Think cute cats, and Christopher Walken is hardly the first actor that comes to mind. But the famously menacing thespian joins Seven Psychopaths castmates including Tom Waits and Woody Harrelson in lending voice to a herd of cursing cats in an absurdist homage to the R-rated heist flick.
Seven Psychocats director Jim Tozzi, a Cartoon Network alumnus, set expletive-laden dialog created by Seven Psychopaths writer/director Martin McDonagh against snippets of photorealistic cats for the bizarre promo clip.
Before making this cat-noir short, Tozzi designed animation characters and puppets for MTV cult show Wonder Showzen and produced Adult Swim series Xavier: Renegade Angel. Tozzi told Wired in an email that when a van full of cats arrived for the casting session at his studio in Los Angeles, “Some cats showed up to the audition in costume. They were trying too hard.”
Tozzi explained, “I was looking for a physical likeness but also the spirit of the cat. Of course we knew right away when we saw Hairless Potter (the Sphynx cat) that he was the feline embodiment of Chris Walken.”
Seven Psychopaths opens Friday.
