Robert Downey Jr Plays Peter Sellers in London Debut???

Hollywood bad boy Robert Downey Jr may be making his West End debut in the new year. According to the Daily Express, he’s now the frontrunner to play Peter Sellers in a new piece about the comedian who found international fame as Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films after early success on The Goon Show. The newspaper cites an “industry mole” who says Downey Jr is “ideal” for the role because “having played Charlie Chaplin (in Richard Attenborough’s 1992 biopic Chaplin), he’s already proved he can portray famous English comedians very well indeed.”

The team behind the unnamed new play are producer Anthony Haas and TV comedy writer, and friend of Sellers, John Antrobus, who has previously co-adapted Steptoe and Son for the stage (See News, 13 Jan 2006). Other big names previously considered for the new Sellers role included Robin Williams and Steve Coogan, but according to the Express, they’re no longer in the frame. Well known off screen for his prison stints and battle with drugs, Downey Jr’s other on-screen credits include the films Natural Born Killers, Less Than Zero, Short Cuts, Air America, Richard III, Good Night and Good Luck and the recently released Zodiac, and the TV series Ally McBeal.

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