The Hollywood job I am most often entranced by and curious about is that of the producer. He or she is the one who gets to go up on stage and accept the Academy Award for Best Picture, and it very often doesn’t seem like he or she did any actual work on the production.
However, if there’s one thing I do know, he or she is a master at getting people to put up the money for a film to be made; if that’s the most important job, then Laurie MacDonald and Walter Parkes are the best producers in the world.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the producing duo, who have helped put together such productions as How to Make an American Quilt and the upcoming Dinner for Schmucks, together with Image Nation Abu Dhabi has bought an untitled screenplay, this time from writers Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow.
Here’s the wind-up, and the pitch:
The original idea sprang from research Trevorrow had done into the practice of police departments recruiting improv actors to help with low-level stings. With a Tropic Thunder feel, Trevorrow and Connolly’s storyline involves three actors who are brought in to help bust a DVD-bootlegging operation. When it turns out to be a front for much more nefarious activities, the comedy trio ends up on the run from crooks and cops alike with only their ad-lib skills as weapons.
I came to appreciate Tropic Thunder pretty late, but I have to admit that it’s one of my favorite comedies now (you gotta love a movie where the geeky guy is the voice of reason). Another movie in that vein wouldn’t be amiss, and I can definitely see why IAD would have agreed to shell out money for a project like this.
Other productions in IAD’s pocket include Peter Weir’s The Way Back, Doug Liman’s Fair Game and Jodie Foster’s The Beaver, each with an unknown release date.