Posts with tag kevin heffernan
Interviews with 'Strange Wilderness' Stars Kevin Heffernan & Allen Covert
Filed under: Comedy », Casting », New Releases », Paramount », Scripts », Fox Searchlight », NSFW », Movie Marketing », Interviews »

Strange Wilderness is a new comedy starring Steve Zahn as the host of a wilderness television show with plummeting ratings. To increase viewership, he assembles a motley crew and sets out on an expedition to find Bigfoot. The cast includes Jonah Hill, Justin Long, Ashley Scott, Peter Dante, Jeff Garlin, and -- believe it or not -- Ernest Borgnine! The red band trailer for Wilderness just hit the internet. (Need a little incentive to check it out? There's nudity. You're welcome.) Cinematical spoke with two of the film's stars -- Kevin Heffernan (of Broken Lizard fame) and Allen Covert (pretty much every Adam Sandler movie, Grandma's Boy) -- about this film and their careers. First up is Kevin Heffernan...
Cinematical: Who do you play in the film?
Kevin Heffernan: I play a character named Whitaker. When they go out on this trip, they need to hire an animal wrangler. I'm a car mechanic and I have no animal wrangling experience. Basically, I'm just looking for a job. So I go and interview with them and I win the job but I have no knowledge of animals. I don't even like them that much really! It's got this great ensemble cast and some great cameos...
Cinematical: It does have such a great comedy cast, was improvisation encouraged on the set?
KH: Yeah man. The script was so good, I mean it was written by Fred Wolf and Peter Gaulke who have a lot of comedy writing experience, but it was just one of those kind of movies where there's always like six or seven people on the screen. And they left it free for us to do the improv stuff that we all love to do. So there were a lot of people going off, and they had to kind of pull you back to the script a little bit.
Broken Lizard Boys Ready 'The Slammin Salmon'
Filed under: Comedy », Casting », Fandom », Newsstand »
I'm conflicted on the Broken Lizard comedy troupe. I thought Super Troopers was pretty funny, but Club Dread was a complete disaster. Beerfest was extremely uneven, but had some really hilarious moments. So I approach their new project with a mixture of excitement and indifference I'm calling "indiffitement." The Slammin' Salmon will get all the Broken Lizard guys back together -- Kevin Heffernan, Jay Chandrasekhar, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske. Chandrasekhar typically directs Broken Lizard projects (and also did the dreaded Dukes of Hazzard), but this one will be helmed by Heffernan (he played Farva in Super Troopers), making his directorial debut.
According to Variety, the comedy will revolve around "a restaurant owner and former heavyweight champ who pits his wait staff against each other in a Glengarry Glen Ross - like competish." (Hey Variety, I love you -- you supply me with a lot of my movie news and for that I am grateful. But..."competish?" I like abbreves as much as the next guy, but writing out "competition" only takes two more strokes of the keyboard!) Sounds like it could be funny, and The Slammin' Salmon is certainly a title you don't forget. The gang is doing this film independently, to beat a potential Screen Actors' Guild strike. "We wanted to go back to our independent roots and get a project off the ground and into production quickly," says Heffernan. Expect Salmon to swim (upstream of course) into theaters next year.
Warner Bros. Loves Those Funny Fat Broken Lizard Guys
Filed under: Comedy », Casting », Deals », Warner Brothers », Fandom », Scripts », Newsstand »
Two members from the Broken Lizard comedy troupe are looking to go where plenty of people have gone before (storywise) with their latest spec script, Funny Fat Guy, which Warner Bros. has just picked up. Kevin Heffernan and Steve Lemme wrote the spec, while Heffernan is currently attached to star. However, while the two are known for being Lizards, Fat Guy will not be an official Broken Lizard-penned project. Oh drats -- after all, everyone knows how much I absolutely love all those Lizard flicks. Comedy gold, I tell ya.
Plot will revolve around your stereotypical funny fat guy (basically me in college) -- ya know, the guy who tells the best jokes, party's hard and always has your back. A great friend. A great teammate. Yet, the kind of dude who has the worst luck when it comes to the opposite sex. So, if you've seen films like Can't Buy Me Love or She's All That, then you know exactly where this one is heading -- at some point, the funny fat guy wants to transform himself into a ladies man ... but, I assume, with a Broken Lizard twist. Warner Bros. is all about The Lizard, as Heffernan is also set to star in The Baby Maker (Lizard-produced) for Warners and the troupe has Nutcraker, Ambulance Chasers and Take My Wife all set up at the studio.








