20th Century FoxMike Judge doesn't have the best luck. Despite creating two of the most successful animated comedy shows in TV history - Beavis & Butthead and King Of The Hull - he hasn't been able to parlay that magic touch to his big screen outings, his workplace classic Office Space becoming a sleeper hit on home video, and the recent Extract failing to alight the box office despite a wonderfully weird and dark premise coupled with a cast that included comedy stalwarts Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig and, um, Ben Affleck in a dodgy wig. The biggest bungle of Judge's filmmaking career, however, was the fate of his 2006 effort Idiocracy. It's not surprising, really, why 20th Century Fox would be anxious about throwing their full weight behind the movie. A darkly satirical look at the future of American culture, the film saw Luke Wilson's army corporal and Maya Rudolph's prostitute put in suspended animation, only to wake up five hundred years later when America looks a bit different to how they left it. As in, the average IQ has dropped to the point that the president is a professional wrestler, Gatorade has replaced water, and Starbucks has become a drive-through massage parlour. With a general misanthropic disdain for his fellow countrymen and some particularly sharp takedowns of huge corporations like Costco - plus a shot at the falling quality of the film industry with the Oscar-winning Ass: The Movie (a 90 minute shot of a bare bottom) - Fox were less than impressed with the finished product Judge handed over. Finished in 2005, Idiocracy had its release date pushed back repeatedly before being released in seven cities, expanding eventually to 130 theatres nationwide - compared to the usual 600+ for most films - and the studio released no movie trailers, no ads, and no press kits. Which is pretty idiotic, fittingly.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
20th Century FoxMike Judge doesn't have the best luck. Despite creating two of the most successful animated comedy shows in TV history - Beavis & Butthead and King Of The Hull - he hasn't been able to parlay that magic touch to his big screen outings, his workplace classic Office Space becoming a sleeper hit on home video, and the recent Extract failing to alight the box office despite a wonderfully weird and dark premise coupled with a cast that included comedy stalwarts Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig and, um, Ben Affleck in a dodgy wig. The biggest bungle of Judge's filmmaking career, however, was the fate of his 2006 effort Idiocracy. It's not surprising, really, why 20th Century Fox would be anxious about throwing their full weight behind the movie. A darkly satirical look at the future of American culture, the film saw Luke Wilson's army corporal and Maya Rudolph's prostitute put in suspended animation, only to wake up five hundred years later when America looks a bit different to how they left it. As in, the average IQ has dropped to the point that the president is a professional wrestler, Gatorade has replaced water, and Starbucks has become a drive-through massage parlour. With a general misanthropic disdain for his fellow countrymen and some particularly sharp takedowns of huge corporations like Costco - plus a shot at the falling quality of the film industry with the Oscar-winning Ass: The Movie (a 90 minute shot of a bare bottom) - Fox were less than impressed with the finished product Judge handed over. Finished in 2005, Idiocracy had its release date pushed back repeatedly before being released in seven cities, expanding eventually to 130 theatres nationwide - compared to the usual 600+ for most films - and the studio released no movie trailers, no ads, and no press kits. Which is pretty idiotic, fittingly.