Quint dances along with Steve Coogan’s Sexy Jesus in HAMLET 2 at Sundance!
March 5th, 2008Ahoy, squirts! Quint here finally catching up on my Sundance coverage. In the last month I’ve seen somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 films theatrically and another half dozen screeners to add onto that pile.
Of all those movies only about a fifth were damn good and of those only a handful that are what I’d call fuckin’ good or better.
HAMLET 2 made the cut.
Steve Coogan. If that name puts a smile on your face, then get in line now. This is Coogan at his finest. If his name got a “Huh?” response, then that’s okay, too. You’ll be a new fan of his once Hamlet 2 hits and then, I’m sure, you’ll dive into the hilarious world of Alan Partridge.
While Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost broke over here Mr. Coogan was biding his time.
In HAMLET 2, Coogan plays an Arizona drama teacher. In his mind he’s a great actor and in the opening moments of the movie we’re treated to his highlight reel, which consists of bit parts on infomercials and speaking roles in STD treatment commercials.
He gets paid next to nothing, his wife (played by Catherine Keener) is always bitchy to him (she married him and waited for his bit acting career that never came), he’s got a live-in hanger-on (played almost silently by David Arquette) and he’s struggling in a school system that doesn’t value the arts. His classroom has been moved into the cafeteria where his lectures have to compete with the lunch ladies noisily cooking.
In short, his life’s a mess, but he still has a hopeful smile on his face, an almost childlike optimism.
In his new year of teaching he is given a class of delinquents. The irony is not lost on him or the movie as he studies films like DANGEROUS MINDS in order to learn how to make the transition from his pure white-bread theater snob class to a multi-cultural class just trying to get an easy A.
This same year, he finds out that the school has finally cancelled theater and that situation brings the class together to achieve Coogan’s game plan: He’s going to put on a play that is so popular, so good, that the school board will be forced to reinstate the class.
In the past, Coogan’s plays all consisted of stage remakes of popular movies. We’re treated to a glimpse at one of his previous works, a stage version of ERIN BROKOVICH. He has a heated conversation with his biggest critic, the high school newspaper’s entertainment reviewer (a child no older than 12). He asks this kid why he always gets a negative review. The kid simply states that his shows suck. Of course, Coogan breaks down and the kid has to console him and gives him a piece of advice. Do your own thing, don’t just copy everybody else.
With that in mind, Coogan is inspired to create his masterpiece… HAMLET 2. But… everybody dies at the end of Hamlet, right? Aha! Well, that’s where the time machine comes in.
Seriously, the final version that ends up onstage is something they should tour with. You have time travel, historical figures coming in to change the events of the first HAMLET and a dance number involving Christ called SEXY JESUS.
And yes, his main inspiration to sequelize HAMLET is that he thought Shakespeare’s original was too much of a bummer and he wanted a chance to make it happier. He takes the tragedy out of HAMLET, essentially.
I can’t write this up without mentioning a particular actress. One of the secondary stories is the difficulty Keener and Coogan are having conceiving a child. So they go to a sperm bank and while they’re waiting, Coogan bumps into a cute nurse, played by Elisabeth Shue. His mouth hangs open and he says, “Excuse… but you look exactly like my favorite actress Elisabeth Shue.” She smiles and says, “I am Elisabeth Shue.”
And so it goes. She quit acting and became a sperm bank nurse in Arizona… and she’s not a throwaway joke. She is a real character in the movie, playing herself, and boy does she still have it. I’ve had a crush on her since my childhood viewings of ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING and KARATE KID. She’s looking great and is as charming as she’s ever been.
The script was whip-smart, as should be expected from Pam Brady. She works with Trey Parker and Matt Stone a lot on South Park, the South Park movie as well as TEAM AMERICA. She doesn’t disappoint here.
The flick just finished filming in November, so the cut we saw in January I’m sure is still rough. There was a little drag in the middle, but I’m sure they’ll tighten the film a bit before release. Even if they don’t, it’s already hilarious.
It was the biggest pick-up at Sundance, with Focus Features dishing a reported $10 million for it, so you know you’ll see a big release. This’ll be one Sundance movie I”m sure will be at a theater near you no matter where near you is.
Anyway, that’s it for HAMLET 2. Still more Sundance/Santa Barbara flicks to go through before I’m done. Keep an eye peeled, squirts!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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January 28th, 2008Sundance Q&A: The Cast of ‘’Hamlet 2′’
January 28th, 2008Sundance Q&A: The Cast of ‘’Hamlet 2′’
January 28th, 2008Sundance Q&A: The Cast of ‘’Hamlet 2′’
January 28th, 2008Sundance BuzzCheck™: The festival’s top seller, ‘Hamlet 2′
January 24th, 2008From EW.com
Popwatch Blog
The raucous comedy had been the subject of tremendous buzz coming into Sundance…before it was even completed, and without a mere mention in the event’s catalogue. Indeed, the unfinished film was such a late entry into the festival that Park City’s primary premiere location, the Eccles Center, was fully booked. But that didn’t stop Hamlet 2 from knocking Sundance out of its mid-festival doldrums with a rowdy debut screening Monday night at the Library Center theater. The room erupted in hysterics about two minutes into the show, and things stayed that way for nearly two hours.
Sundance, Day 7: Why Hamlet 2 Is Hot, Hot, Hot
January 24th, 2008From E! Online, Reel Girl Blog
‘Hamlet 2′ is big buy at Sundance Fest
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January 24th, 2008‘Hamlet 2,’ ‘Henry Poole’ and ‘Choke’ reap big sales
From The Hollywood Reporter
PRINCELY SUM NETS ‘HAMLET’
January 24th, 2008From The New York Post
By Lou Lumenick
A late entry to the Sundance program, “Hamlet 2″ was described by several distributors as the first indie this year to have commercial crossover possibilities like “Little Miss Sunshine.”
What a piece of work
January 22nd, 2008From The Hollywood Reporter, Risky Biz Blog
By Gregg Goldstein and Steven Zeitchik
January 22, 2008
Throughout Sundance, distributors have been asking “Indie hit, wherefore art thou?”
The answer may have come Monday evening with “Hamlet 2,” Andrew Fleming’s frequently hilarious story of an overly dramatic high school drama teacher (played by Steve Coogan) who attempts to salvage his department by putting on a controversial musical sequel to Shakespeare’s play.
The late addition to the fest had intermitent lulls, but it also had every top film exec unreservedly gushing outside the Library screening room. The Weinstein Co., Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, Focus, ThinkFilm, Paramount Vantage and other execs all openly agreeing about how funny it was.
“I heard before I came that it needed a lot of work, but it doesn’t need that much work,” said one buyer. Others said some judicious cutting could bring it big success. At a “Hamlet” dinner afterwards, veteran studio director Fleming (”Threesome,” “Nancy Drew”) said he’d be open to working with a distributor on a refined edit, despite saying he avoided the development process initially. “It”s nothing I haven’t been through before,” he deadpanned.
The film’s satirical take on theater types, modern musicals, high school and high school movies like “Dangerous Minds” resonated with the audience, as did top notch performances by Coogan and Catherine Keener (pictured above), Amy Poehler and the amazing newcomer Skyler Astin, who plays a budding drama student many will recognize.
(Full disclosure: after seeking out Astin to speak with him at the dinner, I realized he currently stars in the Tony-winning best musical “Spring Awakening,” co-produced by an old friend, Amanda Dubois. — Gregg Goldstein)
“Hamlet 2″ came together thanks to producers Eric Eisner as well as “Little Miss Sunshine” producers Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger.” Editors were still cutting the movie as late as December with the possibility that it wouldn”t have made into the festival.
But the filmmakers finished it and got it into the festival just under the wire, not unlike the way the fall’s big indie hit, “Juno,” snuck into Telluride at the last minute.
CAA is selling the title, and top distributors began gathering at their Park City house immediately after the film.
‘Hamlet 2′ Sells After All-Night Bidding War
January 22nd, 2008By Lauren Schuker, January 22, 2008
This just in: After receiving an uproarious reaction from crowds last night, “Hamlet 2” provoked the first major bidding war of the festival. After an all-night battle, the film sold early this morning, according to producer Eric Eisner who only arrived home at 7:30 a.m.
The comedy, which stars Steve Coogan as a failed actor turned high school drama teacher, tells the unpredictable, charmingly offensive tale of a high school drama class that stages a sequel to Hamlet. The film is complete with time machines and a modern-day version of Jesus Christ — with sex appeal and a cell phone.
Equal Opportunity Insults, In Five Acts
January 22nd, 2008From The New York Times, The Carpetbagger
By David M. Halbfinger
January 22, 2008
Sundance looks to have its first unqualified hit, and a Cinderella story at that, in “Hamlet 2.” A late addition to the film festival, this bawdy romp, starring Steve Coogan as a failed actor-turned-pathetic high-school drama teacher — who stages a musical sequel to “Hamlet,” with a “sexy Jesus” Christ in a starring role — enjoyed a riotous reaction at its premiere in Park City’s library Monday night.
One of the festival’s running themes has been hope and optimism, as most evident in films about people facing down death, among them Amy Redford’s drama “The Guitar” (which didn’t wow audiences on Friday) and Mark Pellington’s lighter-hearted “Henry Poole Is Here” (which played quite well Monday afternoon and immediately drew interest from several buyers).
But “Hamlet 2,” even as it made sure to insult Christians, gays, Latinos, Jews, the A.C.L.U., Hollywood movies about inspiring teachers and one of its lead actresses (Elisabeth Shue), also managed to puncture the death-defying optimism that has hovered over Park City.
As the acquisition teams from Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, Miramax and the Weinstein Company, among others, filed out into the night – some of them, presumably, to huddle and come up with offers – the non-buying audience hung around for a quick Q-&-A with Andrew Fleming, the director of “Hamlet 2,” and several members of his cast.
Mr. Fleming said he and his writing partner, Pam Brady, had been working on the script for five years, but the idea of a “Hamlet” sequel was much more recent, and the actual play-within-the-movie was written on deadline. “It was this kind of panicked, last-minute thing – ‘let’s write some songs and put on a show,’” Mr. Fleming said.
In the movie Ms. Shue plays herself, oddly enough – or a version of herself that could be so smitten by Mr. Coogan that she’d lick his face (as she did again onstage, for good measure). Why’d she take the role? “I just got the script and it said ‘a famous actress who’s a has-been, lives in Tucson and is a nurse,’” she said. “It was hilarious and I had to do it.”
Industry watching for strike-inspired bidding wars, hot films at Sundance
January 21st, 2008From CBC News
January 18th
Hamlet 2 is cited as a movie title “that could sneak up under the radar.”
Filmmakers Look to Sundance Buying Spree
January 18th, 200825 films creating buzz among buyers
January 17th, 2008From Variety
By Sharon Swart
January 16, 2008
Hamlet 2
Steve Coogan toplines as a high school drama teacher who decides to stage a musical sequel to “Hamlet.” Cast includes Catherine Keener and David Arquette. (CAA)
2008 Sundance film festival
January 17th, 2008From The Toronto Sun
By Kevin Williamson, January 17, 2008
THE BUZZ: Movies pegged as potential box-office hits include Sunshine Cleaning (Amy Adams); What Just Happened? (Robert De Niro); The Wackness (Sir Ben Kingsley and Mary-Kate Olsen); Hamlet 2 (Steve Coogan); and Assassination of a High School President (Mischa Barton).
Sundance Could Be a Sellers’ Bonanza
January 17th, 2008Quint and Rav preview the 2008 Sundance Film Festival!
January 17th, 2008From Ain’t It Cool News at aintitcool.com
“A Raisin in the Sun,” “Hamlet 2″ and More Play Sundance Film Fest Beginning Jan. 17
January 17th, 2008From Playbill
By Ernio Hernandez, January 17, 2008
Also featured at the festival will be “Hamlet 2.” Andrew Fleming directs his and Pam Brady’s script for the film, which stars Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Elizabeth Shue, Amy Poehler, David Arquette and Melonie Diaz. The comedy finds “a high school drama teacher [who] injects love and passion for theatre into his students by creating a musical sequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet.”
Sundance 2008: Let There Be Light!
January 17th, 2008From Variety
By Sharon Swart, January 16,2008
Three films seem to be high on buyers’ radars: Premiere comedies “What Just Happened?” and “Hamlet 2,” as well as Dramatic Competition entry “Sunshine Cleaning,” starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.
Boom looms in Sundance
January 17th, 2008From the Hollywood Reporter
By Steven Zeitchik and Gregg Goldstein, January 16, 2008
Next week feels far away to many buyers, but distributors already are beginning to eye Plum Pictures’ intergenerational dramedy “Diminished Capacity” and “Hamlet 2,” the comedy-musical starring Steve Coogan that is a late addition to the festival.
Strike Makes Fight For Fest Films
January 17th, 2008Play It Again, Sundance
January 17th, 2008From The Wall Street Journal
By Lauren Schuker, January 12, 2008
“Buyers say they are looking carefully at three star-packed films aimed at young audiences: “Hamlet 2″ (with Elisabeth Shue), about a high-school drama course that puts on a musical sequel to Shakespeare’s play…”
Eclectic mix practices Sundance steps
January 15th, 2008From The Hollywood Reporter
By Steven Zeitchik and Gregg Goldstein
Jan 15, 2008
The prototypical indie producer has evolved too. One of the most buzzed-about titles this year is the last-minute addition “Hamlet 2,” an irreverent comedy musical starring Steve Coogan. It comes from new film producer Eric Eisner — yes, he’s the son of that Eisner, former Disney CEO Michael.
In another era, Eisner the younger might have gone to work as a conglomerate executive like the Murdoch sons, but he decided to branch out. “I’ve always been a little more entrepreneurial,” he said. “There’s a thrill in building a company and starting from scratch.”
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