by The Sundance Film Festival has announced its slate of world premieres for January 2018, and among them are two notable new comedy projects.
Futile and Stupid Gesture, David Wain’s biopic of Doug Kenney, co-creator of The National Lampoon, as well as the screenwriter of Animal House and Caddyshack, stars Will Forte as Kenney (pictured above with Domhnall Gleeson as Lampoon co-founder Henry Beard). The rest of the nutballs insane comedy cast re-creating the 1970s includes Martin Mull as Modern Doug, Thomas Lennon as Michael O’Donoghue, Joel McHale as Chevy Chase (!!!), John Gemberling as John Belushi, Matt Walsh as Matty Simmons, Rick Glassman as Harold Ramis, Jon Daly as Bill Murray, Seth Green as Christopher Guest, Matt Lucas as Tony Hendra, Paul Scheer as Paul Shaffer, Lonny Ross as Ivan Reitman, Neil Casey as Brian McConnachie, Armen Weitzman as Lorne Michaels, Jackie Tohn as Gilda Radner, Natasha Lyonne as Anne Beatts, Emmy Rossum as Kathryn Walker, Brian Huskey as John Landis, Jack Andrew Cook as Dan Aykroyd, Jake Jacobson as Ted Knight, and Erv Dahl as Rodney Dangerfield.
The other big comedy film making its world premiere at Sundance is Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, from filmmaker Marina Zenovich, who previously directed documentaries on Richard Pryor (Omit the Logic) and Roman Polanski (both Wanted and Desired and Odd Man Out). Her doc on Robin Williams will be “told largely through Robin’s own voice and using a wealth of never-before-seen archive” footage.
