Sausage Party: Foodtopia is now on Amazon Prime, and the new sequel series has doubled-down on one unexpected element of the 2016 movie: film references. Everything from Apocalypse Now to Seth Rogen’s own Superbad is spoofed in some way, but one of the longest and most blatant reference was definitely the Episode 4 end credits sequence, which featured Sufjan Stevens’ song "Visions Of Gideon" as heard in the iconic final minutes of Call Me By Your Name. It turns out that this was also one of the most difficult moments to clear legally, and Seth Rogen recently opened up to CinemaBlend about asking permission from director Luca Guadagnino and Stevens himself.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Seth Rogen -- the writer, producer and star of Sausage Party: Foodtopia -- alongside Kristen Wiig and Sam Richardson amid the show's recent press day. When it came to that aforementioned gag involving the acclaimed Italian filmmaker's 2017 romance film, Rogen said this:
That was actually a very hard song to clear. We had to go to Luca Guadagnino and Sufjan Stevens both to personally sign off on the scene. And I like, love these artists. You find yourself in a situation where you're explaining, ‘So, we love your films. The joke is that he's eating a foot and he's crying. It's the same shot as Call Me By Your Name, and the credits are rolling.
It makes sense that these particular rights would be a harder obtain, as the scene in question features over one a minute of "Visions Of Gideon." Will Forte’s character, Jack, in the midst of starvation, eats his friend's foot by the light of a fire while the credits roll. Call Me By Your Name has a very different kind of artistic merit than Sausage Party, so the fact that Luca Guadagnino and Sufjan Stevenes were down to play is very charming. Maybe it was the cannibalistic element of the scene that won the Bones And All director over.
Or maybe we’re just underestimating those who practice art cinema in general, as Seth Rogen -- a pretty good authority on what’s funny -- said this:
It's not easy to get those people to sign off on that stuff, but they have a better sense of humor than you would think about things.
Call Me By Your Name earned Luca Guadagnino and Sufjan Stevens their first Oscar nominations, and no amount of jokes can take that away. It was also a career-making turn for Timothée Chalamet well before he was a pop culture icon who is dating a Jenner and regularly turning heads on the red carpet. Guadagnino's acclaimed flick has its place in film history, and even those who created it think it’s fair game for parody.
Seth Rogen, on the other hand, takes a different kind of approach to his work. He’s always high when filming, and Sausage Party: Foodtopia features an intense orgy amongst animated food products. The point is, a collaboration between him and the likes of Sufjan Stevens is just one of those beautiful and bizarre Hollywood occurrences.
You can stream Sausage Party: Foodtopia with a Prime Video subscription right now! You can also check out our full interviews with Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig and Sam Richardson, which are just as hilarious as you would imagine.
