With a feature film in talks for upwards of three years, and the series being wrapped for just about a year now, we’re finally getting some concrete information on the upcoming Entourage feature. Since the series left on a cliffhanger note, that made it that much easier for creator Doug Ellin to dive into the anticipated and much-talked about feature.
In an e-mail sent to Deadline, the show’s creator stated that he’s in fact on page 110 of his screenplay in hopes of finishing it this Sunday. Executive producer Mark Wahlberg joked to Ellin, promising “to kill [him] if [he] didn’t write faster.” In fact, every time he sees the A-lister, he comments that “[he’s] made 5 movies this year. Get going!” Sounds like a traumatic writing process, to me.
It’s not that Ellin doesn’t want the feature to get made by any means, but he explained that he’s spent upwards of 10 years of his life on the series and needed a little bit of relaxation. Not to mention he set up an HBO comedy pilot starring Ed Burns, which eventually wasn’t picked up. He is also developing another HBO project, titled Da Brick, with Spike Lee, Mike Tyson and John Ridley. Sounds pretty time consuming.
Ellin did provide us with some insight to his script, noting that it will take place 6 months after the TV series leaves off. In order to maintain a certain momentum on the script, he kept in touch with the stars of the cast. Jeremy Piven (Ari), Adrian Grenier (Vince), Kevin Dillon (Drama), Kevin Connolly (E) and Jerry Ferrara (Turtle) will all be returning to the feature, as if you didn’t know that already.
HBO’s Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo haven’t heard more than “a very general pitch” from Ellin, which has really put a damper on making a finalized deal with the cast. However, the creator has remained optimistic stating, “I’m excited. I feel a lot of positive energy. Everywhere I go, people ask me, ‘Where’s the movie?'”
Longtime fans, don’t worry; the feature will maintain the famous “Hollywood send-ups and snark” the series was known for. Although I wasn’t much of a fan of what I saw of the series, the show managed to maintain and grow a pretty hefty fan base, so it’s not really my place to be a wet blanket about the aforementioned plans.
Do any of these Entourage feature plans excite you?