Saget and Permut Hatch 'Penguins' for THINKFilm

Saget and Permut Hatch 'Penguins' for THINKFilm

NEW YORK, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Following his personal triumph in THINKFilm's summer sleeper hit, THE ARISTOCRATS, Bob Saget and THINK are reuniting on FARCE OF THE PENGUINS, a comedic send-up of a similarly titled documentary that is in production with a planned release in Spring, 2006. Saget will write, direct, produce, and will perform several of the voices in this comedic adventure that will combine spectacular and heartwarming wildlife photography with an irreverent and decidedly R-rated theme and soundtrack. David Permut will produce the film, with THINKFilm handling worldwide distribution. International sales will be inaugurated at the forthcoming American Film Market, it was announced by THINKFilm President and CEO, Jeff Sackman, who negotiated the deal with Permut. "Permut Presentations VP of Production Steve Longi will co-produce."

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051103/LATH070 )

"The idea for this came organically," Saget says. "I was watching the 'March' movie at a screening at my friend's house, and I couldn't stop doing the voice-overs of the penguins, reminiscent of when I did the voices of the animals on the video show. My friend David Permut said, there's a great comedy movie in this!!"

Well known by college students as the director of the cult comedy feature film "Dirty Work," and known the world over for his lengthy tours-of-duty on hit family television these past two decades, Saget received clamorous critical acclaim for his extended rendition of the off-color "Aristocrats" joke in Paul Provenza's film of the same name. The ensuing national media attention, which helped propel the unrated, no-budget ARISTOCRATS to a $7 million gross, was followed by a similarly image-shattering guest appearance on the HBO series "Entourage." HBO has just ordered a script for an R-rated sitcom, built around Saget, that he will co-write, produce, and star in, portraying a Phoenix gynecologist raising a fourteen year-old boy.

"The Penguin film, and wildlife films in general, have been so hugely popular lately, that they can certainly use some serious spoofing," says Sackman of the project. "Bob's unique ability to take sweet, clean-cut material and turn it upside down and inside out is second to none, and I can't wait to see him 'flip the bird' to the entire genre." Permut adds, "Bob will be enlisting a number of his friends on this project and we expect a flock of comics to be involved. We also expect Bob to take this idea to the very limits of good taste-and then fly right past them!"

Producer Permut is well-known for his ability to conceive of and recognize original high-concept projects. His production with Bill Sargent of RICHARD PRYOR: LIVE IN CONCERT was the first live comedy concert released as a feature film and it was Permut's production of DRAGNET, starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks, that spawned the notion of remaking television classics as major motion pictures. His other credits include BLIND DATE, starring Bruce Willis in his big screen debut, and FACE/OFF, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. He is currently in post-production on the ensemble drama LOCAL COLOR starring Ray Liotta and a documentary about iconic comedian Rodney Dangerfield.

THINKFilm's DVD release of THE ARISTOCRATS will be in January, 2006.

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051103/LATH070
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: THINKFilm

CONTACT: James Lewis of mPRm, +1-323-933-3399, jlewis@mprm.com, for
THINKFilm; or Alex Klenert of THINKFilm, +1-212-444-7900,
aklenert@thinkfilmcompany.com

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