Key Takeaways
- Kenneth Branagh will voice the title character in Goblin, an A24 buddy comedy.
- David Mikalson is making his feature directorial debut with this project, which has a $6 million budget.
- The film features a practical puppet of a goblin, described as anatomically correct.
- Skyler Gisondo is in talks for the leading role as the goblin’s friend.
Here’s a bit of casting that feels a little out of left field, but I love it. Deadline reports that Kenneth Branagh is set to lend his voice to the title character in Goblin, an A24 buddy comedy. The project will be the feature directorial debut of David Mikalson. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but it has been described as a blend of Ted and E.T.
Mikalson dropped out of film school to start making short films and came up with an idea for an outrageous buddy comedy about a goblin, who will be brought to life using a practical puppet. Did I mention he’ll also be anatomically correct? Mikalson started directing a small, proof-of-concept short to help sell the idea, but A24 quickly signed on and committed to a $6 million budget. Superman‘s Skyler Gisondo is circling the leading role as the goblin’s pal.
Deadline also included a photo of a cake, which Mikalson commissioned with Marc Gravelle at Cake Art in West Hollywood, to give to his reps as thanks for making it all happen.
Branagh has been nominated for eight Academy Awards (in seven different categories) and finally won in 2021 for Best Original Screenplay for Belfast.
He’s got a handful of projects coming up, including The Devil Wears Prada 2, where he’s set to play the husband to Meryl Streep’s ice queen fashion magazine editor, Miranda Priestly. He’s also part of the cast of Michael B. Jordan’s remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. Jordan plays an adventurous banking executive who is secretly pulling off ambitious heists. When his thefts catch the eye of an insurance investigator, the two fall in love during a cat-and-mouse game.
Jordan is also directing the film from a script by Drew Pearce. In addition to Jordan and Branagh, the rest of the cast includes Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon), Danai Gurira (The Walking Dead), Pilou Asbæk (Game of Thrones), and Aiysha Hart (A Discovery of Witches). Taylor Russell (Bones and All) was initially set to play the insurance investigator, but she dropped out after two weeks of production and was replaced by Adria Arjona (Andor).
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