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Judd Apatow and Bill Hader's Slasher Titled House of Joel

by Brandon Lee Tenney
April 1, 2009

A while back we teased the possibility of actor Bill Hader and comedy mastermind Judd Apatow teaming up to do a slasher film. Well, the latest is in and according to CHUD, the project, now titled House of Joel, is moving along nicely with the Apatow gang and Universal on board. Hader co-wrote the script with SNL scribe Simon Rich, and Hader said he would play the titular character Joel himself. The premise of House of Joel surrounds the contemporary state of television violence and how violence in our culture is so prevalent. There aren't a lot of new details, but it's still something that should interest Apatow and Hader fans.

Basically, the film is about a group of "dipshit friends" who are forced to deal with the the type of violence they've only seen on TV in their real lives and what they end up doing about it. Though details are still spotty at this point and the project doesn't have a solid timeline for production, if it should happen at all, just the inkling that Apatow is actively entertaining Hader's script is exciting. And it's sounding like the slasher genre will be seeing its fair share of subversive commentary in the near future, with both this film and Whedon's Cabin in the Woods on the horizon for 2010. Apatow, Hader, slasher -- excited?

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Al

is it legit though, or a spoof?
d

Might be good.
L

Hader is one of the worst actors to appear since Brenden Fraiser. He single handedly destroyed Superbad for me
Roberto Dinamite

HAHAHA! NICE ONE!! you guys almost got me! HAPPY APRIL FOOLS!
http://letsbefriendsagain.com/ chrishaley

I'm happy to see anything featuring Bill Hader, and as weird as this combination sounds on paper, I think it's going to be great.
Buzz

I just heard Hader talking about this on a podcast with Bill Simmons, and he pitches it a lot better than this article. To answer Al, I guess it's somewhere in between being legit and being a spoof. He said that it's not going to be like Scary Movie, so not so much of a spoof there. But obviously with Hader and Apatow, it won't be a slasher that takes itself too seriously. It's supposed to be a real story about what would happen if the people in today's society (over stimulated by violence, fascinated with GTA and movies like SAW) actually had something like that happen to them? What would be the "real life" response. I love Bill Hader, so I'm definitely excited.
sampson

Most interesting info from the Bill Simmons interview is that Bill Hader admits to borrowing his Vincent Price impression. He credits Dana Gould for the inspiration, but conveniently omits the LA comedian he actually lifted it from in 2005, James Adomian (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27trGnc6j0A). He auditioned for SNL with Hader and used to do shows with him. Cutthroat business, comedy!