Larry Charles, director of Borat and a writer and producer for Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, is teaming up with comedian Bill Maher (HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher) for a new film about God and religion. Their goal: make it funny.
To quote Variety, quoting Maher: "this movie will make you laugh so hard you'll pray for it to stop."
Maher and Charles traveled throughout the Middle East, interviewing people to try and find humor amongst the tragedy. It was undoubtedly a rough undertaking, but the result was hundreds of hours of footage that Maher and Charles are currently paring down to a feature-length film.
Squeezing humor out of religion is nothing new, but what's different about this approach is that they're actually confronting individuals, not just sitting around cracking jokes. If done right, I think the film could be both entertaining and enlightening.
I also couldn't help but think of Albert Brooks' film Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, a fictional movie in which Brooks travels abroad to see how American humor plays in foreign lands. I liked Brooks film, but I don't think it provided any great revelations. A more raw and uncensored approach seems like a better idea.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-13-2007 @ 11:11AM
Jim said...
Good luck, Larry. Making Bill Maher funny is a tall order.
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7-13-2007 @ 11:21AM
Junyo said...
Why does every single celebrity on the planet suddenly feel the need to make a documentary? Does Bill Maher think that voiceovers, and long still shots with camels in the background and a call to pray soundtrack will give his half baked God screeds gravitas?
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7-13-2007 @ 11:42AM
amIHere? said...
bill maher should like the middle east. i think the legal age of consent is 12
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7-13-2007 @ 12:17PM
Borat said...
I think Maher is a pompous ass, but his show is definitely one of the most informative shows on TV (biased of course...but that's expected).
His disdain for the Middle East clearly shows so it would be interesting to see this. Plus Larry Charles has always been involved with genius work.
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7-13-2007 @ 12:47PM
Jose said...
Maher won't touch Islam, he's too afraid of reprisal. Look what happened to Theo Van Gogh and Ayan Hirsi Ali.
Much easier to go after Christians, they don't fight back.
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7-13-2007 @ 6:42PM
MacGuffin said...
Maher makes the distinction between God (which he acknowledges exists) and Religion.
"Religion" is the problem in this world. All of them.
God is still great.
And so will this special be, especially if you generally like Maher's POV.
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