Here’s your bizarro team-up for the day that’s meant to make money…. uhh, under seat cushions?
Variety reports that Sean Astin (“The Lord of the Rings”) along with “SNL” veteran (and loudmouth) Cheri Oteri have been tapped to star in the horse-racing indie comedy “And They’re Off.” The pic already includes a large cast featuring Martin Mull (“Til Death”), Gigi Rice (“The Tip”), Lil’ JJ (“Men of a Certain Age”), Peter Jacobson (“Transformers”), Mo Collins (“Mad TV”), Alex Rocco (“Smokin Aces”), Luis Chavez (TV series “Crash”) and… Kevin Nealon (“SNL”). Also appearing will be real life horse trainers Bob Baffert and Doug O’Neill, hopefully to make some deadpan jokes when something silly and unusual happens.
The film is about once-successful trainer Astin who desperately tries to regain his former glory in the winners circle. It is very likely that it takes him a long time to do this (about 90 minutes), and not only are the things that happen to him funny, he learns and grows from them. He may even get hit in the groin by the horse. Chances are, Oteri will play Astin’s love interest, but with such little plot info it’s still unknown. For those who are having trouble getting to the end of this article because their eyes are too watery, suppressing laughs just thinking of the talent and plot, you might actually explode from this one: at the helm is none other than Rob Schiller, director of “King of Queens” and “Two and a Half Men.” Producing this is the screenwriter of the project, Alan Grossbard (who previously produced high-concept teen-sex-comedy “Zerophilia”), along with Pamela Fryman (TV’s “How I Met Your Mother”) and Howard Bolter, who apparently hasn’t worked since 1996.
According to Variety, this one starts galloping/shooting this week. Maybe this one’s meant for the kids. Why’d we write a full story about this? We’re still trying to figure this one out ourselves… See you guys around straight-to-DVD.