In September of 2007 we took a pretty exhaustive and thorough look at all the films that producer / writer/ director “#1 Smartest Man in Hollywood” Judd Apatow would be have a hand in for all of 2008 and some of 2009.
And of course seven months later and that list has expanded.
Yes, at some point he must die, at some point he has to fall flat on his face (later this year?), but it hasn’t happened … yet. Later this year we’ll see five-fucking Apatow projects – is he set to crash and burn this year? Is it all too much? “Drillbit Taylor,” with Owen Wilson (which comes out this weekend), the aforementioned ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall” (which comes out April 18), the Adam Sandler Mossad agent comedy, “You Don’t Mess With Zohan” (arriving in June) and the doofus brothers comedy film reteaming Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, “Step Brothers.” Oh and wait, let’s not forget August with action-comedy “Pineapple Express.”
But there’s more on the way. Before we all begin the inevitable 2008 backlash, ask yourself this. If you had carte blanche to create all the stupid comedies you could with all your buddies and pals, wouldn’t you too want to want to just charge forward and get as many of them done as you could before the studios wised up and shot you down? Coming to a theater not too soon…
Five Year Engagement
Another product from the exact team behind April’s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” – writer-director Nick Stoller and writer-star Jason Segel – the film is described as (naturally) a “bawdy, couples comedy,” about a… duh, five year engagement. Stoller says the film will essentially be an extension of the soon-to-be-released ‘Marshall.’ “If Sarah Marshall (played by Kristen Bell) and Jason’s character had stayed together, this might be the sequel,” he said. No female interest has been cast in the part yet.
The Untitled Muppet Movie
Forget Seth Rogen, apparently Segel is the new red-hot member of the Judd Apatow family players. The “Freaks & Geeks” star has never carried an Apatow film on his shoulders yet – see ‘Sarah‘, but that will prove itself soon enough. So what’s after ‘Marshall’? Apparently Disney has tapped these two to revise “The Muppets” franchise with Kermit the Frog and company. No seriously. Apparently ‘Sarah Marshall,’ contains a funny musical performed by a Dracula puppets and the Mickey Mouse execs were impressed. Segel told MTV on Monday he was disappointed in the last couple Muppet films and wanted to return to the glory days, ““I just want to go take it back to the early 80’s, when it was about the Muppets trying to put on a show. That’s what I’m trying to bring back.”
Untitled Judd Apatow “Relationship” Comedy – Aka Apatow’s Wife Does Adam Sandler
Very little is known about this film beside the basics and that’s on purpose for “secretive script reasons.” But we do know it’s Apatow’s follow-up to “Knocked Up,” he wrote it himself, it’s due to start shooting in the late summer/early fall and it stars many of his familiar players: the schlubby Seth Rogen, his wife Leslie Mann and his old roommate Adam Sandler. But in an Entertainment Weekly piece not yet online Mann recently revealed she’ll be playing Sandler’s love interest. Hey, so it’s a raunchy comedy with heart, right? Update: Today Apatow confirms what we already suspected. “It’s a relationship movie,” he told MTV. “It’s not a big high-concept movie. It’s hopefully going to be a very, very funny drama…a hilarious drama is what I’m going for.”
Then we have projects currently being shot, but no firm release date yet.
Year One
The first offering from the 2009 Apatow menu will likely be the Jack Black and Michael Cera vehicle, “Year One.” Cera obviously starred in “Superbad,” and it was only time before a mainstay like Black joined the fold (though he did have a brief cameo as the crazed motorcyclist in ‘Anchorman’ SCTV alum/Ghostbusters star Harold Ramis, who had a small role as Seth Rogen’s dad in “Knocked Up,” will direct and co-produce, and co-wrote the project with “The Office” scribes Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, based on his story (Owen Wilson is apparently an executive producer). The plot was under wraps for a few months there, but word got out that the film was a “biblical comedy” that featured “cavemen.” The film will also see the return of McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse)!, love interest June Diane Raphael (episodes of “Flight of the Concords”) and Oliver Platt, David Cross, Vinnie Jones and Juno Temple. “It’s about the old testament,” Black said spilling the beans.” I’m just a dude wandering through biblical times. I’m not a famous character that you would have heard of before. Me and Michael Cera are just sort of wandering through, and you get to see all these old stories from the Torah, told through Agnostic, sort of, eyes.”
Apatow in 2009 and Beyond
Projects a little bit further off the map include two by penned by Jonah Hill, “Middle Child” and “Pure Imagination” and three other Apatow films are apparently in development for 2009 and the bulk of them give side-players or extended Apatow family members a leading shot. They include an as of-yet untitled Steve Carrell project; “A Whole New Hugh” – a vehicle for “Daily Show” correspondent Ed Helms; the lawyers who give up their careers to become rappers comedy, “Attorneys At Raw” – a vehicle for ‘Freaks’ and “Undeclared” player David Krumholtz and the marine comedy, “The Recruiter” starring Romany Malco, the black Smart Tech employee of “40 Year Old Virgin.”
Can we ride his dick any fucking harder?? Can we recycle our work any more (for those 3 people that pay attention) Hey, we’re charting-project-happy and trying to be green, sue us.