Funny Or Die hoping to break into the movie business, National Lampoon-style

By Sean O'Neal | January 10, 2013 | 9:40pm

Aux Features Film

Funny Or Die has developed a reputation for being a reliable provider of videos in which celebrities do reasonably humorous things for about two minutes. Now the website from Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Chris Henchy is taking the plunge into dragging that out to 90 minutes or more, concocting plans to develop a slate of feature-length comedies a year under its Funny Or Die Pictures banner, much like it did this past year with Tim And Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie. “We're not looking to find some scripts and make just a bunch of movies,” says Funny Or Die CEO Dick Glover, whose name suggests why he probably got into comedy in the first place.

Instead, they’re intending to limit their scope to just two or three movies a year, all produced using the site’s in-house stable of writers and directors. Obvious comparisons to National Lampoon are made in the Hollywood Reporter article announcing the new venture, an aspiration made all the more explicit by Funny Or Die’s new producing partner Scott Steindorff, who says he hopes to “find the next Animal House or breakaway comedy.” Or, you know, at least the next Transylmania.