One of our favorite phrases in a press release has to be “hard R-rating.” Not that we’re raving juvenile perverts (ok, maybe), but throwing that flag up before casting is even finished signals that a very particular type of movie is being made. And we can respect the hell out of a studio who’s willingly parting with the extra scratch shaving an R down to a PG-13 can bring.
So all hail über-producer Joel Silver (wow did we really just hail Silver?) and “The Hangover” director Todd Phillips for setting up their mysteriously-titled “Project X” at Warner Bros, according to Deadline. Admittedly, it’s not that big a gamble for the studio — for one thing, the production budget is a flinty $12 million — and Phillips piloted a fleet of Brinks trucks to WB’s bank with “The Hangover,” which minted nine figures on its way to becoming the highest grossing comedy of all time. So they can afford a “Mallrats”-style bath, if it ends up going down like that.
We especially like the director the power duo chose — British helmer Nima Nourizadeh, who’s proven he knows how to move a camera and jam a whole lot of everything into his famous-on-YouTube commercial spots. Check a few of his works below.
Like all good sub-$20 million features, this one is looking to cast “unknowns” — which is always fun to watch. Details are scarce so far, but the project is supposed to be raunchy, outrageously high concept, apparently every cast member will be losing their virginity on screen — so maybe Phillips and Silver are reviving the “Porkys” style teen comedy for a whole new generation (cause the “American Pie” series is still relatively uninspiring in our books, R-Rated or otherwise)? The script was written by Matt Drake (who made the 2007 Blacklist with the script, “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman”) from a treatment by Michael Bacall, who had a small cameo in “Inglourious Basterds,” co-wrote “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” and “Psycho Funky Chimp,” a coming-of-age movie about a teenager who acquires a rare Pez dispenser — that Phillips himself was once attached to (we’ll assume this is an entirely different project). But clearly a working relationship already exists.
While the studios always infer that they’re gonna pull a McLovin (hire an unknown) and find the entire cast in Iowa, this is usually code for, “pull someone from off-Broadway — like Ed Norton for ‘Primal Fear,’ ” godspeed to the producers. But it’s quite possible they might just take Zac Efron if he’s suddenly interested and willing to work cheap, but who knows, as again, details are sparse and Deadline does pain itself to say that WB is really looking to scrimp on the salaries here and really go with unknowns.
“Project X” obviously isn’t the movie’s real title (that distinction will always go to the gripping Matthew Broderick vehicle about space monkeys and Helen Hunt) and we probably won’t know much of anything until WB wants us to — word is the few scripts going out have watermarks and veiled threats attached. The whole ordeal reeks (in the right way) of the “Cloverfield” operation Paramount ran a couple of years ago. So don’t write us asking for the script cause we don’t have it, but you know, feel free to share if you happen to somehow not trip the security lasers over at chez WB Fort Knox.
That said, details are bound to trickle out soon. Production on the picture evidently begins June 14 in Los Angeles — Whit Wagner.