We just asked, isn’t Judd Apatow’s mostly spot-free track record (‘cept for “Walk Hard“), due for a hit soon?
The answer seems likely and it might be right around the corner (this weekend). The L.A. Times (via Spout) has an article running today about how Owen Wilson, the star of the Apatow-produced, “Drillbit Taylor” won’t be promoting the film that comes out March 21, because he doesn’t want to do interviews (presumably wanting to side-step questions about his alleged suicide attempt last year).
Instead of doing interviews or even talk-show appearances, Paramount has coaxed Wilson to film “Drillbit”-themed introductions in front of Fox’s Sunday-night prime-time lineup (apparently their target audience) including the shows, ” The Simpsons,” “King of the Hill,” “Family Guy” and “Unhitched.” Sensing the jeopardy, Apatow has been doing interviews himself as well to help drum up the necessary attention in lieu of talking points from its reluctant star.
“The original idea came from John Hughes (“Ferris Bueller,” “Sixteen Candles”)who wrote a treatment of the movie but he never got around to writing it.” Apatow said of ’80s director that few to none of the intended PG13 audience will be old enough to remember.”So when Paramount said, ‘Hey, guys you want to write this idea that John Hughes never got around to doing?’ We said, ‘Sure. We’ll take a pop at it.’ “
Meanwhile, one of the first major ‘Drillbit’ reviews has come via the Hollywood reporter and they call the flick a “flimsy comedy” and a “relatively lame exercise that never achieves comic traction.” The film is currently sitting at an incredibly dismal, 17% approval rate at Rotten Tomatoes. Entertainment Weekly calls it, “a disordered, dispirited shuffling of flailing-to-be-funny and trying-to-be-empathetic scenes.”
Now we’re not so bummed we missed our screening. Meta-Critic has no score for it yet, but the reviews for it there are also very sub-par.