In theory Sundance is a place where anything goes. You can bring your movie about a woman wandering around in a surreal landscape for two hours, or a blazingly personal documentary about your childhood, or whatever, and if it's any good the festival will probably take it. But it really is possible to make something that's weird even by Sundance standards, and who better than Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim to pull that off? The comedy team known usually as just Tim & Eric have made the leap from online comedy gods to feature filmmakers with Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie, which premiered here ahead of its VOD and theatrical release later this spring. The movie kicks off with the two guys completely Hollywood-ed out and crazy after being given a billion dollars to make their first movie-- actually, no, it starts out with Jeff Goldblum playing a guy named Chef Goldblum. Actually, wait, it starts with about 8 different fake studio logos. And an ad for a motion chair.
Though the movie takes place in the bizarre world of their creation, it's also crammed with star cameos, from Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly to Will Forte, who joined Tim & Eric for our interview on Main Street at Sundance over the weekend. The movie had just premiered the night before, and though Tim & Eric have done live shows all over the country for their fans, this was apparently a totally different experience. I talked to all three of them about translating online comedy to a movie, what they do in their movies that their parents might be embarrassed to see, and the standards they have for what's funny and what works, even in a world as weird as the one you see in Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar movie.
Check out the twelve-minute interview below, and catch the billion-dollar movie on VOD later this month, and in theaters in March.
