Hamlet 2 is one of the funnier films you probably haven’t heard of unless you track the movie sales at Sundance. Earlier this year it almost broke the Little Miss Sunshine record of 10.5 million when it sold for 10 million to Focus Features. The New York Times says “”It made sure to take shots at Christians, gays, Latinos, Jews, the American Civil Liberties Union and Elisabeth Shue, one of its lead actresses.” In fact, the trailer says “And reintroducing Elizabeth Shue as… Elizabeth Shue.”
Since we attended their party last night, and drank copiously from their open bar, which was stocked with drinks like “Holy Water” and “Rock Me Sexy Jesus,” we thought we’d better man up on the tough “sunday morning wakeup and head to the Con through the remaining fog of Saturday night.” They showed us the trailer for the movie, and several clips, which all served to make me wish I’d seen this movie in Park City. The aforementioned drink name serves as one of the key musical numbers, and you’ll end up having “Rock Me Sexy Jesus” stuck in your head.
Director and co-writer Andrew Fleming, and writer Pam Brady joined star Steve Coogan onstage to discuss the film, which is exactly what you’d expect from Brady, who writes and produces South Park. But Fleming has directed films like Dick, Threesome, The Craft, and Nancy Drew, so he’s all over the map. According to Fleming, the original title for the film was “Mr. Holland’s Anus,” but according to Pam Brady, “That title was already being used by a Belgian porn, so there were copyright issues.”
They didn’t really have much time for a Q&A, being slotted for just 30 minutes, right before the Harold & Kumar panel. Someone asked Steve Coogan, “did you watch a lot of Jesus movies?” Steve replied, “Yes, particularly enlightening was Max Von Sydow in The Greatest Story Ever Told,” which might have actually inspired Coogan’s hair in the film. “The hair was very key,” according to Coogan.
Fleming also explained that, yes, they do make a lot of fun of Elisabeth Shue throughout the film, although most of that was her idea. For instance, when Coogan’s theater teacher character brings her to class, no one knows who she is. That was Shue’s idea. I’m actually wondering if that’s based on some of her real-life experiences. Do people still know who Elisabeth Shue is?
They showed several clips from the film, including an extended “sing along” scene of the main dance number, which you can watch in the video above. As they closed things out, Fleming thanked everyone at Comic-Con for coming to the panel, “Jesus is the original superhero, so… yeah!”
Hamlet 2 comes out in limited release on August 22nd, and goes wide on August 29th.
Wow. About three and a half hours ago, I posted 
