Brutal Legend, the much-hyped Jack Black-fronted video game, made a bit of news this week. While Ozzy, Lemmy, Rob Halford and Lita Ford are keeping their guest appearances in the game, Heaven & Hell frontman Ronnie James Dio is out in favor of Tim Curry, best known for The Rocky Horror Picture Show (though he sure was clutch in Clue and Congo).
Surely this slight against our Elfin king Dio must have been some kind of crazy, juicy contractual and/or financial issue, right? Nope, just a regular old casting choice:
“Ronnie James Dio is an amazing singer and truly one of the great figures of Metal, but as the character of Doviculus evolved, we realized that [actor] Tim Curry was a better fit for the part,” [Double Fine chief Tim Shafer] told GameSpot. “Anyone who has seen his amazing performance as the Lord of Darkness in the movie Legend knows why we cast him in the role of Doviculus, Emperor of the Tainted Coil.”
In other BT news, a Guinness World Record was set at UK’s Download Festival this weekend for “most people simultaneously air guitaring” when 440 people crowded around the Brutal Legend/EA Games booth to make fools of themselves.
