One of the many films to world premiere at this year’sSundance Film Festivalwas directorDavid Wain’sgreat new movie,A Futile and Stupid Gesture. The film chronicles the life and career of National Lampoon co-founderDoug Kenney(played byWill Forte)and doesn’t gloss over his troubled life. If you don’t know Doug’s name, he co-foundedNational Lampoonwith fellow Harvard studentsHenry BeardandRobert Hoffmanand helped grow it from a local college paper to a hugely successful nationwide brand. He also worked as a writer in Hollywood on films likeNational Lampoon’s Animal HouseandCaddyshack. The film also starsDomhnall Gleeson,Joel McHale,Emmy Rossum, Martin Mull,Natasha Lyonne,Thomas Lennon,Joe Lo Truglio,Seth Green,Matt Lucas, and many other faces you’ll recognize. For more on the very funny film which is now streaming onNetlfix,read Matt Goldberg’s review.
Shortly after seeing the film I got to sit down with David Wain and producersPeter PrincipatoandJonathan Sternfor an exclusive interview. They talked about when they first heard about National Lampoon, how the film landed at Netflix, the way the film breaks the 4th wall, putting together the killer cast, what they learned from friends and family screenings that impacted the finished film, upcoming projects, what’s the proper order to watchWet Hot American Summerif you’ve never seen it, and so much more.
Check out what David Wain, Peter Principato and Jonathan Sternhad to say in the player above and below is a list of exactly what we talked about during the interview.
David Wain, Peter Principato and Jonathan Stern:
