Like nearly every project in Hollywood, the movie “Community” is on hold amid the writers’ strike. However, the silver lining in the darker timeline is that, according to star Joel McHale, series creator Dan Harmon and co-writer Andrew Guest had nearly finalized the Peacock movie script before the company went on hiatus. Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Harmon was in talks with his ideal director for the film.
“We had a shoot date coming up, which was going to be in the summer,” McHale said. Variety. “And I think they were extremely close to – I mean, Dan is someone who tweaks things but obviously it’s all stalled. But I think it was damn close. It was close, the shooting date was approaching and we were all excited to do it, and then the writers’ strike happened, which obviously put everything on hold, and rightly so. The writers ask for very reasonable things. Writers need to be paid properly.
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Harmon, McHale and other WGA members have been on strike for more than a month over the union’s failure to reach a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) over issues such as as AI and streaming residuals. And with the studios and writers yet to be back at the table to continue negotiating, the return to Greendale has been pushed back.
With the Sony Pictures Television and NBCU produced project, commissioned from Peacock last September, having been eyeing a start date for this summer, it’s fair to assume the team had at least been close to finding a director – and McHale says that’s okay, but won’t share who he is.
“I know who wants to do it and we’re talking and interested and engaged,” he said.
A source tells Variety there were many conversations with various directors before the strike, but no one was stuck with moving production dates.
Now the final question is, will the entire cast be involved? The last Harmon spoke with Variety, all of the main cast members had been publicly announced as returning for the “Community” film, except for Chevy Chase, Donald Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown. (The confirmed cast includes McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong.)
While Chase (who infamously had some backstage issues with his co-stars and Harmon) isn’t 100% coming back, Harmon confirmed there’s “nothing official about anyone — i.e. Glover and Brown — and that Glover in particular is “down to clown” in the movie.
McHale believes in Harmon’s ability to bring the whole study group together in the end: “I agree with Dan that he’s going to bring everyone on board.”
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