- Title: UK: LONDON FILM PREMIERE OF 'STARKSY AND HUTCH'
- Date: 11th March 2004
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (MARCH 11, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) SCU SOUNDBITE (English) ACTOR BEN STILLER (Starsky) SAYING: "I don't think I ever perfected it but I did practice a lot. I am not really a dancer but I was able to rationalise it because the guy is on cocaine and a little out of his mind." SOUNDBITE (English) ACTOR OWEN WILSON (Hutch) SAYING: "I think he did beat the guy though, he did get robbed in the movie, I feel that he did get robbed. SOUNDBITE (English) ACTOR BEN STILLER (Starsky) SAYING: "Ohmar is a better dancer." SOUNDBITE (English) ACTOR OWEN WILSON (Hutch) SAYING: "He has got his moves. You have got yours." PAUL MICHAEL GLASER KISSES A FAN SCU SOUNDBITE (English) ACTOR PAUL MICHAEL GLASER SAYING: "I like to act but I direct, I write, I play golf, I try to lose weight. All that kind of shit." ACTORS PAUL MICHAEL GLASER, DAVID SOLE AND ANTONIO FARGAS SIT ON CAR SCU SOUNDBITE (English) ACTOR ANTONIO FARGAS (HUGGY BEAR) SAYING: "I think he is today's Huggy, he works very well so I am very pleased at what he did and I am glad that he got the role."
- Embargoed: 26th March 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: FILM LOCATIONS / LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVAC2ONF1XP7T5I65TA8HV45ILLQ
- Story Text: London film premiere of movie 'Starksy and Hutch' Flared jeans, loud t-shirts and bad haircuts where the order of the day at the London premiere on Thursday (March 11) of 'Starsky and Hutch', the multi-million dollar Hollywood movie remake of the popular 1970s hit TV series.
Fans of the TV classic where treated to a flash back, as seventies icons David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser turned up in Leicester square to join the new pretenders, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson on the red and white carpet, which had been specially prepared for the London bash.
Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson have collaborated on a total of six films to date. "I think this one was maybe more important than the other ones," the 35 year old Owen Wilson said, "so much of what made the series popular was the way those guys played off each other, David Soul and Paul. Hopefully we have our own sought of give and take one that is slightly more comedic: those guys had a more of a higher cool factor, but we are Starsky and Hutch like a little miniature version."
"I wasn't quite sure what it was going to be," actor David Soul replied when questioned about how well Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson took on the parts that Paul Michael Glaser and himself inhabited for over four years in the seventies.
"But what it has morphed into what it has become is a very good experience.
It is two very conscionable guys playing this role, they have got a good relationship and that is what this whole Starsky and Hutch phenomenon was about, it is friendship. That is number one and that is what Paul and I have had for thirty years and they have taken, that mantel, and moving on with it in 2004.
David Soul whose acting career has somewhat been on the back burner has even ventured into TV soap operas, taking on guest appearances as Professor Alan Fletcher in 'Holby City'. "In this business today visibility is a currency so there is no question that this has an impact." But the 60 year old actor was keen to stress that he was not riding on the back of recent publicity surrounding the film, "I am not looking at this selfishly, of course it may do good then again it may not."
"Starsky & Hutch" opens with David Starsky (Ben Stiller) and Ken "Hutch"
Hutchinson (Owen Wilson) becoming partners.
The two detectives are complete opposites, Starsky is devoted to his job and does everything by the book whereas Hutch is a renegade who's main concern when he busts criminals is what's in it for him, bringing them to justice is secondary in his book.
When Starsky and Hutch are assigned to a murder case they draft in their streetwise informant Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg) to help them solve it.
During the course of the investigation they boys meet two cheerleaders, Staci (Carmen Electra) and Holly (Amy Smart) and decide a little romance along the way can do the case no harm.
Their main suspect is business tycoon Reese Feldman (Vince Vaughn) but try as they might, the detectives can't pin the crime on him so they go undercover as mime artists to try and flush him out.
But Feldman is smart. He has developed a way of making cocaine undetectable by taste or smell and plans to pull off the biggest drug deal of his career right under the noses of Starsky and Hutch.
It's only when Starsky mistakenly puts what he believes is artificial sweetener in his coffee that the scam is discovered and the detectives can begin to unravel the plot and try to bring down Feldman.
Once an international heartthrob when he played Detective Starsky, Paul Michael Glacer admitted that working the red carpet was one of the least enjoyable parts of his job. Instead the sixty year old prefers to spend his time more productively, "I like to act but I direct, I write, I play golf, I try to loose weight. All that kind of shit."
Also attending the premiere in Leicester Square was Antonio Fargas, who played Huggy Bear in the original TV series.
"I think he is today's Huggy," said Fargas when answering questions about rapper Snoop Dogg playing the savvy street smart informant.
"He works very well so I am very pleased at what he did and I am glad that he got the role."
Starsky and Hutch opens across the United Kingdom on March 19, 2004.
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