Superhero movies are arguably the most popular features popping up at the movies these days, and companies are digging deep to come up with properties that can compete with Marvel and DC. That being said, one team of costumed heroes that we probably won't ever get to see on the big screen is the Ambiguously Gay Duo - the questionably homosexual heroes created by Robert Smigel who were featured on multiple seasons of Saturday Night Live in the 90s. But while it seems like the Duo's time on the silver screen may never come, you might be surprised to learn that a few years ago it actually almost did.
This interesting bit of trivia comes our way thanks to Entertainment Weekly, who got the story out of Robert Smigel himself. According to the comedian, the original idea of an Ambiguously Gay Duo movie actually came up all the way back in 2000 when Smigel's animated shorts were still showing on SNL. The concept of an animated AGD film came up, and while the creator originally rejected the idea, his tune changed when he began thinking about the potential for a live-action adaptation - specifically one starring Alec Baldwin and Jimmy Fallon. Unfortunately, this iteration of the project wound up getting killed due an issue surrounding the ownership of the characters. Because the Ambiguously Gay Duo shorts originally aired on The Dana Carvey Show, Universal Pictures held the rights, and that created difficulties with Paramount Pictures - which produced SNL Films at the time.
Weirdly, though, that wasn't the end of the Ambiguously Gay Duo's attempts to make it into live action adaptation. About three years later, the idea came up again when Jim Carrey and Steve Carell were working together on the film Bruce Almighty. Apparently, Carell told his co-star that he had previously voiced Gary in the animated superhero shorts, and Carrey sparked to the idea of them starring together in a feature film. Getting the interest of someone as popular as Jim Carrey was enough to get Universal to commission a script from Robert Smigel - who enlisted screenplay help from Stephen Colbert (who was the voice of Ace to Carell's Gary in the animated shorts). The script was written and presented to Carrey, but it didn't wind up going anywhere.
This is obviously a story with a sad ending, as it doesn't really look like an Ambiguously Gay Duo movie will ever happen, but there is some good news: the superhero team did eventually make it into live action. In 2011, Saturday Night Live teamed up Jon Hamm and Jimmy Fallon to play Ace and Gary for a sketch, which you can watch below:
In the Entertainment Weekly article, Robert Smigel does pitch the idea of giving the Ambiguously Gay Duo another go with a pair like Channing Tatum and Justin Bieber, but it does seem like a bit of a pipe dream. Do you hope the project one day gets made, or do you think the time has passed?
