Inspired by the fake trailers sprinkled into 2008′s Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller is set to launch The Fake Trailer Project– essentially a series of 12 trailer parodies offered as a new Web series. The trailers will be unveiled one week at a time beginning in late fall or early winter, reports Deadline. Stiller’s Red Hour Digital is producing and will be pooling some of the best writers, directors and actors to create the parodies. Stiller’s Tropic Thunder co-writer Justin Theroux, Night at the Museum scribes and Reno 911! stars Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, and Clueless helmer Amy Heckerling are set to participate.
While Tropic Thunder broke some comedy ground by incorporating trailer parodies into a film, the art of imbedding a well-crafted apropos phony trailer has been executed successfully before. A memorable early example is Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part 1. The ending of the movie is followed by a phony teaser for History of the World: Part II, narrated by Brooks, which promises to include Hitler on Ice, a Viking Funeral, and Jews in Space. Check it out below.
