‘MacGruber’ Fan Christopher Nolan Sent Inspiring Message for Spinoff Series’ First Table Read
Grossing $9 million off a $10 million budget, the 2010 comedy “MacGruber” wasn’t exactly a huge hit. A spinoff of the “Saturday Night Live” parody of the action series “MacGyver” and starring Will Forte, Jorma Taccone‘s directorial effort has become something of a cult classic. As has been the stuff of legend since the days of “Dunkirk,” director Christopher Nolan is a confirmed fan of the movie and, as revealed in an oral history of the movie in Vanity Fair, via Slash Film, Nolan took his fandom to a whole new level by sending his blessings to the “MacGruber” series Taccone is currently developing.
The “MacGruber” series is currently in the works at Peacock, NBCUniversal’s upcoming Comcast streaming service launching July 15. According to Taccone, the comedy actor/director invited professed “MacGruber” fan Christopher Nolan to the table reading for the series pilot, and though Nolan couldn’t attend the confab, he did send along this note: “Though I can’t be there in person to watch you take the first step of your odyssey — know that my spirit soars with you, and whilst it’s perhaps unfair to add to the great sense of responsibility you must already feel, I am duty bound to tell you — the world is waiting, the world is watching.”
Taccone also recalled approaching Nolan at a Directors Guild of America event and pitching him on a “MacGruber” idea. “My wife [director Marielle Heller] and I were at our first DGA dinner,” Taccone said. “And she’s like, ‘Christopher Nolan is there. You’ve got to go say hi to him.’ So I went up to him and I said, ‘My name is Jorma. I directed this movie called MacGruber.’ I said, ‘We’re going to do a sequel eventually. What do you think of this: When the director card comes up it just says, ‘Directed by Christopher Nolan’ with an asterisk, and then at the end of the movie there’s another asterisk that says who actually directed it.’ And he said, ‘Let me talk to my wife about it.’”
Christopher Nolan, meanwhile, is busy readying for the launch of “Tenet,” though with most theaters in the United States still closed, the where and when of that release remain unknown. A recent trailer for the time-hopping espionage epic billed the the film as “coming to theaters,” and no longer with the promise of the original July 17 opening date.
