When news of Nick Frost's salsa epic Cuban Fury started to filter through, and when Chris O'Dowd was lured onto the dancefloor to play the film's hissable villain Drew, there was great rejoicing in these parts. After all, who isn't ready to watch a dancefloor dust-off between this pair of comedy titans.
It starts shooting in seven weeks with newcomer James Griffith behind the camera and Fresh Meat's Jon Brown providing the script. So what to do but pick up the phone to Frost for the low-down on the film? "It’s a romantic-comedy but with fantastic, real dancing," he explains. "We’re going to go down the Strictly Ballroom route. The dancing will be fiery and passionate and beautiful to watch, with me and Chris O’Dowd pratting about when we’re not dancing."
Hard as it's going to be to hiss the ever-loveable O'Dowd, Frost warns that it may prove necessary. As lothario Drew, the Irishman plays alpha-male ying to our hero Bruce Garrett's (Frost) yang. "Drew is the bad guy of the piece," says Frost. "He's a very attractive, confident, *tall *man, who’s a hit with the ladies and he's also the boss of the company where we find Bruce feeling downtrodden."
O'Dowd's casanova also boasts salsa skills that make him a serious rival on the dancefloor too. Expect minimal CGI'ed hip motion from the pair; both are undergoing separate salsa boot camps with top choreographer Richard Marcel to nail their moves. "They’re keeping us apart, like Rumble Fish," laughs Frost, "but I’m told that he’s a very lovely, agile man."
Five months of five-hours-a-day training and he's still feeling spry. "The hips are fine! I’m really enjoying it which I didn’t think I would because the whole idea for the film came from a fear of dancing."
But if you were musing that **Cuban Fury **would do to salsa dancing what **Blades Of Glory **did to ice-skating, Frost urges a rethink: "I quickly realised that if you parodied salsa in any way, you’d probably be opened up by a bunch of angry Cubans. This is a romantic-comedy, but with with fantastic, real dancing.
"I’m looking forward to the costumes too. I’m imagining lots of slightly flared, tight white trousers. I want to look like Tony Montana."