Margaret here with your update on comedy greenlights. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, stars of the eponymous highly-rated Comedy Central sketch show, are making time in their busy schedule of routinely putting SNL to shame to produce and star in their first joint film project.They just inked a deal with New Line to make Keanu. No, it's not the long-overdue biopic following the rise and fall of the actor who brought us Neo, Ted "Theodore" Logan, and a very Sad Meme. The script, penned by Peele and Community writer Alex Rubens, follows two friends who pretend to be drug dealers to get back a stolen cat (named, you guessed it, Keanu). Peter Atencio, veteran director of Key & Peele, is in talks to direct, and production is slated to begin in April. Says Peele:
"The movie should resonate with a large audience as almost everyone has had a house pet stolen by a street gang, right?"
He also reassured fans that no K&P characters will be harmed in the making of the film. That will have to be left for another planned movie project in the pipeline, a spinoff of the popular sketch Mr. Garvey, Substitute Teacher. They've also signed on to produce a Police Academy reboot, and are attached to an untitled Judd Apatow production.
The dynamic comedy duo have been working together for about fifteen years, from Chicago's Second City to several seasons of MadTV to supplying a welcome oasis of humor in this year's brutally dry Emmy telecast, and they've got their chemistry down to a science. They've got a formidable arsenal of incisive humor and devastatingly funny physical bits, plus a love of the movies:
It's always exciting when fresh comedy voices get a major platform. Since every sketch comedy star who has taken a shot at the big screen has without exception met with critical raves and great financial success, this has to be a slam dunk, right? Do you think that Key & Peele can become our next bankable comic movie stars?