There are quite a few entry points for this next piece of news: there are the Super Troopers jokes (boom, accomplished in the headline), the snarky bit about how we all forgot that Yogi Bear 2 was happening, something about Justin Timberlake, and perhaps a jab or two at the profoundly unfunny The Babymakers, but all that chatter aside, there is but one piece of this news worth exploring – it’s a great idea. Deadline Hollywood reports (via ComingSoon) that Jay Chandrasekhar has been hired by Warner Bros. to rewrite and direct their Yogi Bear 2. The film’s current screenplay comes from writers Joshua Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimilia (who were also behind the first film’s script, along with Brad Copeland). Chandrasekhar, though most typically most remembered as “that dude from Broken Lizard,” has quite the varied resume. He’s a director, writer, actor, producer, and editor who has worked in features, commercials, and television. If Hollywood insists on a Yogi Bear 2 (and why wouldn’t they, the first film made over $200m), why not snap up someone like Chandrasekhar for the directing gig? It could be the only thing that could make this film even remotely palatable.

You know that comedian at open mic night who provides too many tangential details in his set up and takes forever to get to the simplest of punchlines? This is the movie equivalent. With its thoroughly modern concept, The Babymakers follows a husband (Paul Schneider) who has to break into a sperm bank in order to get back his last viable batch of swimmers and impregnate his wife (Olivia Munn). It’s a fantastic spin on heist stories, and with Jay Chandrasekhar at the helm, there’s a sense of comedic prowess, but the movie itself gets bogged down in its gag set ups, leaving little room for pay off. There are some great moments, but the difficulty in making a story revolving around a sperm bank heist is that, as writers Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow most likely found out early on, it’s not all that hard to break into a sperm bank. It turns out that security is pretty lax considering the low resale street value of their stored goods. Unfortunately, instead of building up a natural set of situations leading up to the theft, the film wanders about aimlessly, backtracks, returns with a force, recants and then leaves its high concept for its climax.

It’s easy to lose perspective in a world where originality seems all but dead in Hollywood, but the reality is that there are only about six remakes made every year, and that’s not so bad. The problem is that far more than six are announced, and even though not all of them get made, each new remake in development is another reason to slap your forehead and wonder why studio executives are spending so much time living in the past. Especially if the movie is an out-and-out classic. Fortunately, sometimes the potential talent involved has the foresight to see a bad idea and the common sense to pass. For Jay Chandrasekhar of Broken Lizard, the opportunity that was too good to take was a remake of Caddyshack. The comedian politely doesn’t reveal whose concept it was, but his information casts a shadow of doubt on this otherwise optimistic list of 80s movies that aren’t being remade. “I was actually approached by someone high up in the filmmaking world about remaking Cadddyshack,” said Chandrasekhar. “I said, ‘I think people will string me up if I tried to do that.’ I thought about it for a day, and I called them up and said, ‘I’d have loved to have had this conversation, but I could never.’ And I don’t know. I don’t believe you can remake comedy films that are great and have them really work. I think you can remake serious films that were bad and make them into comedies or something with

What would Jay Chandrasekhar and Kevin Heffernan‘s baby look like? Thanks to science (i.e. This Website), we now know. Pretty damned handsome, actually. In their latest movie, The Babymakers, a loving husband (Paul Schneider) finds out his swimmers are sad, so he’s forced to rob a sperm bank to get his last viable donation back and impregnate his wife (Olivia Munn) with it. Directed by Chandrasekhar and co-starring Heffernan, the pair joined us to discuss the finer points of semen heists, to talk about the time they turned down the chance to remake a comedy classic and how studios are now pushing comedy filmmakers to get extreme. And, yes, of course, they’re both champing at the bit to make Super Troopers 2. Check out the entire 15-minute interview below: Download This Interview Enjoy More Reject Radio

Jay Chandrasekhar’s twist on the bank heist film, The Babymakers, takes a somewhat clever and fun premise and buries it under muffled performances, piles of unfunny jokes, and a complete disregard for clarity of theme. The film is packed with all of the markers that we’ve come to expect from current Hangover and Apatow-inspired comedy – it’s raunchy and dirty and even occasionally offensive – but there’s no bite or originality behind any of it, it just feels tired and wrung out. Chandrasekhar’s shtick has worn thin since his best and ballsiest comedy, Super Troopers, and lensing a flick from writers Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow (best known for stuff like Black Knight and Say It Isn’t So) hasn’t done him any favors. The film centers on happily married pair Tommy (Paul Schneider) and Audrey (Olivia Munn) who decides it’s high time to conceive a baby. After months of trying, it becomes evident that there’s something amiss with either one or both of them, and when they discover it’s Tommy and his “confused sperm,” he lets slip that there’s no way that could be so. After all, he paid for Audrey’s engagement ring with money from donating his sperm for twenty weeks in a row. Oh – oops! She didn’t know that. Determined to win back his wife, Tommy and his pack of moronic pals (including Kevin Heffernan and Nat Faxon) cook up a plan to rob the sperm bank that’s holding Tommy’s last batch hostage, with help from a

If you woke up this morning and felt you needed to see a trailer frothing over with semen jokes, it’s as if the planets have aligned to tell you that you need more therapy and that the redband trailer for Babymakers has poked its little head out onto the internet. This is the Broken Lizard movie that isn’t a Broken Lizard movie. Instead of the gang from Beerfest trying to impregnate everyone, it stars Olivia Munn and Paul Schneider (Away We Go, Lars and the Real Girl) as a couple who have trouble conceiving. Fortunately, Schneider’s character donated a bunch of great sperm years ago. Unfortunately, it’s all gone, so he has to try to steal some of it back. Good old Kevin “Farva” Heffernan is on board as the sidekick, and Jay Chandrasekhar is directing and playing an Indian mafia killer (complete with genuine Indian accent!). As for the rest of the Broken Lizard gang, they look like they’re relegated to the background here. Check out the trailer for yourself:

The next film from Broken Lizard, the comedy troupe behind such movies you’ve probably watched in a college apartment as Super Troopers and Beerfest, is now in development and has a leading actor signed. The Baby Makers will be directed by Broken Lizard mainstay Jay Chandrasekhar from a script by Ice Age: The Meltdown writers Peter Gaulke and Jerry Swallow. As for that leading actor, the comedy troupe has scooped up indie darling Paul Schneider for the starring role. You may know him from such things as All the Real Girls, Lars and the Real Girl, and plenty of other things that don’t have the words ‘real’ and ‘girl’ in the title. The film will be about a young couple who are having trouble conceiving, which leads to the husband convincing his friends to help him break into a sperm bank and retrieve a donation he made there when you was younger. In addition to Schneider, The Baby Makers will also star Kevin Heffernan as the nutty best friend, Chandrasekhar as an Estonian thief, and other Broken Lizard members such as Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske doing who knows what. I’m not as big a fan of Broken Lizard’s movies as many other people seem to be, but they’ve had some strong moments, and I do have kind of a giant man crush on Paul Schneider, so I’m looking forward to giving this one a chance. [Variety]

We spoke with Kevin Heffernan, one-fifth of Broken Lizard and forever beloved for demanding a liter of cola as Farva in ‘Super Troopers’ and dying in a giant vat of beer in ‘Beerfest.’ In ‘The Slammin’ Salmon,’ the comedy troupe’s latest, he takes over the director’s chair.

Anytime the guys from Broken Lizard talk to the press, the prospect of a sequel to their cult hit Super Troopers is bound to come up. And look what is happening as they promote The Slammin’ Salmon.

A recap of the past two episodes of Psych: “Shawn Gets the Yips” and “Bollywood Homicide.”

Somehow this day would not be complete without a little puking scene. Why? Because that is how we roll here at FSR… always classy. Also classy is this new redband clip from the upcoming Paramount Pictures release I Love You Man, starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel.

Remember how hilarious it was to see Justin Long and Ryan Reynolds pulling shenanigans left and right as restaurant employees in Waiting? Now imagine a similar movie, but with the guys from Broken Lizard. That movie is The Slammin’ Salmon.

Like an Arrested Development movie or Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, a sequel to the hit Broken Lizard comedy Super Troopers has always been right on the edge, while still giving fans that pipedream vibe. But now they are talking, and talking seriously.