This news would have been wonderful twenty years ago; Dan Aykroyd announced on his official Facebook page yesterday that he and fellow Saturday Night Live icon Chevy Chase are currently collaborating on what he calls a “new script concept” for a comedy. Here’s his announcement in full:
Chevy (Chase) and I are about to start work on a script concept for a comedy movie. Cannot say too much about the concept, but the joy of working with him again is one that I am extremely excited about. Chevy is one of my favourite people, and one of the great anarchistic and physically committed comedians in the business.
As you can see there isn’t much to go on here, and they aren’t even at the screenwriting phase yet as they’re just working on a “concept.” This will be Akyroyd and Chase’s fourth collaboration together and third on the big screen; in addition to SNL, Chase and Aykroyd appeared together in the 1985 comedy Spies Like Us and Chase starred in Aykroyd’s 1989 directorial debut Nothing But Trouble (a movie most people hate, but I have a soft spot for).
I’m not here to knock the legacy of either Dan Aykroyd or Chevy Chase; they had a tremendous comedy streak from the late 70’s-most of the 80’s resulting in some of the most iconic comedies of that generation (Three Amigos!, Fletch, Ghostbusters). But this is 2012 and time has not been kind to either man. Chase has had a bit of a resurgence on NBC’s Community, but I’m not entirely convinced he could carry a movie anymore, and Aykroyd has been busy beating the corpses of previous hits (Blues Brothers 2000, the continuously talked about Ghostbusters III).
It’s hard to approach news like this without caution given how their careers have been since their heyday. But people have surprised audiences before with out of nowhere comebacks so there’s a good chance Aykroyd and Chase could create something truly worthwhile. I’m just not going to get excited until I see something more substantial. Cops and Robbersons is still burrowed deep inside my psyche.
Are you excited for an Aykroyd/Chase collaboration? Do you think they have what it takes to make audiences laugh, or has their time past?