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Friday, August 28
It's been a while since there was any news about a possible sequel to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, arguably one of Will Ferrell's funniest movies. Back in June, Ferrell said, "I was told we were [doing a sequel], and now I've heard it's too hard to get everyone together."
While promoting his latest movie, Funny People, producer Judd Apatow was questioned about the possibility of a sequel and admitted that Ferrell and his writing-directing partner on Anchorman, Adam McKay, had plans for their characters beyond the first movie.
When we made Anchorman, Adam and Will had a lot of ideas about what the sequel would be — they'd always laugh about where they'd take the characters.
Apatow said that it's only a "little bit more a possibility than it was a year ago," but added that the principal actors could play the parts any time, even when they become eligible for the senior citizen discount.
The great thing is, Will can be any age and play that character. Those anchormen sometimes have their jobs until they're 75 years old. So we would always laugh that this movie could work if everybody's really elderly. I hope we do it before that.
Posted 8/28/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Adam McKay | Judd Apatow | Will Ferrell | Funny People | Anchorman 2
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Sunday, August 2
| Title | Weekend | Total | Analysis |
| Funny People | $23.4M | $23.4M | In very slow weekend box office, Funny People triumphs. |
| Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | $17.7M | $255.5M | 6th Potter limps along after terrific opening week. |
| G-Force | $17.1M | $66.5M | Apparently the default for families who've already seen Ice Age 3. |
| The Ugly Truth | $13.0M | $54.5M | Modestly-budgeted rom-com quickly fading from memory. |
| Aliens in the Attic | $7.8M | $7.8M | Fox spent $45M on this movie. Oops! |
Bomb of the Week: This week it's a tie between Aliens in the Attic and The Collector. Neither were screened for critics -- usually a sign of badness -- and had per-screen averages about the same as The Hangover, which as been in theaters for over two months.
Posted 8/2/2009 by reelz
Related: Funny People
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Thursday, July 23
Judd Apatow's third feature, Funny People, heads to theaters next week, following up his previous successes with The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. While Apatow has been the biggest name in comedy movies for the last couple years, he draws a lot of inspiration from one of the previous generation's great writer/directors, which is reflected in his choice of favorite movie. Check out what he has to say about it below:
Check back every Thursday, or on ReelzChannel television, for more of My Favorite Movie.
Posted 7/23/2009 by reelz
Related: Judd Apatow | Terms of Endearment | James L. Brooks | Funny People
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Wednesday, July 22
Judd Apatow has had success making movies about realistic characters dealing with unusual circumstances, and with his latest movie Funny People, focusing on a comedian reconsidering his life in the face of a fatal disease, he may have struck his most realistic chord yet. Apatow started his career as a television writer where he learned the secret ingredient to making successful comedies:
For me, the main thing I learned at The Larry Sanders Show from Garry Shandling was to just stick to the truth and if this story takes place in the world of people whose main goal is to be funny, then I could just tell a truthful story and it'll come out funny because it's happening to them. So I didn't obsess on it too much but in editing, sometimes you think, "Oh, this sequence is too funny. It's going to be hard to get to the next one that isn't." And you're finding ways to balance it. And sometimes I would think certain sections are so funny that it could change the whole tone of the movie and I have to be careful to make everything realistic.
That approach is on display in the following clips from Funny People, which blend comedy into awkward dinner conversations, arguments amongst spouses, and the sharing of sensitive memories:
Next Showing: Funny People opens July 31, 2009
Posted 7/22/2009 by Ryan
Related: Garry Shandling | Judd Apatow | Funny People
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We're just ten days away from the release of Funny People, the third movie from writer-director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin), and star Seth Rogen recently spoke with MTV Movies about working on the movie and creating some of the jokes.
Well, we largely wrote our own material. We did invite other stand-up comics to jam with us, and we'd all sit around together and write jokes. Our co-producers Andrew Cohen and Brendan O'Brien would also help us write the jokes ... I'm trying to remember which jokes actually made it into the movie. I came up with the "farting on the airplane" joke. I have to take credit for that.
The aforementioned joke makes light of the fact that you can fart on an airplane, because no one will know you did it.
Rogen was also asked about his recent weight loss in preparation for his role in The Green Hornet. One joke in Funny People says that overweight people aren't as funny when they lose weight. So naturally, Rogen was asked if he now feels unfunny.
Honestly, I think it's a hilarious joke in the movie — and it was great how the movie called attention to [my weight loss], but I personally don't feel that. I'm actually way more funny now, because I'm hungry. And if comedy comes from pain, then I should be way funnier now than I ever was.
Posted 7/22/2009 by Rich Z
Related: Judd Apatow | Seth Rogen | Funny People
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Monday, July 20
Back before Judd Apatow was a successful movie director and Adam Sandler was a huge box-office draw, the two were roommates, working the stand-up comedy circuit. At long last, the two are making a movie together, the upcoming Funny People.
Recently, Apatow took some time to interview Sandler about the movie, their past as roomies, and the world of comedians that Funny People inhabits, all the while showing more footage from the movie. Watch the interview below:
For the second part of he interview, which focuses on Sandler's profanity-laden return to stand-up comedy, head here.
Posted 7/20/2009 by Ryan
Related: Adam Sandler | Adam Sandler | Judd Apatow | Funny People
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Saturday, July 18
With the openeing for his third movie just around the corner, Judd Apatow is guest blogging for MTV. This week he talked about Funny People and how hard it is to make the fictional movie clips used in the viral marketing campaign. The fake movies were created to fill in the life of Adam Sandler's character, famous stand-up comedian George Simmons who, upon receiving news of a potentially grave disease, looks back at his life and evaluates the choices he has made.
Just how difficult was it to make these fictional movie clips?
It was important to us that the clips did not feel like parodies of movies but instead seemed like movies that could actually get made. It makes the clips potentially less funny than parody clips because they could not be truly over-the-top awful, they just needed to be bad the way a bad movie is bad. That being said, after making each of these clips we kind of wanted to see the entire movie.
Enjoy a fake clip below from the fake movie Merman, which Apatow describes as when "what happens when people rip off [Splash], badly."
Next Showing: Funny People opens July 31
Posted 7/18/2009 by Ryan
Related: Adam Sandler | Judd Apatow | Splash | Funny People
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Tuesday, July 14
The Funny People viral campaign keeps chugging along, following up the website for Aziz Ansari's character Randy with a new documentary about the fictional, Dane Cook-ish stand-up comedian. The documentary follows Randy's fast rise in the stand-up world and shows some of his enterprising marketing techniques.
The documentary mentions Randy as having a "cameo" in the movie and, as hilarious as the documentary is, there's no telling how big Ansari's role will be. So far, he hasn't made any of the previews, including the latest TV spot:
Next Showing: Funny People opens July 31
Posted 7/14/2009 by Ryan
Related: Judd Apatow | Funny People | Aziz Ansari
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Thursday, July 9
With Funny People's aggressive viral ad campaign — Adam Sandler's character in fake movie clips and Jason Schwartzman's character in a fictional TV sitcom — it can be tough to remember it's the actual movie that's important.
The latest TV spot, thankfully, features some footage that reveals Funny People has a lot of surprises in store for theatergoers. Check it out below:
As Funny People is rated "R" and is about stand-up comedians, the movie does include some racy language. For those who aren't thrown off by that, there is also a new Red Band trailer ("R" rated).
Posted 7/9/2009 by Ryan
Related: Adam Sandler | Jason Schwartzman | Funny People
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Thursday, July 2
The viral campaign for Funny People started with a fictional TV show starring Jason Schwartzman's character called Yo, Teach. Next was a website for Adam Sandler's comedian character George Simmons, including clips from his "movies." The latest entry is another fictional website, this time for Aziz Ansari's character the "superstar comic" Randy Soudha, who is a mix of Dane Cook's antics and Eddie Murphy's material.
The website includes a bio, an interactive soundbyte mixing board, and videos of Ansari – sorry, Raaaandy – performing standup (Warning: the clips are funny, but not work-friendly).
Next Showing: Funny People opens July 31
Posted 7/2/2009 by Ryan
Related: Adam Sandler | Eddie Murphy | Jason Schwartzman | Dane Cook | Funny People | Aziz Ansari