With the bonkers comedy “Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar,” director Josh Greenbaum proved that he has the chops for ridiculous studio comedies, allowing leads Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo the wiggle-room to just go balls-out silly.
And thanks to the success of that film, Greenbaum already has a follow-up all lined up. Titled, “Strays” the comedy will feature comedic heavyweights with Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, and Will Forte, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Stray” will continue the adult-skewing tone of his last comedy and will be a CGI-hybrid project set up over at Universal.
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Forte will take the role of a “nasty human owner” who has abandoned his dog that Ferrell will voice. Foxx, who got his start in stuff like the mega-hit sketch comedy series “In Living Color,” will voice one of the strays that befriends and teams up with Ferrell’s dog character to get revenge on his terrible owner. It sounds a bit like a parody of a multitude of children’s films alongside, oddly enough, Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs.”
“American Vandal” screenwriter Dan Perrault penned the script with a producing team that consists of Greenbaum, Louis Leterrier, Phil Lord, Chris Miller. Having Lord and Miller onboard seems like there might be some strong quality control involved given their solid track record of producing and overseeing excellent animated and live-action projects.
The film was already shot in the fall with the dogs being added in post-production using visual effects; it’s unclear if they’ll be photorealistic animals or more in the realm of fantastical like “Clifford The Big Red Dog,” giving Greenbaum more of a creative license on his dog characters. It certainly would be jarring if they were cartoony, but we’ll have to wait and see what direction they’ll go.
Given their extensive history of voice work and relationship with Josh Greenbaum, we wouldn’t be terribly shocked if Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo secured roles.