‘Hunger Games’ And ‘Oz: The Great And Powerful’ Faker Than ‘Green Hornet’ Enthusiasts
Between the legion of “Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” fanatics and those merely acquainted with their bizarre Absolut Vodka videos with Zach Galifianakis, people seem to be intrigued across the board concerning what the duo’s upcoming star-studded feature, “Tim And Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie” will ultimately end up like. Sporting a cast of comedic favorites like Galifianakis, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Robert Loggia, Jeff Goldblum, Will Forte and William Atherton, directors Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim go meta with their characters/personalities, saying that it’s about “literally getting a billion dollars to make a movie, and we make it, and things go awry, and Tim and I just decide to get out of Hollywood and become businessmen in an abandoned mall.” Even though they’re known for their short spurts of random, screwy humor, the premise sounds insane and loose enough for it to work in their favor.
In our conversation today with Mr. Reilly for the film “Terri” (more on that soon, though check out the reviews here and here), he revealed who he would be playing, which is surprisingly — and very sadly — not the (awesome) slurring and stoic ‘Awesome Show’ staple Steve Brule.
“His name is Taquito and he lives in the abandoned mall,” Reilly told us about the character he plays in ‘Billion Dollar Movie.’ “We already shot it in a real abandoned mall in Palm Springs. There’s nothing sadder than an abandoned mall, all these shitty buildings to begin with… it’s kind of this strange testament to the failure of capitalism or something.” The man is always consistent with his roles, comedic or not, so we can only expect good things from this vagabond character, but we’ll admit, we’re probably going to tie one on tonight due to the lack of Brule. Though we’ll admit it’s also nice to see the creators shying away from easy familiarities as they could’ve easily squeezed in Brule somewhere and been successful; instead they’re trying for something fresh.
In other less sad, not Brule-related news, the “Walk Hard” actor chalks up his rumored attachment to “The Hunger Games” and “Oz: The Great and Powerful” as media outlets running with nothing and deeming it a scoop.
“‘Hunger Games’ was a total rumor that just kept getting reposted. Then I saw it and was like, ‘Well, that’s…. totally untrue.’ It seems like the Internet has become a place where people become so hungry for any kind of scoop that you go and have a meeting with somebody and the assistant in the office just tells someone ‘JOHNCREILLYWASHEREOMGBLAH!’ and then all the sudden it’s up there. But there’s a lot of steps to people working together. As far as ‘Oz’ goes, I never even met with Sam Raimi.”
Both instances of reporting seem to have slated him on the mostly meaningless studio/producer “wish-lists,” which again just proves that speculation is merely just that. It’s always nice to get an idea of what kind of character the creative team hopes to shape through the actors they’re courting, but it’s also true that rumor pieces need to be constructed with a less firm hand. For something more concrete, Gary Ross‘ ‘Hunger Games’ filled the Haymitch Abernathy vacancy with Woody Harrelson, and Raimi decided James Franco’s sidekick would be Zach Braff.
Azazel Jacobs’s “Terri” opens July 1 and you’ll see more John C. Reilly closer to release. Steve Brule always has a place in our hearts.