By In the latter part of the 2000s and early 2010s, when it came to American studio comedy it seemed few could rival writer/director/producer Judd Apatow.
From “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” in 2005 to “Trainwreck” in 2015, he had a number of solid directorial hits and as a producer had some big successes with “Bridesmaids,” “Anchorman,” “Superbad,” “Step Brothers” and more.
More recently though, he’s struggled. “The King of Staten Island” was a box-office disaster and the costly “The Bubble” was DOA on Netflix. Produced works like “Bros” and “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” didn’t take off either.
Earlier this week, Apatow ended his thirty-year relationship with his agency UTA. In a follow-up report though, Puck News (via The Playlist) says the reason for his exit is the filmmaker hasn’t been able to get anything greenlit lately.
One project is an R-rated script that Apatow planned to direct starring Zach Galifianakis as a comic actor who is ‘quasi-canceled’. Initial pitches to studios weren’t well received, Galifianakis exited and the project went back in a drawer.
Two other projects were seemingly rejected, including the long-in-the-works R-rated Apatow/Lucas Brothers comedy project which Nicholas Stoller was attached to direct and Kat Williams was going to star in.
Apatow also tried to get an untitled series made with Ben Stiller attached to star, Mike Judge (“The White Lotus”) directing, and Brent Forrester (“The Office”) writing.
Even with that pedigree, only Apple seems to have expressed interest and they want more script work or a pilot done before giving the go-ahead.
Going with another agency, Apatow is obviously hoping that they will be able to entice someone to bite.
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