I understand that we’re largely encouraged to turn off our brains during the summer movie season, and that films like Entourage -- specifically – require very little contemplation. But how is it possible that writer-director Doug Ellin missed this timeline gaffe built in to his own movie? Because now that it has been pointed out, it’s really pretty embarrassing.
We are going to have to get into very mild spoilers for Entourage, so skip away if you’d prefer not to hear specifics about the movie.
So, HBO’s Entourage went off the air in 2011, and fans have been waiting roughly four years for the movie to extend the story of Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and his L.A. cohorts. The story in the movie picks up days after the series concluded, as it’s made very clear that Vince’s soon-to-be-annulled marriage to Sophia (Alice Eve) was one of the shortest in Hollywood history. After a phone meeting with Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), where Vince agrees to direct a tentpole named Hyde, a title card for the movie skips the action forward by 8 months.
Do the math, and that means that the bulk of the Entourage movie should take place in 2012. Possibly late 2011. Right? Except it clearly doesn’t, because so many of its references are modern. ScreenCrush film reporter Matt Singer pointed this mistake out first:
And Yahoo Movies recently did a thorough run down of all of the things that make no sense if Entourage is supposed to be set 8 months after the show ended. For example:
- Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson references his Super Bowl win, which happened in February 2014.- Emily Ratajkowski has a major role as herself. Only, no one knew her before she appeared in Robin Thicke’s "Blurred Lines" video in March of 2013.- Mark Wahlberg pops by in a cameo. He plugs his TV show, Wahlburgers, and jokes that he’s doing additional work on Ted 3. Neither of those things should exist yet in this Entourage.
These are just a few examples of the many things that work in a 2015 Entourage, but have no place in the time when the movie claims that it exists. In the grand scheme of things, this doesn’t change the Entourage movie. Whatever was supposed to happen in the movie still plays out. But it shows how little attention those who should care about an Entourage movie actually care about the Entourage movie. Did no one on set bring this timeline gaffe up? Or did they realize it, and just hope no one watching the movie would notice… or care? In all honesty, I'm not sure which one is worse.
