Official Movie Website Theatrical Release 01/26/07 Home Video Not Available MPAA Rating Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language and some comic violence Running Time 1 hour 26 minutes Genre Comedy Director Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer Writer Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer Cast Kal Penn, Adam Campbell, Jennifer Coolidge Studio 20th Century Fox |
EPIC MOVIE
SYNOPSIS
EPIC MOVIE is big. Really big. It’s a movie of, well,
epic proportions.
We know…because we measured.
The story centers on four not-so-young orphans: one
reared by a curator at the Louvre (where an albino
assassin lurks); another, a refugee from Mexican
“libre” wrestling; the third a recent victim of snakes
on her plane; and the fourth a “normal” resident of a
mutant “X”-community. The hapless quartet visits a
chocolate factory, where they stumble into an
enchanted wardrobe that transports them to the
land of Gnarnia (with a silent “G”). There they meet a
flamboyant pirate captain and earnest students of
wizardry – and join forces with, among others, a
wise-but-horny lion to defeat the evil White Bitch of
Gnarnia.
EPIC MOVIE comes from the new masters of the
parody genre – Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer –
who now set their parodic sights on the largest
genre of them all: Hollywood’s big-budget, special
effects-laden, blockbuster franchise films. After
successfully skewering the scary movie and
romantic comedy franchises as two of the six
writers of “Scary Movie,” and as the writers/director
of “Date Movie,” the duo now focus on this untapped
EPIC MOVIE is big. Really big. It’s a movie of, well,
epic proportions.
We know…because we measured.
The story centers on four not-so-young orphans: one
reared by a curator at the Louvre (where an albino
assassin lurks); another, a refugee from Mexican
“libre” wrestling; the third a recent victim of snakes
on her plane; and the fourth a “normal” resident of a
mutant “X”-community. The hapless quartet visits a
chocolate factory, where they stumble into an
enchanted wardrobe that transports them to the
land of Gnarnia (with a silent “G”). There they meet a
flamboyant pirate captain and earnest students of
wizardry – and join forces with, among others, a
wise-but-horny lion to defeat the evil White Bitch of
Gnarnia.
EPIC MOVIE comes from the new masters of the
parody genre – Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer –
who now set their parodic sights on the largest
genre of them all: Hollywood’s big-budget, special
effects-laden, blockbuster franchise films. After
successfully skewering the scary movie and
romantic comedy franchises as two of the six
writers of “Scary Movie,” and as the writers/director
of “Date Movie,” the duo now focus on this untapped
© 2003 St. Louis Movie Review Weekly. All rights reserved, except where indicated.
All movie titles, pictures, etc...are the property of their respective studios.
All movie titles, pictures, etc...are the property of their respective studios.
| ST. LOUIS MOVIE REVIEW WEEKLY |
niche – Hollywood’s summer and fall tentpoles - proving once again that they are proud of being “first to
be second.”
For the last thirty years, from “Airplane” to “Hot Shots” to “Scary Movie,” parodic comedies have focused
on specific movie genres. With the studios’ ongoing deluge of summer and holiday blockbusters
becoming the norm, writers/directors Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer felt the time was ripe to expand
the scope of genre parodies to include recent action films, comic book films, and children’s fantasy films.
The idea for the film came to Friedberg and Seltzer while they were making “Date Movie” with producer
Paul Schiff. “We had so much fun making that movie we didn’t want to stop, so we came up with another
one,” says Schiff. “We were just brainstorming and talking about targets of opportunities ripe for
parodies.”
Friedberg and Seltzer decided to build the framework for the film around the general plot of “The
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” Thus was born the characters of Edward,
Peter, Susan and Lucy – four unrelated orphans in search of their homes, who are magically transported
into the fantasy world of Gnarnia (“with a G, like Gnarly”), where they meet The White Bitch (Jennifer
Coolidge), and her team of assistants and assassins. Along the way they meet numerous incarnations of
characters from recent tentpole films.
“We just like these movies and thought they’d be great movies to ridicule,” says Aaron Seltzer. “Like ‘The
Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Superman’ and ‘X-Men’ and ‘Nacho Libre.’ It just seemed like fun to parody them all,
using ‘Narnia’ as the broad outline, and then it just stemmed from there.”
©2007 by Regency Entertainment (USA), Inc. and Monarchy Enterprises S.a.r.l. All rights reserved.
be second.”
For the last thirty years, from “Airplane” to “Hot Shots” to “Scary Movie,” parodic comedies have focused
on specific movie genres. With the studios’ ongoing deluge of summer and holiday blockbusters
becoming the norm, writers/directors Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer felt the time was ripe to expand
the scope of genre parodies to include recent action films, comic book films, and children’s fantasy films.
The idea for the film came to Friedberg and Seltzer while they were making “Date Movie” with producer
Paul Schiff. “We had so much fun making that movie we didn’t want to stop, so we came up with another
one,” says Schiff. “We were just brainstorming and talking about targets of opportunities ripe for
parodies.”
Friedberg and Seltzer decided to build the framework for the film around the general plot of “The
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” Thus was born the characters of Edward,
Peter, Susan and Lucy – four unrelated orphans in search of their homes, who are magically transported
into the fantasy world of Gnarnia (“with a G, like Gnarly”), where they meet The White Bitch (Jennifer
Coolidge), and her team of assistants and assassins. Along the way they meet numerous incarnations of
characters from recent tentpole films.
“We just like these movies and thought they’d be great movies to ridicule,” says Aaron Seltzer. “Like ‘The
Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Superman’ and ‘X-Men’ and ‘Nacho Libre.’ It just seemed like fun to parody them all,
using ‘Narnia’ as the broad outline, and then it just stemmed from there.”
©2007 by Regency Entertainment (USA), Inc. and Monarchy Enterprises S.a.r.l. All rights reserved.