Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.
22.12.2021 - 19:47 / variety.com
David Wallace-Wells Guest ColumnistFor Variety‘s Writers on Writers, David Wallace-Wells pens a tribute to “Don’t Look Up” (screenplay Adam McKay).Parables are hard, which is why the best ones tend not to play like parables at all. Light comedy about the end of the world isn’t exactly easy, either, but “Don’t Look Up” delivers that, too.In retrospect, at least, we now know Adam McKay’s early movies were about much more than they seemed to be about at first.
Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.
Long before he directed “Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy,” a movie that shaped the sensibility of 2000’s screen comedy to an immeasurable degree, Adam McKay was already schooled in the art of making people laugh. As a young man, the Denver-born McKay cut his teeth at venerated Chicago comedy institutions, like Second City, IO, and Upright Citizens Brigade.
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet seen “Don’t Look Up.”At the beginning of Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up,” Michigan State astronomy grad student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers that a comet is heading toward Earth, and will cause an extinction-level-event for the entire planet in a little over six months: something she duly reports to her professor, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio).
Leonardo DiCaprio has been an outspoken environmental advocate for as long as he’s been famous. But while he’s produced documentaries, contributed millions to the cause through his foundation, sat on several relevant boards and even used his Oscar speech to talk about climate change, the topic has never overlapped with his acting work.It wasn’t for lack of trying: He just couldn’t find the right fit.
Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorJoe Wright — the director of serious period pieces such as “Atonement,” “Anna Karenina” and “Darkest Hour” — would like to set the record straight. He loves Adam McKay’s comedies.
Are filmgoers ready for Don’t Look Up? It’s a star-laden satire dealing with hot topics of the moment – everything from the climate crisis to media disarray and the firings of news anchors.
Charles Randolph is reuniting with Adam McKay, with whom he won a 2016 Academy Award for co-writing the screenplay for “The Big Short,” for an HBO limited series about the global coronavirus vaccine race.Randolph is joining the untitled project — which has been in the development stage at the pay TV channel since July 2020, when the hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine was still ongoing — as its writer and will executive produce alongside McKay.Based on the books, “The First Shot” by Brendan Borrell and
Kate Aurthur editorFor Variety’s FYC Fest, screenwriters Aaron Sorkin (“Being the Ricardos”), Paolo Sorrentino (“The Hand of God”), Adam McKay (“Don’t Look Up”), Tracey Scott Wilson (“Respect”) and Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”) gathered virtually to discuss their own individual movies, as well as the state of the film business.McKay kicked off the conversation by talking about how he’d adjusted “Don’t Look Up” — his Netflix comedy-tragedy about a comet hurtling toward Earth — because of COVID-19,
Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t want Meryl Streep stripping down in their film "Don’t Look Up." The claim was made by the film’s director, Adam McKay, who said the actor, 47, felt the actress, 72, was too much of an icon to go nude in front of cameras for the comedy. Streep stars as President Janie Orlean, who is seen naked from behind in one scene.
HBO’s newly released trailer for the show “Winning Time.” “Winning Time” will debut its 10-episode first season sometime next March.
Will Ferrell faced quite the scare on the set of "Anchorman 2," according to the film's director Adam McKay. The two collaborated on "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" in 2013, following up on the film's successful 2004 predecessor.The two flicks followed fictional and outrageous newscaster Ron Burgundy, played by the famed "Saturday Night Live" alum.
(now ex-) friend Will Ferrell on the set of their 2013 comedy film, “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.”The “Don’t Look Up” director, 53, explained to the Hollywood Reporter in a profile about his career and was asked about his thoughts on “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ untimely death in October.
Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards, Features EditorThe first time Adam McKay met Meryl Streep to discuss “Don’t Look Up,” he was momentarily intimidated. But Streep quickly put him at ease — until McKay’s phone rang, and his ringtone was the theme from “The Deer Hunter.”“It’s a stunning piece of music!” McKay says with a laugh, saying he was just looking for something beautiful for his phone.
The first trailer for Adam McKay’s upcoming Lakers scripted series was released by HBO on Thursday.
Will Ferrell nearly died on the set of 2013’s “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.”
Over the past week or so, there have been multiple stories about the reasons behind the professional breakup of producing partners, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. The duo created the popular production company, Gary Sanchez, to only eventually go their separate ways.
Plenty of ink has been spilled on the evolution (or, depending on who you’re talking to, de-evolution) of Adam McKay, who has gone from the “Saturday Night Live” writers room to the auteur of such likably goofy Will Ferrell vehicles as “Anchorman” and “Talladega Nights” to the Oscar-winning purveyor of message movies like “The Big Short” and “Vice.” His critics, and there are plenty of them, have accused McKay of committing the ultimate crime for a comic artist: taking himself too seriously,