It won’t be long, folks: once The Foot Fist Way opens this April 11th, you will finally know the power and the glory of Mr. Danny McBride. And then you’ll understand why I am now actively looking forward to Will Ferrell’s spoof-ified redo of The Land of the Lost.
Granted, I wasn’t exactly desperate to see a straight-faced big-screen rendition of the Sid and Marty Kroft Saturday morning show, but the notion of another 70s send-up in the vein of Todd Phillips’s Starsky and Hutch was even more anathema. While I love Ferrell in just about anything, the last time he courted a family audience, we got the abysmal Kicking and Screaming. And goofing on the already kitschy Land of the Lost just seemed like a waste of his time – not to mention Universal’s money (the studio is spending upwards of $100 million on the film).
But these caveats vanish when I consider the potential of a Ferrell/McBride teaming. Ferrell will be playing a "disgraced paleontologist" who strays into a bizarre world of prehistoric beasts and, of course, Sleestacks. Accompanying him are an assistant and a "macho tour guide", which sounds like ideal casting for McBride (all IGN says is that he’s playing a character named "Will").
Brad Silberling will direct from a screenplay by Chris Henchy and Dennis McNicholas. Hopefully, he’ll give the boys plenty of room to improv, and not overwhelm his actors with garish production design and obnoxious CG. I get a little worried when I hear McBride talk about walking around the "massive sets", but, damn it, he’s bigger than sets. In fact, he’s his own set. He’s a walking practical location. He’s not just who you want to be, but where you want to be. Or something like that.
Land of the Lost is scheduled for release on July 17th, 2009.