Judd Apatow isn’t sure when we’ll be returning to movie theaters, but he didn’t want to wait around to find out.…
Judd Apatow isn’t sure when we’ll be returning to movie theaters, but he didn’t want to wait around to find out.
The director’s « The King of Staten Island » hits home-viewing platforms Friday, becoming the first major, non-family studio title to skip theaters and go the on-demand route since the coronavirus pandemic shut down Hollywood, along with the rest of the world, in mid-March.
Beginning with the James Bond film « No Time to Die » and continuing through « Fast & Furious 9, » « Black Widow, » and nearly every other big film on the calendar, studios have chosen to wait out the storm, holding off releases for up to a full year in some cases. That’s not the route the « Knocked Up » and « Funny People » director wanted to go.
« I decided not to think about it at all, » says Apatow, chatting on a Zoom call from his home in Santa Monica earlier this week. « And at some point when conversations began, it became clear that this movie somehow applies to a lot of the stress and trauma that we are all experiencing. It is about sudden loss and healing, and I hope this movie is funny for people and gives them a break, but I also hope it might help them process some of what they’re experiencing.
« I made this to make people happy, and people need to be happy right now, » says the . 52-year-old. « So it would be weird for me to horde it for a year just because I want a movie theater experience. »
Apatow has had plenty of movie theater experiences to date, and has become one of the most successful filmmakers and producers in modern Hollywood. From « Freaks and Geeks » to « The 40-Year-Old Virgin » to « Bridesmaids » and HBO’s « Girls, » nearly all avenues of comedy for the past two decades have run through him.
Still, like all of us, 2020 has thrown him for a loop. As he heads into his fourth month of quarantine, he’s unsure what move he wants to make next, whether he wants to attempt to make the great, definitive social distancing comedy or something altogether different that has nothing to do with our current situation.
