David Kaufman‘s not going ghost on the conversation about who should play Danny Phantom in the live-action movie … telling TMZ he’s got some clear casting ideas.
The actor — who voiced the titular character in all 53 episodes of the television show and reprised his role in subsequent movies and video games … told us he’s all for Tom Holland playing DP though he thinks Spider-Man might be all done with superheroes for a while.
Here’s the deal … Butch Hartman, creator of a whole bunch of well-known animated shows for Nickelodeon in the 2000s, recently spoke at MegaCon in Orlando and said if there ever was a “Danny Phantom” live-action movie, he’d only want Tom Holland in the role.
For those who don’t know, “Danny Phantom” followed a teenager named Danny Fenton who gained ghost-like abilities after a portal to another world exploded and turned him into half-human, half-ghost.
A big if of course … nothing like this has gone into production or even been announced as far as we can tell — but it’s still something Kaufman really put his mind to, and he decided TH is fine by him if he wants to do it.
DK pointed out Tom’s headed to the West End for a production of “Romeo & Juliet” … a fact David thinks is great for him since it’s a departure from the superhero roles Holland has nailed to this point in his career.
Quite frankly, it’s not difficult to imagine Tom wanting to pursue different kinds of roles moving forward either since the dude’s a talent tour de force.
Kaufman wasn’t just countering Butch’s idea though … he also came up with a couple casting calls of his own — “Stranger Things” actor Noah Schnapp as Danny and Billie freakin’ Eilish as his friend-turned-love-interest Sam.
David complimented Noah on his comedic timing, saying he thinks that’s a huge part of Danny’s character — so any actor playing him needs to know their way around a joke. And, just look up some pics of the characters … pretty perfect casting, at least appearance-wise.
Billie doesn’t have much acting experience, but that’s never stopped Hollywood before … and she’s up for her second Best Original Song Oscar, so maybe she’ll be inspired to give acting a try.
TMZ Studios
Someone from Nickelodeon better start making calls … they wouldn’t want an opportunity like this to come back and haunt them!