OK, when we read that test screenings of Judd Apatow’s “Funny People,” ran 2 1/2 hours long we thought, wow, that’s great, but there’s no actual way that the film — which some are already touting as a potential Oscar contender — would actually run that long.
Someone at Universal would inevitably persuade the director to deliver the summer comedy, stress summer comedy, in at a more manageable length, no? (but yes, we do realize “Knocked-Up” ran just over 2 hours)
Well, MTV chatted with Apatow and said the film will most likely come in at a 150 minute [2.5 hours] running time and that the writer/director/producer was squeezing the studio for as much possible extra room for the DVD release.
“The main argument I’m having with the studio is, ‘How much DVD capacity can you get me?’” Apatow told MTV which sure as shit implies that the above-average running time, comedy-wise is not the issue.
But actually, Apatow says it will ultimately run long — much longer than your average comedy, generally 80-90 minutes — but not quite that long.“It’ll probably be a little less than two and half hours. The story covers a lot of ground. I’m a fan of movies that are on the longer side. I never sit in a movie I like and think I wish this was over already. I think people will be very involved with these characters and enjoy the ride. There’s plenty of time to get back home and watch ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ and do whatever else you need to do.”
Apparently they shot a surfeit of footage, including full stand-up concerts (documented last year in photos, plus others from the cast — Jason Schwartzman, Aziz Ansari — have already hinted at plenty of extras). “Every time we shot stand-up comedy, we shot their entire act. We didn’t shoot it on a stage and add laughs later. We brought in real audiences and shot with six cameras and whatever happened happened. There are 5-10 minutes of stand up in the movie, but we shot everybody’s act seven times so we have all of that material to play with [on the DVD].”
Adam Sandler’s dying comedian character in the film, is also a famous actor, so expect to see clips of some meta, fake, movie-within-the-movie moments. “Every time there’s a clip in the movie of one of George Simmons’ films [Sandler’s character], we shot several scenes from that movie so there’s a lot of material,” Apatow said.
Man, this is going to be some Hal Ashby on James L. Brook type shit and we cannot wait to see this film.
“Funny People” also stars Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill and many, many others. It opens on July 31. Someone get us into an early screening as soon as bloody possible.