Judd Apatow may be best known for his comedies – in fact, his new Pete Davidson-led one The King Of Staten Island hits VOD this Friday – but he’s switching gears for his next project. In an interview with the Boston Globe, Apatow revealed that he’s working on a documentary about legendary comedian George Carlin.
“I’m looking forward to watching a lot of Carlin interviews and specials. I think his work turned out to be very prophetic”, Apatow said. Carlin shot 14 stand-up comedy specials for HBO beginning in 1977. Apatow didn’t mention any network involvement, but it would make sense for HBO to be the ones distributing the documentary.
Carlin was a very political figure whose famous Seven Dirty Words routine made national headlines as part of a censorship case that played out in the Supreme Court.
He also hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live, was a guest host on The Tonight Show, and appeared in films such as the Bill & Ted movies and Kevin Smith‘s Dogma. His main legacy though, usually involves him being named as one of the 5 greatest comedians of all time.
He died of heart failure at the age of 71, less than four months after filming his final comedy special, It’s Bad for Ya, and was posthumously awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
There’s also been a scripted Carlin biopic in development at Gail Berman‘s Jackal Group, which hired Moneyball co-writer Stan Chervin to write the script back in October 2018. However there hasn’t been any reported movement on that project since, so who knows if it’s even still active.
Perhaps this documentary can be a springboard for more projects about Carlin, who deserves to be introduced to a younger generation who may have only heard his name and his influence without actually seeing why he was so revered. It will also be interesting to see Apatow step away from his usual form of filmmaking and make something non-fiction.
#Peace.Love.GeorgeCarlin
