The first still from the upcoming comedy
Bad Teacher has
arrived online, a simple three-shot of the films stars;
Cameron Diaz as the titular foul-mouthed teacher,
Jason Segel a sarcastic gym teacher who takes a shine to her and
Justin Timberlake as a millionaire who Diaz hopes will free her from scholastic drudgery. If all that sounds a little tepid, fair enough, but the film is helmed by one of the most under-rated directors working at the moment;
Jake Kasdan. Kasdan made his debut with the highly over-looked, masterful detective comedy
Zero Efffect starring Ben Stiller and Bill Pullman, riffing off of Sherlock Holmes whilst Downey Jr was still in rehab and Benedict Cumberbatch was studying at drama school. After four years in TV land (working on
Freaks and Geeks among others) Kasdan returned with the surprisingly hilarious teen comedy
Orange County that peppered its tightly edited running time with wonderful cameos for the likes of Lily Tomlin, Chevy Chase, Ben Stiller and in a spot of perfect casting Kevin Kline. His next feature
The TV Set barely registered, I think heading DTV over here, but its a smart, funny satire of television production starring a downtrodden David Duchovny and a deliciously bitchy Sigourney Weaver. After that Kasdan helmed the much-hyped Walk the Line-spoof
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, but I havent seen that, so cant comment. Bad Teacher whilst sounding like the start of a Bad Santa franchise comes from The American Office scribes
Gene Stupinitsky and
Lee Eisenberg, who were sadly also responsible for Year One and have been beavering away, seemingly forever on Ghostbusters III. Diaz is always a game performer, and hopefully this film will have a script littered with delightfully offensive barbs in much the same way as the potty-mouthed Role Models did. Fingers crossed Timberlake can prove his chops beyond The Social Network and though Jason Segel is a dependable comic performer theres a danger hes lazily snuggling into a mold, or just coasting along until he gets to work with some more Muppets! Bad Teacher opens on June 24th. Make sure you attend on time.