After bringing us “full retard” in 2008 with Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller turns his filmmaker’s eye toward more serious waters. Coming from Production Weekly via The Playlist, it appears that Derek Zoolander himself is getting serious in gearing up to helm the oh-so-subtly titled Help Me Spread Goodness, penned by Home of the Brave scribe Mark Friedman.
Based upon a 2008 blacklisted screenplay, Goodness revolves around “a Chicago banker who gets swindled in a Nigerian Internet scam,” and it appears the key goal is to make an issue film magnifying “current issues in Nigeria and other African countries.” While some may find this turn unsurprising in the wake of the Greenberg trailer (along with the fact that IMDb still cites this in his pipeline), it still strikes me as an intriguing directorial follow-up to what I consider to be one of the funniest films in the aughts.
In any case, this project should prove an interesting one to cover for us at The Film Stage. Here’s hoping Stiller’s demeanor is nothing like it was when he directed his last issue film:
What do you think about this project? Do you like Stiller’s directing work?