Vine is a toy from Twitter that challenges users to make the most profound work ever committed to video in exactly six seconds. Or at the very least, challenges comedians to bring a little more laughter into this world. Every Tuesday we showcase five of the funniest short shorts of the past week.
Your RSS feed might be difficult and not show the videos, but trust us – they are there.
Robert Ben Garant will be joined by his partner in crime, fellow The State/Reno 911! alum Thomas Lennon, as his co-director for a comedy remake of the cheesy 90s lifeguard soap Baywatch. This is the silliest project Lennon and Garant have ever worked on, and keep in mind that Lennon wrote “Porcupine Racetrack” and the duo was previously developing a “leprechaun action comedy.”
The Dark Knight Rises seems like one of those serious movies, in which serious people talk gruffly about dire matters. Well, apparently there will be at least one scene of slight comic relief. Thomas Lennon plays a very smart alecky doctor who very sarcastically breaks news to his patients. I know Gotham is a cynical place with crime and inscensant gloom, but when a man has no cartilage in his knees, maybe pretend to be slightly saddened for him, even if he is super rich. He might be the doctor Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. (Yep, that is the second reference to that [...]
Deadline reports that Ben Stiller will star in Rentaghost, a movie based on a British kids' show of the same name. It's also the children's show with the bleakest view of the afterlife. Russell Brand was originally set to star in the film as “Fred Mumford, a recently deceased loser who feels he can find work for ghosts whose lives were as failed as his." So it sounds like he's in hell, right? Running a spooky temp agency sure doesn't sound like Heaven. In the new version penned by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, Stiller's starring role will instead be that of "an American turnaround consultant [...]
I mean, the cover alone! Not to mention these blurbs:
"These two guys are the reason Night at the Museum won so many Oscars" – Ben Stiller
"These guys are proof that with no training and little education, ANYONE can make it as a screenwriter." – Paul Rudd
"These guys probably ripped off everything in this book just like they do in all their screenplays. That would explain why it's actually kind of good." – Ed Helms
"Ben and Tom are a great fit for me. I love working with talented writers and then telling people everything was my idea. This is a great book, that I pitched to [...]
The Sundance Film Festival announced its 2013 lineup this week, and two new comedies from noted comedy duos will be making their world premieres at Sundance's Park City at Midnight program: Ass Backwards, written by Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael, and Hell Baby, written and directed by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant. Both feature tons of talented comedy folk on both sides of the camera and look pretty awesome. The festival runs from January 17-27 if you can't wait a few months for these movies to make it to theaters. Hit the jump for the first images from Ass Backwards and Hell Baby and for the official synopses, [...]
Last season ended with Victoria ditching her wedding and driving off with Ted. Well, the premiere will feature the man she was leaving at the alter, Klaus. You know, the kinda close Klaus from her class. Thomas Lennon will be playing that Klaus. The episode centers around Future Ted (aka the narrator) telling the story of the time Present Day Ted told a cold feet possessing Robin the story of when he insisted that Victoria leave Klaus a note before they drove off into the distance. Either way, for Balls of Fury fans, you'll get to relive Lennon's glorious German accent.
Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant are stepping out of the screenwriting circle and into the directing triangle with horror comedy Hell Baby, starring Rob Corddry and Leslie Bibb as a young couple who have a…hell baby. Lennon and Garant will also star as "the Vatican's elite exorcism team" called in to defeat the demon seed.
Corddry and Lennon are always funny onscreen, but you have to admit that Lennon and Garant's screenwriting record (Night at the Museum, Night at the Museum 2, The Pacifier) may be focused more on making money than producing amazing movies. But maybe as directors, the pair will have more direct [...]
Just for the record, Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant understand that you loathed Herbie: Fully Loaded. They embrace that reality, they take it into themselves, and they release it back out into the universe before diving into a giant pool of gold doubloons ala Scrooge McDuck. Scott Wampler over at Collider interviewed the former members of The State about their new book Writing Movies For Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at The Box Office and You Can, Too!, and they have excellent advice for those among us who'd rather sell The Pacifier than starve to death in a Starbucks bathroom trying to sell our [...]
I am so charmed by Anna Faris in the What's Your Number? trailer that I will look past the egregiously unnecessary voice-over ("Is it possible….that I'm not going to topple over a balcony in this heinous bridesmaid's dress?"). As soon as you find out that Faris's Ally faked a terrible British accent for an entire relationship, all is forgiven. "I went full Borat," she laments. Desperate to keep her bone buddy count equal to or less than 20, Anna's charisma and promising dialogue is enough to enliven a plot based on the Victorian moral code and delicate sensibilities ascribed to all men in most rom-coms. Also, hello, whatever [...]
Gajillionaires is a new animated series coming to Comedy Central next year about a couple of super-rich old white brothers (who are definitely not based on the Koch brothers) and their adventures in conservatism. This here is the original pilot/presentation made for the network. Obviously, Comedy Central liked it, as it was picked up to series. And with good reason! This quick look is really fun, it'll be great to see it expanded into a full show. And the voice talent! Rob Corddry, Thomas Lennon, Paul Scheer, Jordan Peele and Riki Lindhome are all on board, which is a murderer's row you can't argue with. Look for more info [...]
"Ben [Garant] came up with a pretty simple way to express [the basic movie formula]: You take a guy and put him up in a tree, then you throw rocks at him, and then you get him down from the tree. Die Hard, The Matrix, Casablanca: all of these movies have heroes pulled into a situation against their will, who then end up winning. That’s structure. It can be liberating, though, because following structure gives you less to have to worry about." - Thomas Lennon on how to write a big successful Hollywood movie. Part of six simple tips to write the next Night At The Museum 4: Night At [...]
Every year during TV's pilot season (it's happening right now!), each network develops three times as many shows as it actually needs, seeing what works and what doesn't before deciding which shows to pick up. While most of the rejected shows are turned down for a reason, every once in a while, TV networks let a show slip by that could have turned into something special. Let's take a look back at 10 TV series that networks passed up, including the shows that spun off Spinal Tap and Between Two Ferns, the community college comedy that's not Community, and a show that's been described as "Reno 911! in space."
Blackbook did a interview with the wonderful Thomas Lennon in advance of the release of Bad Teacher, in which he has a small role. He gives some advice to young writers and comedians looking to get their break, and it's very good. First, on being a full-time comedy writer: If you have to force yourself to find time to write, it’s not going to work out. If you don’t feel like writing, it’s never going to work out, I guarantee it. Hemingway did a lot of crazy shit. He was catching marlins, and punching people, and going to bull-fights. He still wrote like a motherfucker. So you should [...]
