While out doing the press rounds for In The Loop on its US release, comedy kingpin Armando Iannucci let slip that he was hard at work on several projects, not the least of which was a new film, cryptically titled Out the Window.Well, now thanks to an interview in The Guardian, we have some more details on what the film will actually be about.
Written with regular collaborators Will Smith (no, not that one) and Roger Drew, Out the Window is what Iannucci describes as “a slapstick comedy in the tradition of early Woody Allen." It is not, in case you were wondering, a biopic of Dickens starring the Will Smith better known for Wicky Wicky Wild Wild West, Men in Black and having talented sprogs. “This is how the internet works," says Iannucci in the interview. "The BBC put out a story on its website saying that I was writing a film with Will and Roger. Absolutely true. It added that Will was also working on a biopic about Charles Dickens. Again true. Then the story came out on some website in the States that I was directing a biopic with Will Smith, the American movie star rather than the British comedy writer, as Dickens."
And now for the truth... "It's the story of a guy who works in a glass-fronted office building and one day he scratches his armpit. Somebody films it, puts it on YouTube with a soundtrack of monkey noises. It ruins his life. So this guy spends the rest of the film trying to track down the bastard who made him known the world over as Scratchy Monkey."
Plus, in possibly even more exciting news (provided the mere mention of the phrase “A-Haaa!” gets you giddy with anticipation), he’s also been slightly busy editing the Alan Partridge film, one that does not see Norwich’s finest broadcaster striking out for the States. "Taking Alan to the US wouldn't have been a good idea. Alan's thing is that he's delusional in imagining his future is brighter than it ever will be. He keeps expecting that, because Keith Chegwin and Tony Blackburn have been brought back to national consciousness with reality TV, that he is destined to return too. But he hasn't had that call."
Provided the script works and Coogan’s on form, it can be Alan on Mars for all we care. Can. Not. Wait.