"I really wish we were making a real movie"

May 8, 2013 10:07 AM

The Exquisite Corpse project is a film made by the now separated comedy group, Olde English.

The director, Ben Popik, gathered together his old comedy troupe friends, and presented them with a challenge: make a movie where each of them writes 15 pages of the script.. but only gets to see the 5 preceding pages. The idea is based on the "Exquisite Corpse" party game, from whence the name comes. The result is often funny, but also surprisingly moving. It can be purchased from the website, or seen at various live screenings.

posted by Cannon Fodder (6 comments total)

I remember watching Olde English's Bathroom sketch around the same time I was preparing my college applications. Suddenly, "has an established sketch comedy and improv group" became a huge factor for deciding which college to attend.
posted by somespecialist at 10:29 AM on May 8, 2013

Every time I see those words, I think of this Exquisite Corpse and hate my friends a bit for convincing me to read it.
posted by bastionofsanity at 10:35 AM on May 8, 2013

yay! MeFi's Own tweebiscuit is a longtime member of OE.
posted by mathowie at 4:02 PM on May 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

There's a film called Sleep With Me which was written in a similar pass-the-script fashion, by six different writers. Stars Eric Stolz and Meg Tilly. Turned out alright, although the film's most memorable scene - in which Quentin Tarantino relates his theories about the underlying gay vs. straight tensions in Top Gun - was totally random and probably improvised.
posted by jimmymcvee at 6:25 PM on May 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

It's true! I worked on this movie. Thanks for posting it! We've been super gratified by the response.
posted by tweebiscuit at 10:17 PM on May 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

You're welcome! I've been following Olde English for quite a while and was sad when updates stopped happening, so was very excited to see the film.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 12:12 AM on May 15, 2013 [1 favorite]