Remember Todd Phillips?

You ought to, because before this world became simply a section of the Apatowverse Phillips was one of the people to whom comedy seemed safe in the hands of after Road Trip and Old School, two films that seem like acorns from a distant tree after the arrival of Judd and his Legendary Posse. Speaking of Old School, may we have a moratorium of quotes from it for a year or two? Seems as if quoting Old School and Talladega Nights has become the dialogue du jour for imbeciles.

Tangent over.

Todd Phillips is a good filmmaker with fun ideas [once rumored to be remaking C.H.U.D.] who was wasted for the most part on Starsky & Hutch and most definitely on School for Scoundrels and today’s news about casting for his upcoming The Hangover sounds like it could be a step in a fun, albeit similar direction than his studio filmmaking body of work to date. I mean, he did a G.G. Allin film so he’s obviously got a beautiful odd streak up in him, but the output most folks would be familiar with consists of comedies geared towards the college crowd. Hungover’s logline is as follows:

“A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their
about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures, then must
retrace their steps in order to find him.”

Yeah. Not going to really force him to reinvent himself as a filmmaker. But, the cool thing is that Phillips will be working with people who are gifted but not saddled with brand names and schticks that’ll override the material [hopefully GOOD material].

Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms.

You’ll know Cooper from being written out of Alias and as the dickhead in Wedding Crashers or from the Cooper family reunion if you’re a Cooper yourself. He has dreamy eyes and a chin that could cure polio. My guess is that he’ll be the straight man here.

You’ll know Ed Helms from The Office, where he is insanely good and a participant in The Daily Show to boot. I don’t watch The Daily Show but apparently you will be slaughtered by warlocks if you say a sideways word about the show so I won’t. Helms is on the verge of breaking out big time, so this film should help him as he seeks dermatology help.

Here’s hoping Todd Phillips comes back hard and that when he comes, he comes correct.