Zach Galifianakis, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Robert Loggia, Jeff Goldblum, Will Forte & William Atherton Will All Feature
To go over the multiple six degrees of comedy connections between Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim would take us all night but here’s the short version: these are two funny dudes whose success and cult status of their recently ended “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” sketch comedy show on Adult Swim brought them to the attention of comedy’s biggest stars and made them a team clearly headed onto bigger and better things. Word around their feature debut has been bubbling for the past few weeks, but it looks like things are finally getting locked into place.
The Wrap reports that a starry roster of talent including Zach Galifianakis, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Robert Loggia, Jeff Goldblum, Will Forte and William Atherton — more than a few of whom have rubbed shoulders with Tim and Eric in the past — are set to star/appear in Heidecker and Wareheim’s feature debut, “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie.” Wareheim describes the meta plot as it follows their onscreen characters who “literally get a billion dollars to make a movie, and we make it, and things go awry, and Tim and I just decide to get out of Hollywood and become businessmen in an abandoned mall.” Sounds pretty great.
Now, before you get all in the lather about the possible feature length pairing of Galifianakis and Ferrell, we’ve been told by reps for both actors that their appearances will strictly be cameos. That said there is more than enough comedic talent being assembled that laughter shouldn’t be in short supply. For a duo used to getting the laughs out in smaller doses, a feature film is a different animal.
“It’s definitely the biggest thing we’ve ever done in terms of scope of the size of the production,” Heidecker said. “Relative to other films, it’s tiny, but to us, it’s the biggest thing we’ve ever done, the biggest crew we’ve ever worked with and the most professional thing we’ve ever done. And the challenge is to fight against the professionalism and keep things loose.” Ah, but the stakes raised with a feature film hasn’t diminished their ambition.
“It’s long past due, but this film offers the Academy the perfect opportunity to award a best picture film to a comedy and maybe even preemptively. I don’t know how that works, but we could be looking at a situation where the Oscar is awarded before the film is released,” Wareheim joked.
Production started last Friday with Galifianakis on set for a scene that left everyone a little wet. No word yet on release dates, but don’t be surprised if more names start being mentioned for cameos or small roles; it looks like “The Muppets” may have found its rival for cameo magnet of the year.