Funny People

[MacGuffin]

Funnymen With Serious Ambitions
By DAVE ITZKOFF; New York Times

ASSUMING Judd Apatow doesn't change his mind, and he often does, his new movie, "Funny People," will begin with a scene of Adam Sandler as no paying audience has ever seen him. In grainy video a boyishly goofy Mr. Sandler, still in his 20s with a tilted baseball cap on his head, is shown as he lies across a messy bed in a dingy Los Angeles apartment, making prank phone calls to the delight of a few off-screen observers.

In the context of the movie (set for release on July 31), this is our introduction to the fictional comedian George Simmons, who grew up, got famous, became an arrogant movie star and then was told he had a fatal illness. For the character, the scene is a final moment of innocence before he loses his way on the road to celebrity and success.

But in real life, this is material that Mr. Apatow shot himself almost 20 years ago, when he and Mr. Sandler were still struggling performers and roommates for whom a night at a Red Lobster was a costly indulgence. To the man who taped the scene (and then had the foresight to hang onto that tape for two decades) it is an intimate tribute to Mr. Sandler, with whom Mr. Apatow shares history and a professional trajectory; the two men also find themselves at a similarly uncertain moment in their careers.

The footage is also a deceptively tender introduction to a movie that takes on stark issues of death and the value of life — issues that Mr. Apatow admits have dominated his off-screen thoughts, even as he insists the on-screen characters and situations are largely fictitious.

"I guess," Mr. Apatow said a few weeks ago, "the lesson is, It's O.K. to write about yourself as long as you're making almost all of it up."

Despite Mr. Apatow's ubiquity as a producer of sloth-celebrating movies like "Superbad" and "Pineapple Express" and a recent spate of comedies about emotionally stunted males ("Role Models," "I Love You, Man") that share his influence if not his input, "Funny People" is only the third film that he has directed. But moviegoers expecting a breezy romp in the style of his hit movies "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up" had better hold onto their bongs.

In part, the film is about an established comedian (Mr. Sandler) who takes under his wing an insecure neophyte (played by Mr. Apatow's disciple Seth Rogen). To this extent, the story is inspired by the earliest professional breaks Mr. Apatow received from stars like Garry Shandling, Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold, and how he later returned the favor to emerging talents like Mr. Rogen.

But sensing that his own Horatio Alger-style ascent wouldn't provide a movie with much tension, Mr. Apatow said, "I thought: What if I did a movie that was like 'Tuesdays With Morrie,' but the main character learns nothing?" So, after that sympathetic video introduction to Mr. Sandler's character, the next scene finds him being informed 22 years later that he has a rare blood disorder with no known treatment. In the time that he believes he has left, he resumes his stand-up career and tries to reconcile with a lost love (Leslie Mann, Mr. Apatow's wife and a regular in his films).

Asked why, at 41, he would follow movies about sexuality and childbirth with a film about mortality, Mr. Apatow was circumspect. "I've unfortunately been around people who have been ill and seen people figure out how to deal with it," he said. Some, he added, "just keep plowing on forward, and they don't seem to change."

His evasiveness is surprising, given that his filmmaking process is otherwise open and participatory to the point of neediness. On this day at his West Los Angeles office, he was rotating among four editing suites with his producer Barry Mendel, convening with four different editors to review dozens of scenes. That night, even before his studio-mandated test screenings of the film, Mr. Apatow would hold his second private showing for friends and colleagues (whose feedback he does not fully trust, being that they're industry insiders). This comes after months of script drafts and table reads that he shared with trusted colleagues and a shooting process well known for its reliance on improvisation.

Mr. Apatow said that he developed his inclusive filmmaking style over many years and that he paid particularly close attention to the lessons he learned from the writer, director and producer James L. Brooks ("Broadcast News," "Terms of Endearment") while working on the animated series "The Critic."

"What I took from it was, the audience is supposed to like the movie, as simple as that sounds," Mr. Apatow said. "If they're not loving it, you failed."

But even Mr. Apatow's closest confederates recognize that "Funny People" may not be as easily loved as his two previous films. "I wouldn't describe it as dark," said Mr. Rogen, a star of "40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up." "I would say it's more ambitious in what it's attempting to make light of."

Mr. Sandler's character, in particular, can be an ornery, unhappy guy: a list of his stand-up comedy bits that Mr. Apatow was editing included routines titled "George's dad beat him," "George likes dumb girls" and "I wish I'd never been born."

In another scene that may or may not make it into the movie, Mr. Sandler ad libs a song during a performance at the Improv comedy club in Hollywood. Seated behind a piano, he sings: "How would you people live without me?/Who will bring you joy when I go?" When the crowd laughs and applauds, he responds: "Leave me alone. Don't visit my grave."

The character, Mr. Apatow said, "is what me and Adam would become if we didn't get sane and get married and have children."

"This character is our ego run amok," he added.

Although Mr. Sandler has made more than his share of juvenile comedies, his presence in "Funny People" may actually signal the grown-up ambitions that Mr. Apatow has for the film.

As Ms. Mann said in a telephone interview, "When you achieve a certain amount of success and you're surrounded by people who will basically tell you anything, you can't always trust what those people are saying." For Mr. Apatow, she said, Mr. Sandler is a "touchstone person" who keeps him grounded and gives him reliably honest feedback.

Mr. Mendel described the two comedians' relationship more succinctly: "Judd worships Adam," he said. "He just thinks, 'That guy is so much funnier and more original and charismatic than me.' " Yet they both find themselves at similar junctures in their careers, when they can make movies that easily find mass audiences, but their ability or interest to create more iconoclastic work remains untested.

In Mr. Sandler's case, Mr. Mendel said: "Everybody in the world wonders how much does he relish the 'Punch-Drunk Love' experience versus the 'Bedtime Stories' experience? Maybe he knows and doesn't choose to share, and maybe he's figuring it out." (For now, Mr. Sandler chooses not to share; via his publicist, he declined to comment for this article.) Likewise, Mr. Mendel said that Mr. Apatow is caught "betwixt and between" the worlds of populist filmmakers like Mr. Brooks and Billy Wilder, and auteurs like Hal Ashby and John Cassavetes.

Having produced movies for Wes Anderson, M. Night Shyamalan and Steven Spielberg, Mr. Mendel cautioned that committing fully to either philosophy can have its perils for a director like Mr. Apatow, who wants his work to be liked and admired.

"The populist mentality can defeat the attempt to do something more singular," Mr. Mendel said, "and the attempt to do something singular can make it inaccessible."

Despite the fact that Mr. Apatow has imbued "Funny People" with intensely personal touches — snippets of Ms. Mann's early television commercials might appear in the film, as might a video of their daughter Maude singing "Memory" at a recital — the director said he had no more at stake with his latest film than with his previous efforts.

"When a movie comes out great, I'm not even happy it came out great," he said. "I just think: 'Wow, whoo. That could have turned out really badly, and I escaped a horrible situation.' " Mr. Rogen, however, said the stakes for "Funny People" had inevitably been raised, not only by the existential subject matter but also by the extent to which Mr. Apatow has already telegraphed his intentions to his audience.

"To say you're making a movie about a 40-year-old virgin, you don't owe the audience quite as much as when you say you're making a movie about a guy who realizes his life has gone astray," Mr. Rogen said. "There's probably more pressure just because of what we're claiming to make. Nobody put that on us."

If more is being asked of Mr. Apatow with "Funny People," Ms. Mann said she has seen her husband evolve, in his brief directorial career, into someone who might just be capable of delivering it.

"On '40-Year-Old Virgin,' he was eating a lot of doughnuts in the morning," she said. "And 'Knocked Up' it was like every other day."

But while Mr. Apatow has been working on "Funny People," Ms. Mann said: "He doesn't really have doughnuts. It was all nerve. Not that he's entirely comfortable, but he's a lot more confident, and his stomach is a lot flatter because of it."

[MacGuffin]

Judd Apatow Wants You To 'Enjoy The Ride' Of 'Funny People' For 2.5 Hours...Then Watch The Super-Long DVD
Source: MTV

Judd Apatow needs more time. He's got a ton of material for his upcoming Adam Sandler/Seth Rogen comedy "Funny People"—footage that both made it into the movie and was left on the cutting room floor. Which is why the film will likely have an approximately 150 minute running time and why Apatow is trying to finagle extra room for the DVD release.

"The main argument I'm having with the studio is, 'How much DVD capacity can you get me?'" the writer/director told MTV News.

The film is set in the world of stand-up comedy, and tells the story of two comics with vastly different careers: George Simmons (Sandler) is a legend, while Ira Wright (Rogen) is a struggling up-and-comer. But they end up working together and becoming friends. The catch is that Simmons is dying because of an inoperable blood disorder.

"Every time we shot stand-up comedy, we shot their entire act," says Apatow. "We didn't shoot it on a stage and add laughs later. We brought in real audiences and shot with six cameras and whatever happened happened. There are 5-10 minutes of stand up in the movie, but we shot everybody's act seven times so we have all of that material to play with [on the DVD]."

Like Sandler, Simmons is a movie star, and Apatow created many scenes from his fictional filmography that he'd also like fans to have a chance to see. "Every time there's a clip in the movie of one of George Simmons' films, we shot several scenes from that movie so there's a lot of material," he said.

Of course, before the DVD comes the film itself (on July 31st). And, as with Apatow's "Knocked Up," expect "Funny People" to run far longer than your typical theatrical comedy. "It'll probably be a little less than two and half hours," Apatow said. "The story covers a lot of ground. I'm a fan of movies that are on the longer side. I never sit in a movie I like and think I wish this was over already. I think people will be very involved with these characters and enjoy the ride. There's plenty of time to get back home and watch 'The O'Reilly Factor' and do whatever else you need to do."

[john]

As much as I enjoyed Apatow's last two efforts, the trailer this left me pretty indifferent (save for a few genuinely funny moments).

However, these last two articles have more than compensated for that indifference. Apatow might be a great hype man, but he's convinced me... very excited.

[Stefen]

Hey, guys! Hey, remember when we were all wondering how the trailer for this managed to give away the WHOLE movie in less than 3 minutes? Well, I just saw a tv spot for it and they managed to give away the whole movie in 30 seconds!

[MacGuffin]

Adam Sandler's 'Redo' and Other Fake 'Funny People' Films
Source: Cinematical

Judd Apatow's Funny People has launched a wave of meta movie marketing we haven't enjoyed since Tropic Thunder. (Actually, viral marketing as a whole seems to have faded away. Feel free to speculate on that.) As you probably remember from the practically-reveals-the-entire-plot trailer, Adam Sandler plays a successful comedian-turned-actor named George Simmons. It turns out, Simmons has more in common with Sandler than just his career trajectory ... they practically share a filmography. Simmons has been in such wonderful films as MerMan, Little by Little, My Best Friend is a Robot, Sayonara, Davey!, and many more. I've collected the posters and print adds from Simmons' official website, and put them in our gallery, and embedded the various clips below the jump. (I hope a clip for My Best Friend is a Robot or Code Green is coming at some point.

Sandler isn't the only one getting a bit of viral action. Jason Schwartzman also has a sitcom kicking around the Internet called starring his Funny People character, Mark Taylor Jackson. The best part about Jackson's promo (besides how wincingly familiar it is) is that NBC.com helpfully hosted it as if it was promoting a real show. There's probably going to be a lot of people sitting around this fall waiting for "that really sweet looking teacher show" ...

[Stefen]

 

[RegularKarate]

[Gamblour.]

Justin Long would be in that movie.

[Pedro]

http://www.laughyourdickoff.com/

[Pas]

I'm going to see this july 25 with the cast and Judd Apatow 

[matt35mm]

I love those posters.

for Paul Rudd being in the credits for almost all of them.

[MacGuffin]

Red Band Trailer

[Kal]

This is by far the most anticipated movie for me. I saw some scenes the other day at the studio. Looks awesome.

It's interesting that Apatow is making a huge push with Universal to make this film 'award' worthy. Not only getting by Janusz Kaminski, but everything he says about the movie and what I heard Universal will plan to do after the release. They think it has potential to win Oscars.

[72teeth]

its ok. liker apatow. he is a good guy. i miss you all. congrats stefff! you
r a daddy!!! man! dont lie! god bless!!

[squints]

awesome use of some wilco.


wish they'd stop using that lame ikea joke to end all the trailers