I wasn't sure who the blind character should be - I considered Frank Oz or Griffin Dunne since they were both in the film, the latter making the most sense as it was his friend Jack (that said, I could have gone with David Naughton and have both states in one shot), but I'm sort of settling on the idea of making it John Landis. Ideas welcome.
Re. the pose - I'd thought that one hand might work better. The idea I had was that the guy is mostly oblivious to what's on the end of the harness, and this might be the point where it's just getting ready to pounce on someone (the viewer).
I might try and do rough poses of each and then people can let me know which they think works better?
Thanks to everyone for the input!