Paul Feig On Hitting The ‘Jackpot!’, ‘Ghostbusters’ Postmortem & ‘A Simple Favor 2’s Possible Theatrical Future – Crew Call Podcast

Paul Feig knows a thing or two about comedy. Heck, his movies have grossed well over $1.4 billion at the box office.

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Then why aren’t studios making more comedies? Especially with the billion-dollar success of Deadpool & Wolverine ?

Some studio executives believe it’s because of the politically charged times we live in; others point to the zany salaries of comedy stars. It’s one of the many points we discuss today on Deadline’s Crew Call podcast about the lack of comedy on the big screen.

“What I know from my years of doing comedy in theaters is that people want to be out in a group,” emphasized Feig.

Fortunately, Feig is in business with a studio that’s open to both streaming and theatrical features, that being Amazon Studios.

While his latest — his homage to Jackie Chan physical comedies, Jackpot! — is set to hit Prime Video on August 15, Feig also has the sequel to his 2018 black comedy A Simple Favor, with Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick, at the studio. And there’s a shot — that is a maybe — it goes theatrical.

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Feig tells us, “I can’t speak for Amazon, but we did our first (test screening). I’m seven weeks into my director’s cut — but I always try to do a test screening … and we went through the roof. We scored really high.”

“So, they’re going to see it at the end of this month. I’m literally in the editing room right now, fine tuning,” the Bridesmaids filmmaker tells us.

You can listen to our chat below:

We further converse about the origins of Jackpot! by Rob Yescombe, starring Awkwafina and John Cena and set in a dystopian future where lottery winners can be killed (not by guns) and their prizes reclaimed. He also tells us that for the most part he’s “sequel-averse,” which is why we haven’t seen a Bridesmaids 2. We also take a look back at Feig’s all-female Ghostbusters and whether he has any second thoughts; the pic was the second highest-grossing ever in the 40-year-old franchise at $229.1 million worldwide.

Up next, Feig is working with Jason Blum on a thriller inspired by the Netflix reality series Worst Roommate Ever.

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