Seth Rogen Can’t Market Johnny Knoxville and Josh Hutcherson’s Diarrhea Zombies in ‘The Studio’
No movie theaters want to run the trailer for Johnny Knoxville and Josh Hutcherson’s dark satire, Duhpocalypse. Their reluctance could have something to do with the undead opponents they battle in the clip when they encounter zombies with explosive diarrhea. That’s where Seth Rogen comes in, and the trailer inception begins: Duhpocalypse is the latest fake film being pushed by the fake movie studio at the center of The Studio, Rogen’s forthcoming Apple TV+ series premiering March 26.
“I definitely want that diarrhea explosion in the trailer,” Rogen insists during a meeting at Continental Studios. He’s the newly-appointed head of the studio, and he’s inheriting what Kathryn Hahn’s character refers to as a “trailer crisis.”
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How do you market a movie about zombies with violent dysentery without showing Hutcherson getting “dooked,” wondering if he’s going to die, and Knoxville speeding up the process with a sword? “Are we losing the point of the film in the comedy?” Knoxville asks the boardroom. “We made a dark satire about medical disinformation, and I don’t want that to get lost.”
They could take some notes from The Studio itself. Earlier this year, Rogen and Catherine O’Hara attended the Golden Globes to boast about all of the fake awards they won for films that don’t exist. “Catherine won not one, but two Golden Antlers for her work as Mama Morissette in the Alanis Morissette story,” Rogen joked before O’Hara added, “What about you and your brave Golden Antler win for your turn as young Ryan, yes, in Gosling, the Ryan Gosling unauthorized biopic?”
The Studio stars Rogen, Hahn, O’Hara, Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders, Bryan Cranston, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, and Dewayne Perkins. A synopsis for the series reads: “Desperate for the approval of celebrities, he and his team of executives at Continental Studios must juggle corporate demands with creative ambitions as they try to keep movies alive and relevant.”
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