Less than a week ago we reported how Mike Judge’s upcoming film Idiocracy had been shelved indefinitely. Our own Josh Tyler speculated that the reason for a move like this was typically one of two things: either the movie is so bad it’s practically unwatchable, or the director is a painful perfectionist. However, Josh forgot about the third option: endless studio interference.
In a recent interview with Esquire Magazine, Judge talks about the problems he’s faced with Idiocracy, a sci-fi comedy that finished filming almost two years ago. Essentially the studios have whittled down Judge and his movie, insisting certain executives needed to see the movie before they could proceed, causing issues with special effects costs (which he settled by getting his friend Robert Rodriguez to do for free), and now meddling endlessly with the marketing of the movie. Sadly this isn’t an area new to Judge, who suffered through the miss-marketing of Office Space, which eventually grew to become a cult favorite.
You can find the full article about Judge over at Esquire Online, although I have to admit I take issue with some of the reporting. The interviewer seems to think Judge has been beaten down over time by Hollywood’s antics, retreating to his suburban paradise rather than fight the good fight in L.A. like his Office Space characters. Anyone who has seen Judge over time knows he has almost always been a laid back personality. The article tries to make him look like the Idiocracy issues have finally beaten him, but it really sounds like it’s a case of Mike Judge just being Mike Judge.
For the sake of the fans (and to keep the title from becoming too ironic), let’s hope the executives at Fox finally come to their senses and we get to see Idiocracy hit theaters soon.
