Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. So, we all agree that Super Troopers is awesome, right? Irreverent, raunchy, goofy, yet full of characters you just want to spend time with. It's been one of the my favorite movies of the aughts to revisit.
Broken Lizard captured lightning in a bottle with that movie. Now the question is: Can they do it again?
There has long been talk of a Super Troopers 2. I want it, too, but I'm also the weirdo that would actually like to see more Club Dreads, so nobody ever payed any attention to me. Now a Super Troopers 2 is even closer to reality. The Broken Lizard guys are taking a cue from the successes of Nathan Fillion/Alan Tudyk's Con Man and Rooster Teeth's Lazer Team crowd supporting campaigns and are jumping into the Indiegogo game.
It's a gamble for them, but they're betting on the now two generations of weirdos who loved the original to come out and put their money where their mouthes are to support a second film getting made.
Here's a link to their Indiegogo or check out the embed below:
I was able to get on the phone with Kevin Heffernan (Farva, hisownself) and Erik Stohlanske (Rabbit, ya' dig?) to talk about why they're turning to crowdfunding, how they will distribute new information about the sequel and just what we can expect from the movie.
Kevin Heffernan: I don't think we've talked for a while, dude.
Quint: It's been a while. Probably around the time Slammin' Salmon came out. But you guys were just in my town doing at a Drafthouse Super Troopers screening, yeah?
Erik Stolhanske: We were.
Kevin Heffernan: We were there hanging out with the fellas from The Chive, who are buying up all the downtown property down there. Did the craziness of SXSW just end or is it still going on?
Quint: It's still going strong. Got a couple more days left.
Kevin Heffernan: Are you exhausted? Are you attending everything or what?
Quint: It was super crazy over the first four or five days. I think I got maybe 7 or 8 hours of sleep over the first three days. Lots of movies, lots of interviews, lots of writing.
Kevin Heffernan: What's the one movie from SXSW that I should see?
Quint: It's been a fairly low key year. Most movies that I have seen have been good, but not great. The plus side of that is that I haven't seen many super shitty movies, but I also haven't really been blown away by anything. I think the one has stuck with me the most was a documentary called A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story. She's the girl who YouTube dubbed the Ugliest Woman In The World. She has now become a big advocate for anti-bullying legislation and the doc was just really uplifting and well done. A nice surprise.
Kevin Heffernan: Wow. Was she there?
Quint: She was, her family as well.
Kevin Heffernan: Look at me, I'm interviewing you now!
Quint: Yeah, keep it up! Let me tell you about my Indiegogo campaign to fund the absurd parking charges for SXSW 2016...
Kevin Heffernan: (laughs)
Quint: You know I've been a big supporter of you guys since way back in the day and it's exciting to hear that you're finally taking the plunge on Super Troopers 2.
Kevin Heffernan: We're finally getting our shit together.
Quint: It's about goddamn time, honestly.
Erik Stolhanske: We know it! We did two screenings of Super Troopers at the Drafthouse and both were packed. It was a blast being back in that environment.
Quint: Seeing the fans the first movie has still show up to support it must have given you the confidence to attempt the crowdfunding route for the sequel, right?
Kevin Heffernan: Super Troopers was such a grassroots movie. There's a scene in the movie where Thorny tries to explain to Farva what the Meow Game is and Farva just looks at him like he's an asshole and that's always the way it was for us when we were pitching this movie to other people.
You know, people who make decisions in the structure of entertainment these days don't necessarily get the joke. That's kind of what we find and I think that's why Super Troopers is endearing to many people because it has a certain sense of humor. It feels like that's the best way to go, to get those people who were fans of the first one onboard to help us do this one. It seemed like it was just a natural way to do it for us.
Erik Stolhanske: You should sit in a meeting where you pitch Bear Fucker to an executive. It doesn't go over well.
Quint: So, you're saying Super Troopers 2 isn't going to be a Born Again Christian version of the first movie.
Kevin Heffernan: (laughs) No, it's going to be hardcore. It'll have the same humor and the same irreverence that the first one did. The same characters doing the same stupid, dumb things.
Quint: Since crowdfunding is all about the pitch and the perks, what are you guys offering the campaign that's going to convince people to fork over their dough?
Kevin Heffernan: There are a lot of personalized awards. We have a very rabid fan base and it's clear to us that they want to interact, so there's a lot of fun things that we're offering as rewards whether it's hanging out with us at a baseball game or going on a special trip to Colorado with us or even just coming to the set, that kind of stuff. As we travel around the country and do comedy shows that's what they want, they want to hang out. That's part of the attraction of these kind of rewards.
Quint: How transparent are you guys going to be about the plot of the movie? I know with comedy more than just about any genre you don't want to step on your own toes too much in advance.
Erik Stolhanske: We definitely don't want to give away any plotlines. We'll try to keep the fans entertained with our own sort of teasing of our characters during the campaign. A lot of people have been asking about it, wanting to know where we're going to take it. We will be picking up from where we left off with the last Super Troopers.
Kevin Heffernan: Yeah. Canada will be involved in some way.
Erik Stolhanske: Maybe a mountie or two.
Kevin Heffernan: We're trying to keep it vague because we don't want to give too much away, but that'll be another attractive thing for the people who support the Indiegogo. We can trickle out information to them as a thank you for helping us out.
Quint: Are you going to be announcing any casting other than yourselves in this campaign or will it be part of the info you gradually trickle out?
Kevin Heffernan: Yeah, I think it'll be that way. Once we have money in place we can start the casting process. We didn't really want to reach out to other actors until we knew it was a real thing. If we can get the thing up and going there's no shortage of people out there who have approached us saying they'd love to be involved. After we see where we stand financially we'll go do that.
Quint: There's a whole lot of great comedians out there right now, many of them still not really big yet... I think that's what I'm most excited to see about the movie, even moreso than supporting characters from the original returning. I'd love to see you guys fill the world with some of these guys. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see Brian Cox return...
Erik Stolhanske: What about the bear? Would you want to see the bear come back?
Quint: Who wouldn't?
Erik Stolhanske: Maybe the bear will come back as the fuckee, though.
Kevin Heffernan: Instead of the bear fucker it'll be the bear fuckee.
Erik Stolhanske: Turn the tables.
Quint: That's the kind of thing you have to do in sequels. You have to raise the stakes, turn expectation on its head.
Erik Stolhanske: I'm getting nervous that I might have to take it from the bear now...
Quint: By the time this runs you'll have announced the campaign on Reddit, right?
Kevin Heffernan: Yeah, we're doing it Tuesday morning.
Quint: You guys have done a Reddit AMA before, right?
Kevin Heffernan: Yeah, they're a blast because it's unfiltered.
Quint: What kind of questions do you like the most when you do one of those things? I can see responding to the snarky negative stuff being even more fun than the wholly positive stuff.
Kevin Heffernan: I like the crazy questions. I don't mind the snarky questions because you can be snarky right back.
Erik Stolhanske: Yeah, you can answer it comically.
Quint:
Kevin Heffernan: Jay and I did a Reddit for Babymakers and it was all about masturbation. Every question was “where do you like to masturbate?” “how do you like to masturbate?” all that kind of stuff. I was like, “Okay. Fine. If that's what you wanna know, fine.”
Erik Stolhanske: “Let's talk turkey.”
Quint: Obviously the success of the Indiegogo campaign will determine this, but do you have a broad schedule of your timeframe for the sequel, like when you shoot, when you release, etc?
Kevin Heffernan: Our hope is this Indiegogo campaign goes successfully and we'll be in production this summer. The idea is to go into action as soon as this wave is done. If that's the case, I imagine early 2016, maybe Spring, the movie will be ready to be seen.
Quint: That's about all I got. Is there anything you'd like to finish up with? Closing arguments?
Kevin Heffernan: In general there'll be a lot of stuff going on this month. I'd love for people to check back in (at the Indiegogo page) and see all the fun things we've got set up. We're going to try to make this campaign be a little bit different. We've shot stuff in character, we've got all kinds of vignettes, we got back into the costumes again. It was fun to put all that stuff on. There's going to be a lot of fun stuff over the course of the month and I hope people follow along.
Quint: Cool, well I'll do my best to point some people your way and maybe even throw in a few bucks myself.
Kevin Heffernan: Great, we'll send you a signed poster!
Erik Stolhanske: Or comb your hair or brush your teeth.
Kevin Heffernan: Yes, we'll come over to your house and brush your teeth.
Quint: Or just send the bear...
Kevin Heffernan: (laughs) Okay, we'll send the bear.
Quint: Thanks guys, good luck on the campaign.
Kevin Heffernan: Thanks. It was good talking to you again.
So, go throw them some money, chicken fuckers!
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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