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Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Team Up for Romantic Comedy Parody

by Ethan Anderton
May 9, 2012
Source: Variety

On the NBC comedy series "Parks & Recreation" there's been an interesting race for a City Council position between series lead Leslie Knope, played by Amy Poehler, and Bobby Newport, guest star Paul Rudd, and it's been fantastic. However, it sounds like the two will also be seen together on the big screen for the first time since Wet Hot American Summer in 2001 (which also has a sequel coming sometime down the road). Variety reports Rudd and Poehler will lead They Came Together, a romantic comedy parody from Role Models director David Wain, who also helmed the aforementioned summer camp comedy parody.

The story follows Joel (Rudd) and Molly (Poehler) who meet and have nothing but contempt for each other as Joel's big corporation is the one that threatens to shut down Molly's quirky knick-knack store. Yep, that's You've Got Mail in there, and the rest of the film will parody the predictable on-again/off-again relationship of the two would-be lovers and features all the typical romantic comedy cliches like "the jealous ex-girlfriend, the office jerk, scary in-laws, a boring dentist, a wise dog and beautiful shots of New York City in autumn." Rudd and Poehler actually participated in a table read of the script at the San Franciso Sketchfest in January as it was written shortly after Wet Hot American Summer, but never got made.

Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd would have appeared in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy together, but the former's footage ended up on the cutting room floor before being tossed into Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, the DVD extra released sometime ago. Frankly, this sounds like a much better reunion as the script also comes from Wain and his longtime collaborator, friend, Stella stand-up cohort and Wet Hot American Summer co-writer Michael Showalter. The two appear in each other's movies along with Michael Ian Black (the third member of Stella), and Rudd has actually been in all of Wain's movies.

The latter writer also directed his own romantic comedy, The Baxter (watch it on Netflix Instant), which lays with the romantic comedy genre to great effect. This sounds like it has the potential to be another great comedy from Wain, who needs to redeem himself a bit after Wanderlust wasn't all that impressive. The question is whether or not we'll have a bit of a Wet Hot American Summer reunion with this film before that gestating sequel gets off the ground. Surely Ken Marino, Kerri Kenney, Jo LoTruglio and other regulars from The State improv troupe will show up, but there's likely plenty room for other talent to show up in some capacity. Finally, the genre will get a proper send-up from a great group of comedians.

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