Talk about from “The Office” to the penthouse- which we weren’t, of course, oh no. Screenwriters Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg have become new entrants in Hollywood’s funnyman screenwriter cattle call. After serving as Emmy-winning writers on the staff for “The Office,” they had their prehistoric comedy “Year One” picked up, and now are the names tasked with scribing the impossible, a big-budget “Ghostbusters 3” currently in pre-production.
But they aren’t sitting by idly while their cred flames out after a sure-to-be misfire like “GB3.” Instead, their original script (remember when we didn’t need to emphasize a script was original? We’re old! Get off our lawn!) “Bad Teacher,” to be helmed by Jake Kasdan. The plot involves a foul-mouthed female teacher who suffers a breakup with a financially-generous mate and reacts by making a play for a fellow educator. The title sure doesn’t do a good job keeping us from imagining “Bad Santa” with a female, but women, rejoice: this may be the burpin’, fartin’, bad behavior comedy you’ve been wanting since “The Sweetest Thing” embarrassed female audiences a few years ago.
And if anyone can make this into a fertile comic presence, its Kasdan, who’s coming off the cruel irony of being the only filmmaker to hook up with Judd Apatow and flop- 2007’s “The TV Set” and “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” both from Kasdan, remain in regular rotation on our DVD players as possible future classics.
