Extract (New Mike Judge Film)

[nadsat droog]

I think we had a thread about this before the last meltdown.

Judge sentences Affleck to 'Extract'

Ben Affleck is ready to suit up for Miramax's Mike Judge comedy "Extract."Actor is in negotiations to play an ambulance-chasing lawyer in the pic, which centers on a flower extract factory owner (Jason Bateman) who's dealing with workplace problems and a streak of bad luck, including his wife's affair with a gigolo.

Clifton Collins Jr. is also joining the cast as a factory worker who loses a body part in a freak accident and is now due for a huge settlement. Mila Kunis and Kristen Wiig have already boarded the project, which begins lensing Monday in Los Angeles.

Judge penned the screenplay and is producing with John Altschuler and Mike Rotenberg via the trio's Ternion Prods. shingle.

[BillBrasky]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=49301

In 1999, Office Space opened in theatres and writer/director Mike Judge had no idea at that time what a huge hit his movie would become. Studios and others told him it was a disappointment and that his comedy wasn't understood by audiences. He had written another screenplay he wanted to work on next titled Extract, a story about how a factory owner has a great life until a series of things start to go awry and he doesn't know how to handle the negative turn of events that have happened. However, Judge was convinced his humor didn't catch on and he was persuaded to work on a big budget film instead, so he shelved the idea of his latest project.

"'Office Space' didn't do well theatrically and the wisdom of Hollywood and my representatives at the time were like, 'Okay Mike's got some talent, but he just needs to do a commercial movie so the only one anyone ever got excited about was 'Idiocracy,' which is kind of ironic because at the test screening for 'Idiocracy'… they're all saying, 'Yeah it was pretty funny, but we were all expecting something like 'Office Space,'" Judge told us candidly.

But a few years later, he came back to his script for Extract and asked producing partner John Altschuler to check it out.

"[Judge] was wrapping up 'Idiocracy,' which was not a pleasant experience and he says, 'Can you read something that I wrote?' 'Ok, when did you have time to write anything?' He said, 'I wrote it seven years ago.' When I started to read it, I was like this is classic Mike Judge. This is stuff he should be doing that nobody else does," Altschuler told us. "What we've found is that we're not getting any studios involved in this and we raised the money independently so that we could make a Mike Judge movie the way that a Mike Judge movie should be made. It's been great. "'Office Space' is such a great story. Everyone thought it was such a failure, but it just kept going and going and now it's a cultural phenomenon."

The movie has been shooting in Commerce, California and ComingSoon.net visited the set and talked to stars Jason Bateman, J.K. Simmons and Mila Kunis.

"'Office Space' is all about nothing getting made. Then he thought it'd be really interesting to do a movie about things concretely being made. He had this vision of a factory… Mike Judge is all about how weird the real world is," Altschuler added.

And weird and crazy things definitely go on in the lives of the characters in this movie. The film is set in the Midwest and centers on Joel (Bateman), who lives a seemingly perfect life. He has a great wife (Kristen Wig) and he runs a successful food coloring extract company that he built from the ground up. However, his luck starts to change and his life soon falls apart.

"It's a story about a guy who is the classic sort of protagonist and then he tries to be proactive with something and of course that blows up in his face. It's a victim sort of comedy as opposed to the protagonist who's initiating a lot of the comedy. A lot of the comedy sort of happens to the character. It's a lot like 'Arrested Development,'" Bateman told us.

One of the first things that goes wrong is that there's an accident in the factory and one of the workers, played by Clifton Collins Jr., has his testicle cut off as a result. Of course we had to ask how that happened.

"They're very vulnerable," J.K. Simmons joked.

"They're just sort of hanging there," Bateman said.

"You do have to wear hairnets, but no metallic cups," Simmons added.

The worker only wanted his medical bills to be paid, but when Cindy, a beautiful young seductress (Kunis) reads about the incident in the paper, that all changes. She's out for the potential amount of money he can get from what happened, so she gets a job at the company and manipulates her way into his life. He, of course, immediately falls for her and she convinces him to hire a lawyer to sue the factory. The owner was trying to sell his business, but now it looks like nobody wants to buy the factory because of what's happening.

"I got the idea about the character for Cindy when I was in a music store once and a beautiful girl comes in. I couldn't get anyone's attention, but the whole place was kind of falling apart and the same thing happened in a camera store once. They kind of live by a different set if rules. I had that idea about that type of girl who is kind of a sociopath, but really good looking," Judge laughed.

While on set, Kunis wore a tight low cut plaid top and tight jeans which she joked about when we spoke to her.

"My boobs have been popping out. This bra is incredibly uncomfortable. I'm not used to it. I'm pretty natural and don't really need to wear bras in real life. People's eyes seem to go down a lot more often now."

She wears the revealing outfits to attract the factory worker she's after to con, but he doesn't get very far with her.

"It's a very easy seduction. It only takes one scene. She doesn't even kiss him. It's really sad," she laughs.

To make things even worse for Joel, he also begins to fall for Cindy, but he doesn't want to cheat on his wife. So while wasted one night, his best friend (Ben Affleck), knowing the situation, asks if he'd cheat on his wife if he knew she cheated on him first. Bateman's character drunkenly admits he would so his friend suggests hiring a gigolo to entice his wife and see if she falls for it. The next morning he realizes what he's done and wants to call it off, but it's too late. He gets a call letting him know the job was successful and his wife went for it. She not only slept with him once, but she hooked up with the gigolo 15 times. His wife apparently feels bad she had an affair, but she doesn't know her husband actually knows she wasn't faithful let alone hired someone to have sex with her.

It's unclear whether or not Bateman and Kunis end up together in the movie, but we're rooting for it and hope something good happens to this poor guy.

In between our interviews with Judge and the cast, we watched a scene being shot which took place at the Chameleon Beverage factory where water bottles are produced, but in the movie it's Reynold's Extract and vanilla extract is the product being manufactured. The factory is a real working factory with real employees, which the cast and crew really liked because it adds an authentic ambience.

Judged laughed and told us, "This is the most boring scene in the movie. It's just exposition," and Bateman also joked about the scene. "Today's not great. I'm also holding a lot of water today. We have some funnier stuff, but we can't show you that because then you wouldn't be able to leave."

Bateman is in his office and his business partner, played by Simmons, walks in.

"Do you think it would be possible to replace her with a robot?" Bateman asks referring to an annoying chatty factory employee.

"Sure, yeah but we may not need to. You're not going to believe this. Remember that guy from General Mills, Michael J. Netherten, who called a while back talking like he might want to buy us out?" Simmons excitedly says.

"Yep, I thought you said he wasn't serious and that he was just sniffing around," Bateman replied.

"Well, he's serious now. He just made us an offer. I mean a real offer," Simmons said.

"Are you kidding me?" Bateman asked.

"Must be some sort of a strategic move because this is over market value I think," Simmons stated.

Bateman then gets up from his desk, opens the blinds to look down on the factory workers and says, "Wow Brian, I can unload this stuff and retire maybe."

"I mean you know there's a lot of details to work out, but yeah this could be great! So he says he'll call back next week. What should I tell him?"

"You tell him hell yes!," Bateman said.

Simmons then looks out over the factory employees as he's leaving the office and says, "Adios dinkas."

As of now there isn't a release date, but Bateman said it's not a summer film, "because they're aren't enough shorts [in the movie]," so he's hoping for a spring release.

[BillBrasky]

[ASR]

This looks absolutely fantastic. Can't wait.

[disl]

can't tell if this will be good or not from that trailer. mike judge, jason bateman, jk simmons: good. ben affleck, mila kunis: not so good. not really being able to tell what this movie is supposed to be about: also not good. lots of confusion for me right now.

[alexmechanik]

How is ben affleck in a beard 'not so good'? Its nice to finally see him in a straight up comedy again... i think its been since kevin smith's stuff (not jersey girl). And Smokin' Aces and He's Just Not That Into You don't count as comedies.

[Barmy Man]

A beard won't make him funny.

[disl]

i think a better question is how is ben affleck in a beard good? that is nothing, not good or bad. who is thinking to themselves "you know, this movie looks only so-so, but then i saw affleck in a beard"? maybe i'm the weird one, i'm slightly more interested in the plot.

[alexmechanik]

i think a better question is how is ben affleck in a beard good? that is nothing, not good or bad. who is thinking to themselves "you know, this movie looks only so-so, but then i saw affleck in a beard"? maybe i'm the weird one, i'm slightly more interested in the plot.

haha yeah, i didnt really explain myself but i'm just sayin that i like affleck and seeing him looking all ridiculous with a beard and long hair is funny to me. i wasnt seriously saying that the only reason the movie looks good is because of the beard. not sure why that rubs people the wrong way, or why you somehow inferred that i only thought the movie was so-so until i saw affleck in a beard.

and seriously, who's watching this trailer and thinking about how interesting the plot is? it doesnt give you that much to go off of. if i didnt read about it before, i would have no idea what was going on.

[BillBrasky]

From MTV Movies Blog :

I have big news to share for you Mike Judge fans out there. The man who gave us “Office Space” will be sitting down with MTV’s Josh Horowitz at San Diego Comic-Con on July 25. Judge’s next project “Extract” will be the topic of the day, and he will be joined by stars Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis and Kristen Wiig. Judge will be screening exclusive footage from the upcoming film as part of the panel.

Those of you who won’t be making the trip to San Diego can take heart, as MTV.com will premiere exclusive “Extract” footage to coincide with the Comic-Con panel. Expect plenty of laughs at the panel though. Judge, in a recent interview with MTV, expects “a lot of smart ass answers from the actors. [The 'Extract' cast and crew is] a happy bunch. We all really had fun making this. It came together nicely.”

“Right after I’d done ‘Office Space’ [in 1999], I started writing ['Extract'],” Judge explained. “In ‘Office Space,’ it’s the employees’ point of view and the bosses are the a–holes. [Extract] is kind of the bosses’ point of view.”

The director credits his early work with MTV as a partial inspiration for the coming comedy. “When ‘Beavis and Butthead’ became a show, I’d never had anybody working for me and suddenly I had 30 to 90 people working for me at different times. So I think I suddenly became more sympathetic to all these bosses I’ve had,” Judge said. “I wanted to write something sympathetic to the guy who had to run the place.”

One of Judge’s big “gets” for “Extract” is Ben Affleck, who plays a slimy lawyer working with Jason Bateman’s down-on-his-luck factory owner. “I think Ben, because he’s a good-looking, tall, strapping guy, he’s always been cast as the leading man,” Judge said of his casting choice. “I like him when he’s a character actor, like ‘Dazed & Confused.’ He read the ['Extract'] script and wanted to do it and I met with him and we had a read through and he just killed it. I’ve been editing and watching these scenes hundreds of times and it still makes me laugh.”

Affleck rose to the challenge after his audition, embracing his non-leading role with an equal mix of passion and professionalism. “We had a break where we shot his factory thing and he’d done a few weeks in the beginning and then we didn’t see him for three or four weeks,” Judge explained. “He came back and he was so happy to be putting on his Dean outfit. He really had fun. He’s a team player.”

[BillBrasky]

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Edit: Is this showing for anyone? MTV embedded videos always seem to cause problems.

[Phil]

"Idiocracy" could be my favorite comedy of all time.

[Neimo]

can't tell if this will be good or not from that trailer. mike judge, jason bateman, jk simmons: good. ben affleck, mila kunis: not so good. not really being able to tell what this movie is supposed to be about: also not good. lots of confusion for me right now.

Don't forget about Kristen Wiig, she has stolen some scenes in major comedies.

[nadsat droog]

I saw a longer than usual commercial spot (essentially a shorter cut of the trailer) for this on two different channels last night. It's nice to see the movie getting a decent push this early.

[nickname]

Mike Judge, Jason Bateman, and JK Simmons could make a movie about message boards,and I'd go see it. Have faith people.

[jcarlon]

Saw this over the weekend and loved it. Don't let the trailers/ads fool you. Very similar to Office Space in tone, pace, etc. Bateman plays the straight man, surrounded by a crew of "idiots." Like Office Space, Mike Judge really spread around the great lines, as each character gets in a few. Going to be a really fun movie to quote after repeat viewings. Some other thoughts:

- Loved David Koechner. He brings something very different to the table with this role, and the audience was roaring at his character by the end. Kind of seems like he doesn't fit into the plot at first...but there is a huge payoff.

- For those who are Anti-Wiig: there is no wacky in her performance here. Plays it relatively straight, and does a nice job.

- The movie avoids stereotypical plot turns like the plague. Just when you think cliches are around the corner, a curve ball is thrown.

- I was about to write paragraphs about how awesome Clifton Collins, Dustin Milligan, TJ Miller, and Ben Affleck (yes Affleck) are in this movie, but realize no one wants to keep reading all of this. They are all great, lets leave it at that.

- Only Mila Kunis is given nothing to do. Except to look pretty. She succeeds.

- My favorite line was about Domino's Pizza and Pepsi. But there were so many great lines I am sure this will change.

- So a whole-hearted recommendation from me. Mike Judge did a Q and A afterwards and seemed like a genuine good guy. Put up with a bunch of nerds asking him to act out Butthead and Hank Hill lines. Lets give this guy a profitable theatrical run for once in his career ok?

[BillBrasky]

Saw this over the weekend and loved it. Don't let the trailers/ads fool you.

Nothing I've seen so far has made the movie seem especially dumb. There's pretty much the one (relatively short) trailer, which makes the movie look like it's going to be funny. While it's nice to have confirmation that the movie's good, I'm not sure why you thought it wasn't going to be.

[jcarlon]

Nothing I've seen so far has made the movie seem especially dumb. There's pretty much the one (relatively short) trailer, which makes the movie look like it's going to be funny. While it's nice to have confirmation that the movie's good, I'm not sure why you thought it wasn't going to be.

You are right, and I should have explained it better. I thought the trailer was funny as well. But there seems to be somewhat of a negative buzz online about the advertising campaign. Some of the TV ads are trying to play the movie off as Hangover 2, so maybe that is where its coming from.

[Having Fun!]

I don't think the trailers look bad, but they just seems to lack substance. Comedy trailers are hard to gauge. They seem to either give away all the gags (Step Brothers) or don't do the movie justice. I trust that this movie is in the latter.

Also, there is that sound effect when the guys dick gets nailed The nut crunch. I don't think it is in the original trailer, but I heard it on the TV ones. I know its needed to get some people into seats, but it makes me so sad.

[ericluxury]

This is the second time I've wandered into a thread for a movie with a completely different opinion based on the marketing. The trailer for Extract looks awful to me. The two jokes are the extended hit in the balls thing and Kristen Wiig's sweatpants thing. Both are okay versions of the most common things in comedy.
Based on the trailer, my impression of the movie was unhappy guy works in a quirky place and events transpire to make a improbably hot girl enter the equation. Some romance happens there but probably not all the way. Most likely he just stops being unhappy because of her magic hotness. The whole time some also improbable bartender coaches the guy through everything and all the non-main characters are ugly idiots who we are supposed to laugh at for being ugly and stupid. Not a good film.
However, reading this thread Mila Kunis is a con woman? That makes it seem way more interesting already because you are getting out of magical hot girl turns unhappy guy happy and then leaves territory.