Last week cub reporter Derek Faraci visited the set of The Brothers Solomon, a comedy starring Wills Arnett and Forte, directed by Bob Odenkirk. While much of Derek’s set report is embargoed for a while, he was able to sneak out some interesting info he acquired while having a private lunch with Bob himself.
Bob: I think the CHUD people… I gotta tell you, they would like Let’s Go to Prison a lot.
Derek: Really?
Bob: Oh yeah. The problem with Let’s Go To Prison… the challenge, let’s not call it a problem, is that it’s very dark. I mean, people say it’s dark and it’s not, it’s just got adult themes and stuff. The threat of rape, male rape, motivates a good chunk of the script.
Derek: What’s the story of the movie?
Bob: It’s about these two assholes who go to prison and torture each other. Sound fun?
Derek: Wow, that is dark.
Bob: It is. And for a lot of people they would say ‘I like dark humor’ but they would think ‘ooh, that’s kinda scary’. But I think the CHUD fans would, it’s kind of like a Takashi Miike movie. If you can stomach those, then you can enjoy this comedy.
Derek: For a movie like that, with that level of darkness to the comedy, was it hard to get a studio to pick it up?
Bob: Yeah, but the Universal guys are pretty cool though. It was made independently, very cheaply. They’re counter-programming it on Thanksgiving. Everybody else is going to put out a family comedy or a family drama and they’re putting out a film that’s not for the family at all. They don’t expect it to make a hundred million, they just want to put out a film they think is well made and funny and they think it will stand out. And I think it will.
Derek: And that’s with Dax Shepard?
Bob: Yeah.
Derek: He wrote it as well?
Bob: No, Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon and Michael Patrick Jann from Reno 911 wrote it. I just wanted to mention that cause I think people who follow CHUD will get a kick out of it. I think some people will think it’s too dark for me.
Derek: Was that a concern when you were reading the script?
Bob: No, not every movie can define you. I didn’t write, I don’t star in it. I just directed it and I hope I did my job well.
Derek: What about Mr. Show? Are there any thoughts for a Mr. Show Movie?
Bob: Yeah, David and I wrote a sketch movie. It’s really funny. Really funny, but we can’t get the money for it.
Derek: Really? That’s pretty surprising. Especially, from what I heard, the Mr. Show DVDs did well.
Bob: They did well, but not well enough to motivate a movie.
Derek: That’s a shame.
Bob: We’ll see what happens. We’ll figure it out.
Derek: Would it be a return of the whole, if you had the money to do it, a return of the whole cast?
Bob: Oh yeah. I mean, we’re all still friends.
Let’s Go to Prison opens on November 22. Expect a couple more tidbits from Bob in the coming week, and hopefully at the end of the month I may have David Cross’ take on the Mr. Show movie.