Charlie Day's Fool's Paradise Is The Result Of Years Of Work And A-List Collaboration
It's been a long time coming, but Charlie Day's directorial debut is finally upon us. "Fool's Paradise" tells the tale of a man who, though recently released from a mental health facility and unable to speak, becomes a Hollywood star. In addition to writing and directing, Day plays the silent man in question, tapping into heroes of the silent era such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, to take a satirical look at the inner workings of Hollywood.
A "Fool's Paradise" trailer dropped back in April and showcased the impressive roster of stars that Day managed to amass for his movie. Ken Jeong co-stars as an ambitious yet struggling publicist looking to capitalize on Day's character's likeness to a famous method actor named Latte Pronto — also played by Day. But there's more. On his journey through the film industry's unseemly underbelly, Day encounters numerous characters played by such stars as Adrien Brody, Jason Sudeikis, Kate Beckinsale, Jason Bateman, Edie Falco, John Malkovich, and even Common. Then, of course, there's the late Ray Liotta, who plays the Fool's producer and who, unfortunately, passed away before Day was able to release the movie.
While Day has been an established name in the industry for some time now, mostly owing to the success of "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" and the film career he was able to launch as a result, that doesn't mean making "Fool's Paradise" was easy. In fact, it sounds like it was a downright slog to get this thing into theaters.
Fool's Paradise took almost a decade to make
There's no doubt "It's Always Sunny" prepped Charlie Day to direct "Fool's Paradise," but the process of making the movie itself was a protracted one, partly due to the fact that Day had obligations to "It's Always Sunny."
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the 47-year-old explained how he first started taking notes for the film back in 2014, characterizing the initial concept as, "a silent character pulling a Mr. Magoo through show business." According to "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" star, he worked on his first draft of the script between seasons of "It's Always Sunny," and, "didn't really do anything with it until years later." Once he did start taking his script to collaborators, he linked up with producer John Rickard in 2017. But "Fool's Paradise" — then titled "El Tonto" — still had a long way to go.
In 2022, Day updated /Film on his unreleased movie, explaining how the pandemic forced him to take a step back and analyze his project. As he put it, "I used the pandemic to, like Pixar does, stop and look at my project and change whatever aspects of it I wanted to change." During that time he also tapped none other than director Guillermo del Toro, who he described as a "talented mentor," and "a brilliant man." According to Day, it was del Toro who persuaded him to take some time and make sure the film lived up to his original vision, even though Day was at the stage of trying to sell the finished product at the time. That ultimately led to him writing 27 additional pages and doing reshoots in December of 2021, which resulted in Ken Jeong's character playing a much bigger part in the final film.
'There are so many favors'
In his February 2022 /Film interview, Charlie Day revealed he was in the "final editing" stage some eight years after he'd first started taking notes for "Fool's Paradise." And it had taken more than just reshoots and advice from A-list directors to get it to that place. When filming the movie, Day had to rely on favors from other big-name friends, including his "It's Always Sunny" co-star Danny DeVito, who, Day revealed to THR, kindly lent his own trailer to the production for a dollar.
Ultimately, getting "Fool's Paradise" to the finish line involved calling in a number of these kinds of favors and collaborating with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. As Day put it in his THR interview:
"It's incredibly intimidating and humiliating to have to go hat in hand to so many people. There are so many favors that I needed to ask of people in terms of, 'Hey, can I get onto the Fox lot for three days?' And I have to write a letter begging to shoot on the weekend at a third of the cost. But what was amazing and really hopeful and inspiring was just how many people — not everyone, of course — along the way were willing to lend something to the movie."
"Fool's Paradise" is now playing in theaters.