It’s funny looking back at the early development of Project X, and seeing the online jump-to-conclusions instinct hard at work. The slightest whiff of a logline being kept secret or any aspect of pre-production being done in a weird way and suddenly it was some crazy Cloverfield-style film with all kinds of non-nonsensical rumors attached to it. Now as Warner Brothers announces a release date for the film, it’s sounds like nothing more than a very obvious Hangover clone for the high school crowd.
Squaring off against The Lorax and Hansel and Gretel, the low-budget unknown actor-filled comedy will hit on March 2nd, hoping to make some of that new early year money everyone is excited about. The current description might be in the top 5 most generic loglines imaginable (at least post-80s):
“Three high school seniors throw a birthday party to make a name for themselves. Things spiral out of control as word of the party spreads.”
I don’t know about you, but I find a sentence like that difficult to even read. It’s so generic that the sentence construction and evoked concepts don’t generate enough of an electrical signal to even carry far enough through my brain to register that I’ve actually read anything. I’ll be interested to see a trailer or something that will finally indicate what about this project elevates it above an American Pie DTV spinoff. Surely there’s a thing, but it isn’t clear this far out.
Again, Todd Phillips has developed this project, but he put this together for unknown director Nima Nourizadeh, so the pedigree here will have to be sold on the Hangover-clone angle. Miles Teller seems to be the lead (if ole reliable IMDB is believed), and you’ll definitely hear his name more after Footloose hits theaters, but he’s not enough of a draw.
You’ll hear more when we do.
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Source | Variety