May 15, 2008

'Beavis & Butt-Head' Creator Mike Judge Says He Might Be Ready For The Duo's Live-Action Debut

By Larry Carroll (MTV.com)

They pissed off our parents, filled our mouths with clever catchphrases, mocked your favorite music videos, and followed their hit TV show with the #1 opening of a nationwide film.

Then they were gone.

Now, Beavis & Butt-Head might be getting ready to do it all over again - and wait until you hear what they're gonna look like.

"I feel like it's something I can come back to and do," creator Mike Judge told us when he stopped by our studios to promote The Animation Show, an eye-popping theatrical/DVD cartoon extravaganza that has occasionally featured the dimwitted duo. "I did a little animated intro for this ['Animation Show: Volume 3'] thing."

Judge - who also created TV's King of the Hill, as well as the films Office Space and Idiocracy - recently spoke to us about the next phase in his career, which includes the Jason Bateman-starring comedy Extract. After that film, he might turn his attention to bringing back everyone's favorite fire-loving fools.

"I've even thought about doing a live-action Beavis & Butt-Head possibly," he revealed.

As his die-hard fans know, the now-iconic Office Space characters Milton and Lumbergh came from early cartoons drawn by Judge long before Stephen Root or Gary Cole brought the characters to life. It was Judge's infamous "Frog Baseball" short that landed him the deal to create a show for Beavis & Butt-Head, and now he's warming up to the thought of giving them a similar animated-to-live-action makeover.

"I guess Seann William Scott's kinda got Butt-Head eyes," Judge agreed when given one possible casting idea. "A long time ago, Johnny Depp had said to me that he really wanted to play Beavis. ... He was doing that ['Don Juan DeMarco'] movie with Marlon Brando, and he said Marlon Brando used to imitate Butt-Head, and he would do Beavis."

A big fan of both cartoons and classic comedy, Judge agreed that the notion of two headbanging, fast-food-slinging, smartass buddies seems as relevant today as it did in the '90s. So perhaps fans would embrace new, real-life guys rocking those iconic AC/DC and Metallica T-shirts.

"The Three Stooges survived a lot of different guys with Shemp, Curly," he reasoned. "I haven't yet said, 'OK, I wanna make a live-action Beavis & Butt-Head movie, and here's the idea.' But for some reason, I used to hate the idea for years, and now I think maybe there's something there."

All he has to do now is find two teen actors who can deliver the perfect "heh-heh-heh" laughs. And after the arduous process of casting his first two live-action films, Judge isn't sure he's ready to watch all those actors unveiling their best underbites and "uhhhhh ..." line deliveries.

"Casting is bad enough as it is. I don't know if I want to sit through a casting session trying to find the live-action Beavis & Butt-Head," he laughed.