A new series of ridiculous fan posters replaces movie icon Tom Cruise with the 1980s live action version of Howard the Duck. Created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerick, Howard the Duck first appeared in the Marvel Comic Adventure Into Fear in 1973. A foul-tempered talking alien duck stuck on earth, Howard would make several appearances in subsequent years, in stories that often took on a decidedly satirical bent.
Hollywood attempted to bring the alien duck to the big screen with the 1986 live-action movie Howard the Duck, executive produced by none other than George Lucas. But the movie utterly failed to capture the tone of the comics, and ended up becoming regarded as one of the worst films ever made. After years of neglect, Howard the Duck has enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years, being featured in cameos in both Guardians of the Galaxy movies, and nearly getting an appearance in Avengers: Infinity War. The cameos have fired up talk of Howard the Duck being rebooted, with fans hoping this time Hollywood will do right by the character.
While fans wait for news of a possible Howard the Duck reboot, a Twitter user named Chendango1 has unveiled a project that bizarrely gives Howard an alternative existence as an iconic movie star, by imagining him taking over the career of Tom Cruise. The resulting mash-up posters are strange, hilarious and more than a little bit disturbing.
Needless to say, Born on the Fourth of July would be a very different movie starring Howard the Duck instead of Tom Cruise (and no doubt Oliver Stone would have had an interesting time dealing with a wise-cracking alien duck in the lead of his film). Rain Man too would take on an entirely different tone with Howard the Duck instead of Cruise starring alongside Dustin Hoffman. Of all the movies depicted by Chendango1, perhaps the most disturbing to actually imagine would be Risky Business. The funniest to imagine might be Interview With the Vampire, though some might argue Howard the Duck would actually be better in the role of Lestat than Cruise, who took a lot of heat for his performance at the time.
And which other Tom Cruise movies might actually work well with Howard the Duck instead of Cruise? The silly bartender movie Cocktail arguably would be improved by having the acerbic Howard the Duck in the lead role instead of Cruise. Inserting the comic book duck into The Last Samurai might improve that movie as well, by giving it the note of levity it so sorely lacks. All-in-all, Chendango1 has given Howard the Duck and Tom Cruise fans a lot to think about.
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Source: Chendango1/Twitter
