Even though films coming out of the Saturday Night Live camp aren’t as numerous as they once were, the long-running sketch comedy has never failed to produce its share of Hollywood’s comedy-leading men and women. And now you can add President Barack Obama to that list of…oh wait, that’s not Obama, it’s Fred Armisen.
Armisen will take the lead role in the next comedy from director Terry Zwigoff (Bad Santa), according to TheWrap. Currently untitled, the project formerly went by the name Justice For Al, and it was co-written by Zwigoff and Melissa Axelrod, who served as his assistant on Bad Santa. It will be produced by Vincent Landay, whom the story repeatedly mentions has produced all of Spike Jonze’s films, which may or may not be hinting at an off-kilter approach to the story. And if anybody can play off-kilter with mastery, it’s Armisen, who has seemingly portrayed just about every type of human being alive on IFC’s Portlandia.
He’ll play Al Fishkin, placed under house arrest for a crime that he didn’t commit. Only it isn’t his own home, it’s his childhood home, where he has to live with his parents again. And get this-- Al gets together with a few of his friends in a plot to take revenge against the man who framed him for the crime. Just add a subplot of someone raising money for a non-noble cause, and this sound like several other SNL movie I can think of. To be expected, there’s also a romantic angle, but the script is “essentially about how growing up is harder the second time around.” All I can say is, thank the son of Satan (Little Nicky) that this isn’t an Adam Sandler vehicle.
Though he has a possible exit from SNL on the horizon, Armisen and Carrie Brownstein will be back for another two seasons of Portlandia at least. Can Zwigoff turn Armisen into a movie star?
The film is currently securing financing and casting supporting roles, with a goal of shooting later this fall.
