CollegeHumor has been a staple for their original comedy videos from nitpicking every single element of the undergraduate experience to parodying films like Inception to launching the career of Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld. They are about to step up their game to a whole other level, LA Times reports.
The company is financing their first-ever feature film, already set to shoot next month. Titled Coffee Town, with a script from Arrested Development writer/producer Brad Copeland (who will direct), the comedy follows “thirtysomething underachievers” and already has quite the ensemble lined up. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Glenn Howerton will lead, along with Eastbound & Down’s Steve Little, Parks & Recreations‘ Ben Schwartz and musician Josh Groban, who last appeared in Crazy, Stupid, Love.
The “absurdist comedy” is described as “a little like Cheers” as the story centers on “Will, a website manager (Howerton), and his friends who regularly drop in (Little and Schwartz) to the coffee spot. Groban will play a barista “who wants to be a singer but is doomed by a lack of talent.” The goal is to explore “the ethos of the freelance and the unemployed who use coffee shops as makeshift offices.”
As for whether on not we’ll see this in theaters, or it will just pop on College Humor, their co-founder said Ricky Van Veen said, “there’s a market for high-quality long-form content that can go directly to consumers, and we’re well-positioned to do that.” Although the goal is theatrical distribution, he still exploring other models. This one sounds like a perfect fit for VOD.
The cast includes some of my favorite actors on TV now and while Howerton hasn’t branched out like his co-star Charlie Day, he certainly deserves to. Steve Little, who was hilarious in the vastly overlooked dark comedy The Catechism Cataclysm last year, will also be seen in WRONG at Sundance, from the director of Rubber, Quentin Dupieux. The concept seems a bit thin, but it is a good jumping off point and doesn’t seem so far off from It’s Always Sunny.
Coffee Town shoots in Los Angeles next month.
Do you regularly visit College Humor? What do you think about them getting into the feature film business?