Believe it or not, there's a hugely interesting story behind National Lampoon's origins, the films and actors it brought under its wing and the inevitable downfall of its founder, Douglas Kenney.
The film, which will chart Kenney - played by Will Forte - and Henry Beard - played by Domhnall Gleeson - and their meteoric rise through the '70s and '80s and their role in defining comedy for the next three generations. The film, which is being made for Netflix and directed by Wet Hot American Summer's David Wain, hasn't an official release date set as of yet, but there's big talk already surrounding the film.
That might be primarily down to the fact that Joel McHale of Community / The X-Files reboot fame is close signing on as... wait for it... Chevy Chase.
No, really.
The two played opposite one another in Community for almost five seasons and Chase's time on the set was marked by a number of clashes with showrunner Dan Harmon and the rest of the cast. In fact, there's basically a long, long, long, long, LONG list of stories surrounding Chevy Chase's abrasive behaviour - which will make for a really interesting-but-badly handled film one day.
In fairness, there's very few people who can do Chevy Chase's deadpan humour - other than McHale, of course. The fact that he spent almost five years in close quarters with him means he's got to have a handle on how to play him. The fact that Chase is still alive, however, might prove troublesome for the production.
In any case, Stupid Gesture is due to start production before the end of this month with a release date expected to be announced pretty shortly.
Via THR
