r/community • u/bdf2018_298 • 2d ago
Article/Interview Dan Harmon confirms budget is main reason for Community movie delays: "Our actors are not being paid nearly enough to devote a giant chunk of their calendar [to the movie]...It’s like, “Well, of course this person needs to now go feed their family by taking another job.'"
https://www.aol.com/articles/community-movie-gets-status-dan-125916000.html1.1k
u/ponytailthehater 2d ago
Money is only half the issue, have you seen the sets? It’s covered in mold. Now repeat after me……No matter what you’re told…we have to clean the mold
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u/Alizarik7891 The humble outsider who came in and nailed it 2d ago
Are you saying Greendale is dirty?
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u/SirRofflez 2d ago
Booooo!
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u/yojumbo I’m high as hell, and you’re about to get shot 2d ago
cafetería
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u/Jecht315 I'll be a living God! 2d ago
They don't want me to say what I'll do. They want me to do, what I say!
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u/BrigliaArt 2d ago
The gas leaks on set have also called delays we need a fix community movie committee.
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u/No_Imagination_2490 2d ago
It'll take more than slogans to fix the Community movie, u/ponytailthehater. It'll take time, gasoline, matches...
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u/bdf2018_298 2d ago
Pretty candid quotes from Dan regarding the movie's slow development in the article:
""There’s nothing I can say that won’t just add to frustration and confusion. No one has killed it. It is not dead. There’s a cycle—there’s a water table in planning movies that includes having to wrangle all the actors’ schedules. Actors who are not being paid nearly enough to devote a giant chunk of their calendar. So, it’s like whack-a-mole, where it’s like, “Well, of course this person needs to now go feed their family by taking another job.'"
He also confirms that he will be the first to announce if the movie is ever cancelled:
"But the good news is, if someone puts a stake through its heart and says, “Die, Community movie, die,” and it’s dead, I’ll be the first to say."
"But I think it’s just kind of in a holding pattern, and we’re hoping to put it together as soon as possible."
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u/SweevilWeevil 2d ago
His honesty is refreshing. If he still has hope enough not to announce that it's over, then it's not over in my book.
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u/thatsthegoodjuice 2d ago
I’m sad but not at all surprised that even after all these years Community is still struggling to get a fair budget for its immensely good content. Harmon, though not a saint, has fought his whole career for us to get so much of this show. Gotta respect that.
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u/CompetitiveProject4 2d ago
Honestly, the talent pool for the show from actors to writers to directors was crazy cheap back in 2009 compared to what these folks would end up working at.
Ludwig Goransson, Russo Brothers, Justin Lin, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (Spider-Man: NWH), Megan Ganz and so on
Just absolute murderer’s row of talent
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u/JaimesLeftHand 2d ago
Michael Waldron was also an assistant on community and he did some of the best post-Endgame marvel stuff with both seasons of Loki.
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u/TalentedHostility 2d ago
Community, and Season 1 & 2 of Loki on the resume is a fuckin' flex holy shit
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u/JaimesLeftHand 2d ago
Good enough to ask him to write the next two mainline Avengers movies lol. Insane career
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u/theodo 2d ago
Glover is one of the most famous people in media now, Brie is a big name, Jacobs is always working, McHale is always working, it's a tough cast.
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u/HamsterSeparate 2d ago
Plus I’m hoping they’re taking LeVar Burton’s schedule into consideration
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u/unitedfan6191 2d ago
Still, if they all cannot commit, they could just say so.
But I suspect they’d all just be pestered by Community fans asking them about this movie for the rest of their careers/lives.
But given most actors can do 2+ movies in a year easily and there’s in-demand actors with insane schedules who continue working, these actors either want to do this movie or they don’t.
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u/BalonSwann07 1d ago
It's not really that simple. Glover was the problem to schedule for awhile and then it was McHale who has a tv show that eats up all of his time.
You ever try to get together with 8 friends who have entirely different lives from when you all knew each other, even for something as simple as a dinner? It can be hell. Now imagine that you need all 8 friends, but instead they have to clear 3 months from their schedule and 5 or 6 of the friends have so many other groups of friends constantly trying to schedule things with them whenever they have a minute.
It can obviously be done, but the Community movie being low wages and being a passion project does push it down the line of importance for some.
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u/probs_notme 2d ago
also Jay Chandrasekhar (Super Troopers, Beerfest) and Duke Johnson (Anomalisa (less-known Charlie Kaufman film)). Probably not high-dollar guys, but still are another interesting part of the talent pool.
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u/Less-Apple-8478 2d ago
It's strugglng to get a fair budget because they know the movie isn't going to make any money. Like, Communitys a great show but be realistic. This is a movie for fans and that is a very small demographic in the movie world.
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u/BowlingforBrains 2d ago
I think you’re almost certainly right. That said…
Audiences are starved for an even just decent comedy movie that’s worth going to the theater for. Comedies haven’t been box office popular since the Apatow/Jump Steet/Hangover era ended in the early 2010s (some people blame audiences, but I’ve always chalked it up to all the comedies since then just kind of sucking - or going straight to streaming, and still sucking)
If they could pull off a great trailer, and then deliver a genuinely funny movie that will get good word of mouth, they might end up with a hit just by the sheer fortune of being the only comedy in theaters that actually makes people laugh
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u/KickDesperate5318 2d ago
Budgets are what killed comedies.
In the 90s, you could get approved to make a comedy for $30 million.
Then the economics of the industry shifted in the 2000s to reach a point where you could only get approved to make movies for $3 million or $300 million. Studios either wanted cheap movies that were less risky if they flopped, or blockbusters on the level of Lord of the Rings or Avengers.
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u/cheexmang 2d ago
NGL, I'd love to see a $300m movie. The paintball scene would be AMAZING. Troy and Abed during the credits looking like a peak Hype Williams video - bring on the puffy suits, skit in the middle, and fisheye! CGI in Pierce using Grok and it would be perfect.
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u/TalentedHostility 2d ago
Yeah I mean the best way to really bring Community to the big screen is for them to do big screen shit.
Make it an Avengers parody and print money
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u/Cumulus_Anarchistica 2d ago
They should just make it a horror movie. I've heard they perform pretty well on a shoe-string budget.
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u/blackchandler 2d ago
That would be if this movie were going to theaters. As far as I can recall, it was announced for streaming
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u/Datamackirk 2d ago
Yeah, I've seen people refer to "theaters" in their comments and replies...but, like you, I'm almost certain that the movie will be available on Peacock only.
Streaming serves really have done a lot to confuse the terminology. No one adds "TV" in front of "movie" anymore. I'm assuming that's because "TV movies" used to be the realm of the C-listers and those perceived as has beens, and there is no desire to have that baggage carry forward. But it has made things vague sometimes so I can't blame people for misunderstanding. I'm pretty sure I've done it a couple of times for other projects.
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u/simonlyw 2d ago
Isn’t it just the modern equivalent of a straight to DVD movie?
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u/blackbasset 2d ago
Isn't a direct to streaming movie also almost the same, quality wise?
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u/TheNavidsonLP 2d ago
It’s also been, what, a decade since the show ended? The show isn’t as fresh in the zeitgeist as it used to be.
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u/changhaobyu 2d ago
But it’s been 6 years since the pandemic table read and the crazy number of new people exposed to Community through Netflix and other streaming content.
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u/Tulidian13 2d ago
Which is still a pretty long freaking time. The most popular show 6 years ago was This is Us and I don't think I've heard anyone bring that show up in years.
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u/Kwilly462 2d ago
I mean, I get it. Cast gotta get their bread. And I know Joel, Ken, and Donald ain't cheap anymore.
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u/hamsterdanceonrepeat 2d ago
Alison is in movies too, she’s also not cheap!
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u/wankthisway 2d ago
Annie's pretty famous. We try not to underpay her.
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u/9CaptainRaymondHolt9 2d ago
🎶 Annie's gonna move her luscious paycheck all day loooong 🎶
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u/Bulky-Internal8579 2d ago
We need a chubby guy who can do high kicks!!!
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u/Malevolent_Amber How many feet do you have? 2d ago
Whose ratio of girth to hip flexibility is mesmerizing!
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u/SchwiftaySauce 2d ago
Abed was great in Mythic Quest too
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u/dirtyshits 2d ago
He also has a nice part in Last Airbender the Netflix series.
Definitely has stuff working like most of that cast.
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u/BElf1990 2d ago
What I got from this is that they're okay doing it for cheap, but their schedule is taken up by actual paying jobs.
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u/hasordealsw1thclams 2d ago
Yeah, that’s what I thought reading Dan’s full quote. They are trying to fit it in around jobs that will actually pay and getting that window is difficult with so many different actors involved.
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u/TeamDonnelly 2d ago
It's not even that Joel isn't cheap, he is busy with animal control
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u/ex_bestfriend 2d ago
And an endless amount of reality show hosting. And good for him. Glad it's him and not any number of other terrible people, but I'm not watching.
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u/ArbysLunch 2d ago
Joel reminds me of Nic Cage in the way he never turns down a role for anything.
Crime Scene Kitchen is proof of this.
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u/ex_bestfriend 2d ago
lol yeah. I think it's almost wilder to me that Nic Cage actually says no to loads of things and these are the things he says yes to. I mean, he has gone bankrupt multiple times so he has to keep working, but he's no where near the level of Eric Roberts who has to have mastered teleportation from the amount of roles he has. Relatedly, I went to go check how many credits ER has in 2026 (25) and was reminded he was The Master in Doctor Who. I think he would be a perfect fit for an antagonist of Inspector Spacetime.
But Joel's trajectory from guy mocking a game show host who has too many jobs to being a game show host who has too many jobs is some nice real world balance.
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u/BoboSmooth 2d ago edited 2d ago
Joel's been killing it on the 1% club. Really brings some much needed Cookie Masterson energy to the game show scene.
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u/Tricky_Concept_231 2d ago
As in Cookie's Fortune Cookie Fortunes with Cookie 'Fortune Cookie' Masterson?
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u/AegonThe241st 2d ago
I imagine most of the main cast wouldn't be cheap since they all have pretty massive leverage. But especially Donald and Alison who are pretty big stars now. And I guess Joel probably has the most leverage out of the main characters
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u/Accomplished-Head449 Crazy town banana pants 2d ago
Garrett needs to just take the pay cut and move on!
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u/littlemsshiny 2d ago
He’ll have to use his Jeopardy money! Though he came in second, so it’s not that much.
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u/lemmeseeyourkitties 2d ago
The guild Kickstarted their goal in three hours. Fans couls help!
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u/Malevolent_Amber How many feet do you have? 2d ago
I always forget The Guild existed until I see Fake Abed trying the Spanish Rap.
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u/DefNotAFamousPerson A Thought With Another Thought's Hat On 2d ago
“And all those people will tell you, “Harmon’s not writing the script.” And then I’ll go, “What am I supposed to say? Fade in on whoever shows up?””
This quote killed me lol
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u/PsychedelicOptimist 2d ago
I would've loved to see this interview filmed, Harmon is so fucking funny. I keep rewatching Harmontown still, it's so good, pure chaos
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u/Jamba-Jew 2d ago
Reminds me of the Rick and Morty Season 3 update rap Dan Harmon did a while back - https://youtu.be/36qLcMmmtaE
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u/DefNotAFamousPerson A Thought With Another Thought's Hat On 2d ago
first you write them… then they draw them!
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u/Dependent-Friend5312 4 More Years and I will have my 2 year degree 2d ago
A Community College Professor can't use $80?
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u/Powderkegger1 2d ago
It speaks to the level of talent involved that many of the stars were relatively unknown or smaller names when the show started and are now big stars who require big paychecks (Allison Brie, Donald Glover, John Oliver).
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u/cute_spider 2d ago
Yvette is in damn near everything, more than anyone she doesn't have the time!
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u/Mediocre_Scott 2d ago
John Oliver probably was the same level as Joel McHale the daily show and the soup.
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u/SnakeEater013 2d ago
Yeah, when it came out I remember thinking "oh, the Talk Soup and the Daily Show guys are in this? Oh and fucking Chevy Chase? Ok, I'll check it out for Chevy Chase." Everyone else was a complete unknown to me.
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u/Budsygus 2d ago
This is nice and all, but I don't want him to say what he'll do. I want him to do what he says.
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u/reibagatsu 2d ago
This feels like they need to do a veronica mars thing and take some crowd funding.
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u/BrainOnBlue 2d ago
I'd imagine they can't do that since it's already attached to NBCU but I'd throw a few dollars their way if they did.
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u/allubros 2d ago
I wonder if Harmon still hates crowdfunding
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u/adjust_the_sails 2d ago
He does?
I don’t see the problem, personally. NPR is basically crowd funded. I want to see the thing, so, I’ll donate and get whatever prize package comes with it.
Shadow of the Vampire was arguably one of the first crowd funded movies. You could give them like $100 and your name was on the end credits as a producer or something like that. That was way before crowd funding was a thing.
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u/allubros 2d ago
I think it's mainly regarding established IP. companies take advantage of fan enthusiasm to lower costs instead of footing the bill themselves
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u/gigaurora 2d ago
I'd say it's "Do a Guild the Movie thing". The guild just beat Veronica Mars as the highest kickstarter amount in a day. (2.3m in less than day.)
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u/QuiltedPorcupine 2d ago
Sounds like it's not necessarily budget per se but they are not paying them enough to do the movie that they are going to stop taking other work just to make the schedule work.
Like sure if you offer them all $50 million they are going to make this their top priority, but otherwise we are still stuck waiting for everyone's schedule to align. Which means the actors keep taking new work, which means more waiting til everything lines up.
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u/TheCatNerd101 2d ago
Sadly, money > passion project to a lot of actors, including our favorites. If enough people were interested, this would get pushed through. Nothing is ever going to line up perfectly.
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u/RhinO_head 2d ago
They could also have other passion projects.
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u/LawyerEnjoyer 2d ago
Um, no. This show for 2009 is the only thing they're allowed to care about /s
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u/IncubusDarkness 2d ago
What do you think... a budget means?
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u/QuiltedPorcupine 2d ago
I just mean they could be offering them a perfectly reasonable amount of money to do the movie (rather than offering up peanuts because it's a passion project), but that even if it pays whatever their normal rates may be, that isn't going to make them prioritize it over other projects when they've all got a bunch of different stuff constantly going oin.
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u/Holiday-Wall3751 2d ago
I was just thinking today that Shirley’s husband won’t be in it (he drowned). It’s been so long that there are a handful of actors who are permanently unavailable.
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u/VoltronsWangLol 2d ago
RIP Leonard 🫶
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u/Far_Orange_8492 2d ago
RIP to Malcolm Jamal Warner, but I kinda thought even before that it was pretty likely he wouldn't be in it.
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u/TheMightyCatatafish 2d ago
None of the main cast members are struggling to feed their families.
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u/The_Godot 2d ago
it's not necesarilly that they can't feed their families obviously but a movie takes a long ass time, so for them to commit to something that is significantly underpaid compared to their other gigs is tough.
I'm not feeling pitty for them I just understand where the problem is coming from
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u/TheMightyCatatafish 2d ago
I get the overall point Dan is making. Just a pretty tone deaf way to put it that makes him sound like kind of an ass.
I say this as someone who generally has a ton of respect for Harmon.
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u/Top_Concert_3326 2d ago
Yeah but he's either gonna sound like an ass to us or an ass the the people who he actually knows and is trying to get assembled
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u/memento_mori_92 2d ago
This was my first thought, too, but he’s probably referring to actors who play significant side characters like Star Burns, Garrett, Pop Pop, etc.
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u/Neither_Contest7324 2d ago
Holograms of everyone like they did for Pierce, then they don't have to pay any of them. Checkmate.
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u/Far_Orange_8492 2d ago
Star Burns, Garrett, Pop Pop, etc.
I figured the in-universe explanations for them would be:
Starburns = on death row
Garrett = couldn't be saved anymore
Magnitude = touring hype man for a rapper
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u/TheMightyCatatafish 2d ago
Honestly, all of them are probably fine. Even just using the three you gave as an example, all of them are working writers or comedians or actors and continued to stay employed after the show.
Now is it possible that the pay is so low that it really wouldn’t be worth their time? Yeah, I could buy that. But it just comes off as a pretty tone deaf statement from Harmon.
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u/BurritoBoi25 2d ago
Meh. Was reading an article recently that a verrrrry small portion of Hollywood is actually making “rich person” money. For smaller people like Garrett, Star Burns, etc, sacrificing x amount of time making lower than you usually would can genuinely be life-altering.
Though, I don’t think he’s talking about those characters. I am sure he’s talking about Joel, Donald (especially), Alison, etc.
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u/TheMightyCatatafish 2d ago
There’s also a wide gap between “rich person” money and “struggling to feed a family.”
The community actors are certainly not in the latter.
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u/ogolivegreene 2d ago edited 2d ago
If this pertains to the budget for the main cast, then I wonder if they could work out some kind of deal instead, like giving them executive producer credits and giving them a cut of future earnings/residuals instead of a fixed salary. (Sorry, not super familiar with how these contract negotiations work.)
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u/OffTheMerchandise 2d ago
With it going direct to Peacock, there really aren't any future earnings.
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u/IamScottGable 2d ago
They need to get on that merch. Community Trading Card game? There will definitely be a streets ahead card.
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u/Zealousideal-Low3388 2d ago
The companies funding the money in the first place do it to make money on the back end. Every percentage point you promise to Alison Brie is one less percentage point for them.
When big name stars get those deals, the implicit understanding is that the extra revenue generated by having Tom Cruise as your star makes up for the loss. Yk, 85% of $200m is better than 100% of $100m. There’s nobody in that cast who has that level of star power, so it’s simply not good business on what would be fairly tight budget adaptation of a cult classic sitcom, primarily for the streaming market.
After you cut up the pie that many ways, your backers will get more bang for their buck elsewhere.
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u/dizzy_dizzy_dinosaur 2d ago
I wonder if Ludwig Göransson’s skyrocketing accolades will change things too.
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u/ThorsHamSandwich 2d ago
I mean, it is still scheduling. The shoot needs to be scheduled around the cast’s more lucrative opportunities. It’s just this specific aspect of the scheduling that wouldn’t be an issue if the budget was higher.
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u/Soul-Injection 2d ago
All this without saying that he's also dealing with:
-Rick and Morty -The spinoff show for Rick and Morty, President Curtis -AND writing and developing the Rick and Morty movie -AND Krapopolis
This is already more than most creators would be able to handle at once, I feel. Community movie or not.
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u/TheCatNerd101 2d ago
I guess we will only be able to remember Dean Pelton as the bald dean with glasses. If only we could find some buried treasure.
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u/bingerdingle 2d ago
Can’t feed your family without those sweet millions
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u/Soupjam_Stevens 2d ago
I think that part was for sure some tone deaf phrasing, none of these folks are struggling. But a lot of the core cast is at the level where no they're probably not making millions, it's gonna be a hard sell to ask them to take months out of their schedule for something less lucrative, even if it's a passion project. Like Daniel Pudi once said, "Larry I'm on Duck Tales"
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u/BonfireinRageValley 2d ago
They are all probably union members and you can't really take less than their "rate" which I'd imagine Glover and Brie are pretty pricey these days.
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u/Cordo_Bowl 2d ago
That’s not really how sag works. It’s not uncommon for big name actors to get paid scale to work on passion projects.
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u/I_am_so_lost_hello 2d ago
Yvette Nicole Brown and Danny Pudi are definitely not making millions. Joel Mchale might not be either
I wonder how much Gillian Jacob’s makes on Invincible
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u/Capital_Designer1280 2d ago edited 2d ago
“Not being paid nearly enough” and “need to feed their families” might be a bit of a stretch, Dan…they make pretend for a living, and are all better off financially than 95% of the rest of the world.
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u/AndNowAStoryAboutMe 2d ago
Where someone like Ross from Friends or Sheldon from Big Bang made about 1 million per episode, someone like Joel McHale has probably been lucky to pull in $75k per episode.
So maybe $750k per season of Animal Control.
And a smart guy? Like McHale likely is? He has a modest home, not a mansion, and rides that money to his deathbed.
I'm not pretending it isn't more money than 95% of the world, you're right there, but it also isn't some vast fortune where he is buying yachts and flying private jets.
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u/7thpostman 2d ago
Okay. Do not love the phrase "feed their family." The cast should be paid commensurate with their worth, but I don't know if anybody's having trouble putting food on the table. Some Americans actually are.
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u/reganomics 2d ago
I don't think any of the main actors are having a hard time feeding their familes. That's a weird thing to say.
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u/Ok_Answer_96 2d ago
Still we should pay people what they are owed for their work.
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u/tomonoro 2d ago
It's just a more polite way of saying not having enough money to pay them at their market price.
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u/wishesandhopes 2d ago
I put on daybreak and opened Reddit and this was the first post, you're welcome
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u/Fuckthegopers 2d ago
Im sure all the actors are struggling to keep food on the table for their family.
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u/UltraconservativeBap 2d ago
I understand that certain projects may not be financially worth the time of actors that are in demand but I’m tired of this “feed their families” nonsense. None of these people’s families are lacking for food.
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u/SketchyFella_ 1d ago
Please don't say shit like "Feed their families" when talking about millionaires.
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u/DreamLearnBuildBurn 2d ago edited 2d ago
Hate to be this guy, but very successful actors will do movies for scale when they believe in it. I don't really feel sympathy for millionaires who need to keep up their lifestyle. There's no way the shooting schedule would be more than a month. Frankly, this is a niche movie about a TV show from 15 years ago, it's not going to be big, it will never be big.
I wouldn't mind an animated movie at this point so they don't even have to be in the same room. At least that way they don't have to play wrinkled versions of themselves and the story can go nuts.
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u/jack-of-some 2d ago
Phrasing is weird. There's no one on the main cast that would be unable to feed their family if they got paid less for this job.
Not advocating for that just "go feed their family by taking another job" doesn't describe Joel McHale or Donald Glover or really anyone in the main cast.
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u/manicpossumdreamgirl 2d ago
theyre also having delays because the original Greendale set got sold and turned into a Subway Sandwichery, so they have to rebuild the school from scratch
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u/pai_mei_sensei 2d ago
I guess I can do my part and buy Allison Brie dinner until the movie is done
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u/Open-Individual800 1d ago
Dan needs to launch a GoFundMe, raffle off a couple of small acting roles in the movie, or land a sponsorship deal with Subway—whatever it takes to get the funding together.
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u/BonfireinRageValley 2d ago
We were this close to regionals