'The Ben Hur of hidden camera'

Dom Joly is making a movie follow-up to Trigger Happy TV.

He describes the project as ‘the Ben Hur of hidden camera’, as it will feature huge set pieces, featuring hundreds of extras.

Filming begins in the States towards the end of the year, after Joly’s forthcoming live tour, and he has recruited thousands of fans to take part in the stunts, flashmob-style.

‘It’s a mix of Trigger Happy and flashmob,’ he told Chortle. ‘To me flashmob is a brilliant. I like the idea but all anyone ever seems to do with it is dance. I want to do something a bit more interesting.

‘It’s got Trigger Happy humour, not the same characters, but it’s odd and hidden camera and it’s got huge set pieces where we get 2,000 or so people involved.’

Around 75,000 people have signed up to be told when filming is taking place near them – although recent legal clampdowns have made production difficult in some states.

‘There are about 13 states where it’s illegal to do hidden camera filming, including California,’ Joly said. There’s a lot more legal hassle, but it will be done and it’s going to be cool.’

He added that Hollywood had long wanted to make a big-screen version of his Channel 4 show; but that he held off until he and long-term collaborator Sam Cadman could have full creative control, after being stung by their experiences making Trigger Happy USA.

One sticking point that delayed the film was that Joly wanted no plot driving the stunts, much to the confusion of studio executives.

He said that at every meeting someone would say something like: ‘This is all brilliant, so we’ll just have a romance…’

‘Then we’re off again, ‘ Joly said. ‘“No there’s nothing.” But I think they’ve got it now, that we just want a big stupid movie.

‘The idea is that essentially, there’s a terrorist cel loose in America but it’s a bunch of idiots doing stupid stuff. That’s the only story and even that’s not a story. We wanted to call it Big Dumb Stupid Movie. But they said, “No, you can’t put that.”

‘I don’t particularly like Jackass but Jackass are now making their third fucking movie while we’ve been talking about it.’

Click here to read the full interview.

Published: 6 Apr 2011