Armando Iannucci to make a comedy about superhero movies

[ajsmith2]

If I gave up on everyone who hadn't produced a funny, clever and successful film since 2017, there wouldn't be many people left.
Honestly! Who cares that he wrote some of the best Alan Partridge, much of The Day Today, The Thick Of It, In The Loop, Veep and Death of Stalin?
What's he done for me this week?
Nothing. So fuck him.

I mean, you could equally argue that it's because he did all that amazing stuff in the past that he gets a tough ride here. Also the Corbyn undermining/centrist stuff of course, though I'd rather not spin off onto that merry go round discussion wise but it's undeniably a factor.

I admit that esp after Avenue 5, the prospect of this project does have the immediate whiff of 'Armando flobs the weight of his name onto new designed by committee project he's not fully engaged with as he sinks further into the mists  of Hollywood cushioned irrelevance' about it, but I'd love my lazy cynicism to be blown apart by a right good show than proved correct.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

The last thing I enjoyed from Iannucci was Death Of Stalin, 5 years ago.


If I gave up on everyone who hadn't produced a funny, clever and successful film since 2017, there wouldn't be many people left.
Honestly! Who cares that he wrote some of the best Alan Partridge, much of The Day Today, The Thick Of It, In The Loop, Veep and Death of Stalin?
What's he done for me this week?
Nothing. So fuck him.

That's why I keep watching The Simpsons, even though it's been shit for seventeen years.

[Old Nehamkin]

I wonder what a second series of The Armando Iannucci Shows made today would be like. I guess the answer is probably "not that good", but it would be fascinating just to see him step in front of the camera again and do something with a personal focus after all these years doing the removed prestige showrunner thing. It would be interesting to see how the comic character version of Iannucci would interpret his life and the world around him in 2022 compared to 2001. I suppose I'm just curious about where exactly the guy's head is at these days.

[Stonefish]

A comedy showing behind the scenes of making a movie with billions of dollars on the line sounds like it has legs. The various tensions between creatives trying to please fans and executives trying to please accountants, the egos,  etc.

A while ago, possibly on Richard Herring's podcast I think Iannucci said he was working on something to do with AI/Robots. He didn't go in to detail but the premise was something like robots exist and common place but their AI is a bit shit. Never heard anything more about it though. Maybe with it being sci-fi some of the ideas evolved in to Avenue 5.

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

The Piers Morgan thing is so awful everyone else in the media must just have agreed never to mention it, like that Sun editor who went straight back to work after doing time for murdering his wife with an axe. Only a bit worse than that, obviously.

Who was this? I tried googling it and got absolutely nothing.

[Jack Shaftoe]

John Kay, although he didn't kill her with an axe, oops got that wrong, he drowned her in the bath. From wikipedia:

Manslaughter of first wife
In 1977, Kay killed his Japanese-born first wife, Harue (née Nonaka), by drowning her in the bath.[1] After several attempts to kill himself, the police found him in his car naked and covered in blood. He was arrested and charged with murder.[1][3]

Defended at trial by John Mathew QC, paid for by The Sun, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Mathew argued that Kay lacked confidence when going 'on the road' to interview people and said that prior to the incident, Kay suffered a nervous breakdown, locking himself in his hotel room shortly before the 1977 TUC Congress in Blackpool.[1] Returning home after the conference, Kay said he felt unable to resign because it would harm his career, but knew he was not capable of functioning as Industrial Editor either. He said that he announced to Harue that he was going to kill himself. After drowning her, he said he attempted to kill himself through several methods including hanging, jumping out of a window, and finally driving his car head-on into a bridge.[3][1]

The court accepted Kay's account of the events[1][16][17] and Sun editor Larry Lamb wrote a letter to St Albans Crown Court to say there would always be a job open for Kay with the newspaper.[18][2] The judge ordered Kay to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Friern Barnet.[2] After a spell of treatment he was taken back on by The Sun on condition that he be confined to the office.[1]

[McDead]

I wonder what a second series of The Armando Iannucci Shows made today would be like. I guess the answer is probably "not that good", but it would be fascinating just to see him step in front of the camera again and do something with a personal focus after all these years doing the removed prestige showrunner thing. It would be interesting to see how the comic character version of Iannucci would interpret his life and the world around him in 2022 compared to 2001. I suppose I'm just curious about where exactly the guy's head is at these days.

(Angry, confused Armando faces swirling around a central placid Armando face)

"Where is my head at? I voted Liberal Democrats numerous times, despite them being in a coalition with the Tory party. I helped to uphold the centrist-right wing alliance against British socialism. I've been to parties with russian oligarchs. I am friends with Alistair Campbell."

(One by one, the angry faces fade. Only the placid Armando face remains. he lols out his tongue. On it is the legend "Hello Hugh")

[Famous Mortimer]

If I gave up on everyone who hadn't produced a funny, clever and successful film since 2017, there wouldn't be many people left.
Honestly! Who cares that he wrote some of the best Alan Partridge, much of The Day Today, The Thick Of It, In The Loop, Veep and Death of Stalin?
What's he done for me this week?
Nothing. So fuck him.

Much like sport, it's always handy to give someone's recent performance more weight when analysing them - it's not terribly helpful to know that X had a great season in 2001 when predicting what their 2023 performance is going to be like.

Iannucci has made a lot of rubbish in recent years and expressed a lot of pretty crappy or poorly thought-out opinions, which leads me to believe the person who made the comedy that we love isn't coming back. 

[beanheadmcginty]

SupArmando and the SubMarina.

Can't think of ones for the other writers.

[Famous Mortimer]

(Angry, confused Armando faces swirling around a central placid Armando face)

"Where is my head at? I voted Liberal Democrats numerous times, despite them being in a coalition with the Tory party. I helped to uphold the centrist-right wing alliance against British socialism. I've been to parties with russian oligarchs. I am friends with Alistair Campbell."

"I accepted an OBE, to...er...help with my charity work"

[neveragain]

"I helped to uphold the centrist-right wing alliance against British socialism. I've been to parties with russian oligarchs. I am friends with Alistair Campbell."

I can really hear that in his Armando Iannucci Shows narration voice, particularly the last sentence.

[jobotic]

Hope there's a superhero called Queen Marina and she's brilliant.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

sounds super ^_^

[idunnosomename]

genuinely hate Alastair Campbell. makes my skin crawl what a disingenuous, belligerent, abusive, coercive, mendacious, nasty cunt piece of fucking dog dirt he is. yet it's ok to retweet him if you want politics to be sensible again

[undeliberated]

The real superhero is Jeremy Corbyn and I won't watch Tory Armando Iannucci make fun of him.
:(
I am organizing a tweet thread against this please rally comrades to help.

[Ferris]

Reckon this will be brill!!

[McDead]

The real superhero is Jeremy Corbyn and I won't watch Tory Armando Iannucci make fun of him.
:(
I am organizing a tweet thread against this please rally comrades to help.

You must do what you think is right, of course.

[Twit 2]

Armando is a cunt for all time for accepting knighthood.

[idunnosomename]

i just sat on armando's face and farted on it

[ajsmith2]

When is he gonna star in a comedic Peter Molyneux biopic.

[BlodwynPig]

Hello Hugh: The Movie!

[BlodwynPig]

Took the yank dollar and the establishment gong and sold us all down the river.

[thugler]

When is he gonna star in a comedic Peter Molyneux biopic.

This would genuinely be brilliant.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

John Kay, although he didn't kill her with an axe, oops got that wrong, he drowned her in the bath. From wikipedia:

whaaaat. adding wiki's section on his death

Kay died at a nursing home in Hertford on 7 May 2021 after a fall.[3][8][15] Upon his death, The Sun published a two-page spread calling him "the greatest journalist of his generation" and "everybody's mate",[18] and a Daily Telegraph obituary described him as the "brilliant Sun chief reporter famed for his scoops, exposés and effortless mastery of tabloid-speak",[19][15] while Tom Newton Dunn wrote a piece for the Evening Standard criticising Sir Keir Starmer for prosecuting Kay on bribery charges in 2015,[19][20] all without touching on his manslaughter conviction (The Sun and Evening Standard added mentions of the killing to the obituaries after initial publication).[19]

EVERYBODY'S MATE

[BritishHobo]

It really is going to be difficult for this to tackle superhero culture better than The Boys currently is, both in terms of the piss-taking of franchise-building and the satire of corporate monopolies and the rise of fascism in American politics.

[Replies From View]

It is partly a comedy, unless you see a man fucking an octopus as very serious, and it satirises the some of the things this show will be.

Popeye the Movie had an incredible octopus-punching sequence, which I sincerely hope isn't overlooked in this new Iannucci project.

[idunnosomename]

Sure you have The Boys with its fancy ultraviolence and dark satire, but the real one to beat is My Hero and the classic comedy character Thermoman

[Jack Shaftoe]

'I've seen SuperTed are they like that?'

[Mister Six]

Ha ha ha they're standing in front of a greenscreen wearing a funny spandex costume! Hilarious!

The talent list is kind of mystifying. Sam Mendes has done a wide range of work from Shakespeare to James Bond, but nothing involving superheroes or comedy. Iannucci doesn't particularly have a record in this area either, although he's certainly done a wide range of stuff too.

No idea what Marina Hyde is bringing to this, and I never saw Siblings. I'm one of the few people here who liked Dead Pixels, but horny gamers in bedrooms trying to negotiate basic adult tasks don't obviously relate to Hollywood actors. Online gaming and superheroes are not the same thing.

Do any of them have any sympathy, knowledge, or understanding of superheroes? Or are they just going to make jokes about Robert Downey Jr and The Incredible Hulk?

Nobody who worked on The Thick of It was an MP, so it must be rubbish. And Mike Judge never ran a start-up tech company, so Silicon Valley is surely terrible. And don't get me started on Chris Morris's lack of commitment to jihad!

Since it's about the making of a superhero movie rather than an actual superhero movie, the satire is presumably aimed at the studios, actors and development process, not the films themselves.

I'm still not holding my breath that this will be good, because as mentioned above the last really good thing Iannucci did was Death of Stalin ages ago, but I'll keep my fingers crossed all the same.

[Ferris]

whaaaat. adding wiki's section on his death

EVERYBODY'S MATE

Well, there was that one person he didn't get on with but that's the exception that proves the rule.

(Christ, that's astonishing.)