God, we wish Judd Apatow and co. would just go for it with his upcoming dramedy, “Funny People,” but every time anyone of the cast members describes the film they always sound hesitant to make it sound too serious and well, dramatic.
“I wouldn’t describe it as dark,” Seth Rogen told the New York Times who got their hands on two new pictures from the film. “I would say it’s more ambitious in what it’s attempting to make light of.”
Things we may or may not see in “Funny People” – which is rumored to be running around 2 ½ hours right now and apparently potentially Oscar-worthy – depending on the way the editing goes include:
-Adam Sandler ad-libbing on a piano singing, “How would you people live without me?/Who will bring you joy when I go?” When the crowd laughs and applauds, he responds: “Leave me alone. Don’t visit my grave”
– a grainy video segment of Sandler at 20-years-old making prank calls shot by Apatow when they were real-life roommates, that might open up the film
– snippets of Leslie Mann’s early television commercials might appear in the film
– video of their daughter Maude singing “Memory” at a recital.
Apatow says that Sander’s selfish, asshole character in the film is “what me and Adam would become if we didn’t get sane and get married and have children. This character is our ego run amok.”
We want darkness, blood and tears within a comedy! Even most James L. Brooks – one of Apatow’s heroes and a model he’s used for his work – films are darker and dramatic than most Apatow films so far. We do have high hopes though. “Funny People” opens up in theaters July 31.