Ever wonder why it took filmmaker Greg Mottola 11 years to follow-up his winning1996 indie debut, “The Daytrippers” with “Superbad” in 2007?
Well, two years after “The Daytrippers,” the writer/director had a new project ready called, “Life Of The Party.” In 1998, Variety even announced the project, describing it as a ensemble comedy “about a group of friends who travel to the South of France to rejoin an old pal of theirs who is in need of their company.”
It almost sounds like the “what if” scenario of his newest film, “Adventureland,” (screening at Sundance this week) as the protagonist’s plan in the story is to initially travel to Europe with friends, but is stymied by economic issues.
Originally set up at Columbia, Obviously ‘Party’ never came to pass and instead Mottola went on to a successful career in television directing episodes of shows like Judd Apatow’s “Undeclared” and “Arrested Development.”
But could the project come back to life? In a recent interview with Indiewire, Mottola talked about the film and other projects. According to IW “Mottola is still optimistic he will be able to make ‘Life of the Party,’ though [it’s]in a legal quagmire he can’t fully talk about.”
We’re pretty sure the project went into turnaround. Does that mean someone owns it and he’s trying to buy it back, but needs help?
“This is a really funny, character-driven comedy that sensibility-wise is similar to ‘Daytrippers,’ but which represents the next up (in filmmaking terms) for Greg,” then-Columbia Pictures’ senior VP of production Michael Costigan said of the project in ’98.
We’d love to see it get made, can this be the beginning of the official campaign?
Meanwhile, Mottola’s has a few things cooking right now. His third feature “Adventureland” is set to be a big hit at Sundance right now and is scheduled for a March 27 release via Miramax. After that he’s got “Paul,” a roadtrip meets extra-terrestrials comedy featuring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost that he’s writing for Universal. Lastly, his debut “The Daytrippers” is still not available on DVD. Apparently it too is caught up in legal issues, but according to IW, ” ‘Daytrippers’ is getting closer to a DVD release, thanks in part to the help of Steven Soderbergh, who produced the film.”
We can’t wait.