A Futile and Stupid Gesture

The influential magazine that launched the careers of some of the most famous comedians of their era. Does the movie live up to their genius?

For his next project, filmmaker David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer, They Came Together) is doing something he’s never tried before: Telling a story about real people and actual events. And based on the first trailer for A Futile and Stupid Gesture, you can see why. The film, which premieres next month at Sundance, explores the life of National Lampoon founder and Animal House co-writer Doug Kenney, and as such, involves a ton of the silly, juvenile humor that Wain loves.

Just the other day, National Lampoon seemed reborn as 2015 documentary Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon spawned an A+E scripted TV series. One small hitch, however, as the real National Lampoon isn’t too happy about the association, saying “A+E has no rights; they can’t say ‘National Lampoon’ at all.”

David Wain is assembling quite the cast for A Futile and Stupid Gesture, his new National Lampoon biopic for Netflix, which is set to begin filming sometime this month. In addition to casting Joel McHale as Chevy Chase (particularly inspired given their Community connection), Wain has landed comedian Jon Daly as Bill Murray and Seth Green as mockumentary king Christopher Guest.

Forget that crazy-expensive David Ayer-Will Smith fantasy-action buddy cop project — David Wain’s National Lampoon origin movie is the most exciting original feature brewing over at Netflix right now. And now that the casting process has begun, things are getting even more interesting for the film, as Joel McHale and Broad City’s John Gemberling have landed two very iconic roles, playing Chevy Chase and John Belushi, respectively.