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By Greg Ellwood
Special to MSN Movies
Isn't it appropriate that a near-miracle occurred during the filming of Harold Ramis' new biblical comedy, "Year One"?
With studios always looking for the best tax incentives they can find, Sony
Pictures set up production of the Middle Eastern-set story in, of all places,
Shreveport, La. And, stunningly, it worked! Along with a group of other online
journalists, MSN Movies walked through the recreated desert-set city of Sodom
that will be the scene of temptation for the movie's main characters, Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera). Granted, the studio had to ship in
tons of sand to make the sets believable, and it's been an unusually chilly
Louisiana spring for the story's warm locale. But Ramis got his massive sets at
a price the studio could support, and moviegoers will no doubt never know the
difference. What the locals think of all the extras running around in turbans
and robes is another matter.
"One" is the first directorial effort from Ramis since 2005's dark comedy "The Ice Harvest," and is being produced by the most powerful
man in comedy these days, Judd Apatow (an admitted longtime fan of Ramis). The
movie could prove tough to market, but it may reflect a return to greatness for
the filmmaker who brought us "Caddyshack," "Groundhog Day" and "Analyze This." Literally occurring during year "one"
of history, the movie is in the vein of "Monty Python's Life of Brian," and places our heroes,
"hunter-gatherers" Zed and Oh, in or around famous events from the Bible's Old
Testament.
The day of our visit, Ramis is shooting a scene in which Oh, a
Sodom slave at this juncture, is being ordered around by a guard to work harder
on the building of a massive temple structure. Ramis describes the Bible's
temptation-of-fruit lesson as the catalyst for the film's plot.
"Jack is the laziest hunter-gatherer in the tribe, and they have one rule in
the tribe: You can't eat that fruit," Ramis explains. "As part of his seduction
of [June Diane Raphael] he eats the fruit and she gets to eat the fruit. He's
expelled from the tribe, which sets him off on this journey. The first people
they meet are Cain and Abel, and they travel with Cain for a while. They run
into Abraham later, and then Abraham warns them about Sodom. Every awful thing
he says about Sodom sounds very good to them." And off they go, to the first Sin
City.
Ramis explains that he isn't sure if the Old Testament is funnier than the
New Testament, but it's certainly full of dysfunctional characters (and
families), making it easier to explore.
"Somehow, when we tell Bible stories to kids, they turn out to be little
morality tales, but they're not! You read the Old Testament, and people, they're
more than flawed. They do some terrible things to each other, and there are no
happy endings. There are no resolutions," Ramis says. "I also noticed that
everyone's on a journey. They've either been expelled from somewhere or exiled
or they're fleeing from something or they're out seeking something in the world. (Story Continues On Next Page...) |
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