From The Hollywood Reporter:
Armando Iannucci, the British comic and satirist behind Emmy-winning HBO show Veep and its U.K. predecessor The Thick of It, has revealed that his next project will see him move into previously unchartered cinematic territories.
“It’s a sort of comedy about the death of Stalin,” he told an audience at London’s British Film Institute, where he introduced Woody Allen’s 1980 comedy-drama Starlight Memories as part of a series in which filmmakers discuss films that have inspired them.
Without going into detail on the upcoming comedy, Iannucci — who directed and co-wrote 2009’s political comedy In the Loop — added that the Stalin “sort of comedy” would be a film rather than a TV project, and that it was still very much in the planning stages.
At first blush, this might seem to add to the “Hollywood is out of ideas…” conversation but at least this isn’t the seventieth reboot of a Marvel franchise.
Any subject matter can be made humorous if deftly handled by a skilled comedy writer, even the death of a mass murderer. The older readers will remember that Hogan’s Heroes was a sitcom about a Nazi POW camp. That show ran in an era where people were still capable of suspension of disbelief and not as easily offended as the delicate souls of the digital age, however.
Kudos to Iannucci for thinking outside the box and really, really putting his skills to the test. Until we get to see if he was successful or not, here’s a little something from the mind of Mel Brooks to hold you over:
https://youtu.be/kHmYIo7bcUw
Join the conversation as a VIP Member