“The Tropic Thunder” viral marketing people are at it again. After making fictional websites for all of Tugg Speedman‘s movies (Ben Stiller’s doofus character in the film), they’ve now launched a site for six-time Academy-Award winning Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), the thespian who medically darkens his skin for his portrayal of an African American in ‘Thunder.’
His selected filmography includes, “Satan’s Alley” which co-stars Tobey Maguire (guess he has a cameo in this thing) and is clearly a dig at “The Da Vinci Code” (with a homosexual twist?) and the WWII drama “If You Could Hear What I See,” about a deaf Nazi who risks everything for the love of his Jewish speech therapist (other noteworthy roles include the lead teenage undercover cop in “Rap Street,” an urban “hip-hop cop drama”).
Also called a “6 Time Crying Monkey Award Winner,” Lazarus’ biography says he was “born into a turbulent divorce,” and notes that he declined to take the role of the retarded boy in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.”
They do go all out for these sites (though none of them seem to have actual trailers yet, that would be something), so let’s hope as much effort has gone into the real Vietnam action comedy that has begat all these meta-inside jokes.
A website for Jeff “Fats” Portnoy (Jack Black’s comedian character in the film), surely can’t be far behind (we tried the two urls, not yet).