The Little Hours
Written & Directed by Jeff Baena
Starring Aubrey Plaza, Kate Micucci, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Fred Armisen, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Dave Franco, Paul Reiser, Jemima Kirke, Paul Weitz
Gunpowder & Sky
Release date: June 30, 2017

When looking for inspiration for modern comedy, I know what you’re thinking”¦ the 14th century! For The Little Hours, writer/director Jeff Baena turns to an odd source, Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron. Written in the late 1300s after the Bubonic Plague ripped Europe apart, The Decameron was a collection of novellas about ten young people living in a secluded villa. The atmosphere and period setting made me instinctively think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail while the tone of the comedy — sex-based and vulgar — brought to mind There’s Something About Mary and Superbad. Somehow these two angles come together to form an oddly unique film that is intriguing throughout and laugh out loud funny at times.

Michael Moorcock‘s Elric saga, which began in 1961 with the novella “The Dreaming City,” is one of the last prolific sword-and-sorcery book series to have not yet been adapted for the silver screen. But there have been a few attempts over the years, most notably back in 2007 when filmmaking brothers Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz (American Pie, About A Boy) optioned the rights to the Elric series with an eye towards making a trilogy of films based on the property for Universal Pictures, which we first reported on here.

The project was eventually put on the back burner as the Weitz brothers pursued other endeavors, Paul directing the comedies American Dreamz and Little Fockers, and Chris the fantasy novel adaptations The Golden Compass (the first of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series) and The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

The first trailer for Little Fockers has been released online by Universal Pictures. The movie is the latest installment in the series following 2000’s Meet the Parents and 2004’s Meet the Fockers.

This time around, Greg (Ben Stiller) and his wife Pam (Teri Polo) have a couple of kids and things are going well. So well, in fact, that Jack (Robert DeNiro) has even finally accepted Greg into the revered Byrnes family “Circle of Trust.” This doesn’t last long, of course, as Jack suspects Greg of being up to no good and once again questions whether he’s worthy of association with the family.

Click over to the other side to read a synopsis and check out the trailer for Little Fockers now.

If you’ve yet to hear the good news — yes, a third movie in the Focker franchise is on the way, and it is called Little Fockers…like you didn’t know this was going to happen. Stars Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Teri Polo, Blythe Danner, and Owen Wilson are all set to return to complete the trilogy which will obviously deal with the children of Stiller and Polo’s characters.

Now comes word that The Wolf himself, Harvey Keitel, has signed to join the project as a contractor working for Stiller. He joins other newcomers Jessica Alba and Laura Dern who arrived at the party a short time ago. Alba will be spreading her acting wings a bit by playing a super-hot pharmaceutical rep who…distracts the male character just a bit. Dern will be the headmistress of the school that little Focker is attending.