of Dunces. A lot.

But whenever I hear Ferrell as Reilly, it just runs up my spine as a miscast. I can't give any real reason, other than this: Will Ferrell never has done anything close to the Ignatius Reilly I've seen and heard in my head whenever I've read Confederacy of Dunces. And I hate to hinge my argument on something so subjective, you know?

Especially when I can't come up with an alternative to play Reilly....the closest I have in my head is Monty Python's Terry Jones in an outfit a lot like the one he wore playing Mr. Creosote, in Meaning of Life, except with a lot of Wayne Knight's mannerisms as Newman, on Seinfeld, thrown in to boot.

Here's what Will had to say about it in a CNN interview:

CNN: You've just been cast in the movie version of "A Confederacy of Dunces" [as distinctive protagonist Ignatius J. Reilly]. Are you worried about what fans of the book will think of you in the role?

FERRELL: Whether good judgment or not, I'm not afraid to do something. That doesn't mean that I'm not aware of the fact that I can do a movie like ["Dunces"] and the purists could be like "Why? Why is it him?" I'm definitely aware of that, but I really can't worry about it too much. And you could probably name 10 other people who could play Ignatius and I would agree with you that they should probably do it.

That's a good answer...and I suppose that's the danger that anybody plays a character that a lot of people have taken to heart.

I don't know if it's quite the same thing (or audience), but I remember hearing Tom Cruise say that when he played Lestat in Interview with the Vampire, he got more scrutiny initially from the public for that role than for any other role that he played.

I respect the response that he's not going to be afraid of playing the character. That he's not going to be afraid of the purists. Don't know if I'm a purist. I just know that I think it's a kickass, funny book.