Hearts of Darkness x Apocalypse Now = Tropic Thunder

While the studios begin drowning moviegoers with blockbuster fair as early as the month of May, you’d think that the moth of August would be dryer than a well in Arizona. Well the pre-Toronto and Venice Film Festival month of August is becoming an important 30 days to showcase end of the summer entertainment and tagged with an August 15th release date is Dreamworks Tropic Thunder. Having just released the film’s trailer (watch it here), I’m feeling that this well-planned execution marketing campaign will attract the masses who not enjoy the Stiller/Black comedy shticks but also movie lovers at heart. You can’t help but think about Francis Ford Coppola’s heart attack inducing effort back in 79. The trailer indeed presents an over-the-top behind the scenes making of war film – exaggerated and spoofed by a Ben Stiller who has been making fun of movies and movie stars from yesteryear for quite some
time now (see Tom Cruise bit below).

Based on an original script by Stiller, Etan Cohen and
Justin Theroux, this is about the making of a big-budget war movie where
everything that can go wrong does, and where the actors end up becoming the
commandos they are playing. Black will play Jeff “Fats” Portnoy, an overweight
gross-out comedian, who’s forced to kick his drug addiction while filming on
location in the jungle. Downey Jr. will play Kirk Lazarus, the greatest actor of
his generation and a four-time Oscar winner.