Dick in a Box star rises to fame on big screen

You may not know the name Andy Samberg, but you probably know a thing or two about the Saturday Night Live (SNL) digital short "Dick in a Box" (the notable spoof of an early-'90s R&B band featuring Samberg and Justin Timberlake).

Samberg, currently in his second season as an SNL cast member, is now making his debut on the silver screen in what may be the first-ever all-SNL film, Hot Rod. He plays title character and stuntman Rod Kimble; sharing the limelight with Samberg are his friends Jorma Taccone, who stars as Rod's brother Kevin, and Akiva Schaffer, who directs the film.

Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone have been friends since attending middle school together in Berkeley, Calif. In 2000 the trio began writing, directing and producing their signature blend of comedy on their website www.thelonelyisland.com. (In case you were wondering, the name comes from an apartment they shared, which they called "The Lonely Island.")

When writing skits for the MTV Music Awards, the Lonely Island crew met up with Jimmy Fallon, who passed their name along to SNL creator Lorne Michaels.

"I got a call from Jimmy. He said that these three guys he was working with were really funny and that I should look at them for SNL... so I did," Michaels said.

He signed the Lonely Island guys to create digital shorts for the show, and in 2005 Samberg was added to the SNL cast while Taccone and Schaffer became part of the team of SNL writers.

"This was the first time that exclusively SNL talent was hired to make a movie, with a regular cast member as the star, a guy who is exclusively an SNL director and a writer from the show," Producer John Goldwyn said.

The movie, originally written for Will Ferrell, was easily adapted to the strengths of Samberg when it became apparent that Ferrell was completely booked.

According to Goldwyn, a number of actors and directors were considered, but Samberg's enthusiasm for the role stuck out.

"When Andy Samberg, who was in his first season on SNL read it, he went to Lorne [Michaels] and said, 'I love this script and I really want to do it,'" Goldwyn said.

And he got it. In the role of Rod Kimble, Samberg plays an unemployed, self-proclaimed stuntman living at home with his mother Marie (Sissy Spacek), his abusive stepfather Frank (Ian McShane) and his brother Kevin (Jorma Taccone).

Rod has grown up believing that his father, a stuntman for Evil Knievel, died in his prime, so Rod is convinced he has bravery in his blood.

When his stepfather gets sick and requires a $50,000 operation, Rod takes it upon himself to raise the money by attempting his biggest stunt ever-jumping his motocross bike over 15 buses-one more than Evel Knievel himself ever did. But he only wants Frank to get better so he can kick his ass, thereby earning his stepfather's respect.

With a Napoleon Dynamite feel, the set and costumes of Hot Rod are intentionally unexciting, often paying tribute to the fashion nightmare that was the '80s.

"It's kind of enhanced mediocrity, an interesting blandness... a stylized nothingness. It does have a bit of a '70s-'80s feel to it, a kind of stuck-in-the-past-ness that shows up in the decor," said Stephen Altman, the film's production designer.

"Everyone carries an awkward 12-year-old around inside them. When it peeks out every now and then we're ashamed and embarrassed. This movie celebrates that lameness... that awkwardness," Schaffer said.

According to Michaels, Hot Rod is a physical comedy with a decidedly American vibe.

"It's a sort of uniquely American kind of comedy because most other cultures would try to sneak something worthwhile into the mix. I'm a big fan of physical comedy. As a writer, you spend forever getting the exact word, the perfect humorous dialogue, and then somebody runs into a wall, and you're laughing twice as hard," Michaels said. But after watching the film, you have to wonder if Michaels is gently implying that only Americans have a sense of humor unrefined enough to find the contrived slapstick comedy of Hot Rod entertaining, with its 20-plus stunts and what is likely the longest fall in cinematic history.

"It was the smartest dumb movie we could make. It was so goofy," Schaffer said.

He hopes that one day Hot Rod will have a place among the comedy classics that have inspired the Lonely Island guys, including Ace Ventura, Caddyshack, and Airplane!. Lofty aspirations for sure, but if the group's base of Internet fans shows anywhere near the level of interest they have for "Dick in a Box," (currently the number five all-time most watched video on Youtube.com), the film is likely to be a big hit.