Imagine a headline, not as vagues as “Imagine Chuck Norris starring n Boogie Nights.” This is how CHUD tries to sell their mostly-exclusive about “Observe & Report” director Jody Hill claiming he’d like to do a prequel to the Danny McBride breakthrough low-budget comedy, “The Foot Fist Way.” Sigh… (*shakes head*).
AnyHOW, yeah, ‘Foot Fist Way’ wasn’t actually good*, but it did turn Danny McBride into a star. Everyone loved the film (inexplicably), the Judd Apatow crowd adored it so much, they invited him to the set of “Knocked Up,” (which lead to “Pineapple Express” and McBride pal David Gordon Green directing) and Will Ferrell and Adam McKay adored it so much they executive-produced (endorsed the finished product) the film ensuring it got a release in 2008.
However, before you get all excited, make note, the prequel would be about the lesser-known kung-fu rock-star nemesis in the film, Chuck “The Truck” Taylor (played by Ben Best, a member of the band Pyramid, who wrote the score to ‘Fist Way,’ and added some songs to “Observe & Report” too)
“I’ve thought about doing a Chuck the Truck prequel,” Jody told Chud. “Sort of like ‘Boogie Nights’ where it spans the ’70s and ’80s, back when Chuck Norris was [big] and they were first televising martial arts. Do it like a ‘Behind the Music’ thing where he’s doing blow, where he’s a young boy who rises to fame in tournaments.”
Will this ever happen? With the world seemingly at his feet, would he go back to such a small, niche character? Seems risky. *Let’s qualify our ‘Foot Fist Way’ statement. The film is funny in spots, a few moments are laugh out loud, unforgettable hilarity, but as a film, it’s like a short that would have been 20 minutes that somehow stretched into a laborious 80 minutes. Still it got Hill and McBride on the map and at the end, that’s probably all that mattered.