Pluribus Creator Vince Gilligan And Will Ferrell Almost Made A Comedy With A Wild Premise

Vince Gilligan is currently enjoying a great deal of success with his Apple TV series "Pluribus," an intense sci-fi series about what happens when humanity suddenly finds they share a single mass consciousness. The main character of "Pluribus" is a bitter, alcoholic misanthrope (Rhea Seehorn) who was, for reasons unknown, immune to the collective-consciousness-inducing catalyst, and has to learn how to live with all the annoying peace and love that rose in its wake. 

Gilligan has long been an ambitious writer and show creator, going back to the 1990s when he was writing bizarre comedy films like "Wilder Napalm" and writing/directing for "The X-Files." Indeed, "The X-Files" was his biggest career springboard, and he eventually became a co-producer. While that show was riding high, Gilligan also penned a romantic comedy with Drew Barrymore called "Home Fries," so his talents extended in two directions. Gilligan even created the short-lived "X-Files" spinoff series "The Lone Gunman," proving that he's always had an eye for pairing eerie sci-fi with off-center comedy. 

According to an article in Vulture, Gilligan also wrote a strange comedy script, way back in 1990, that was to be called "Two-Face." It had a wild premise (and had nothing to do with the Batman villain Two-Face). "Two-Face" was about a horrible, racist bigot who, after an unspecified prank-based accident, develops dissociative identity disorder. He suddenly has two personalities, one being the grumpy bigot, and the other being a compassionate, racism-hating progressive. According to an article in Empire, the script for "Two-Face" was still floating around Hollywood in 2008, and Will Ferrell was interested in playing the lead character. Sadly, the project never came together. Or perhaps it was fortunate. "Two-Face" sounds like a political tinderbox.

It should be noted that 2008 was the year Will Ferrell made "Step Brothers," so the comedian was also riding high. Vince Gilligan had been sitting on his script for years, and seemingly received mild interest from mainstream Hollywood multiple times. According to the Vulture article, Lawrence Kasdan was interested in making "Two-Face" with Kevin Costner in the leading role. It seems someone is always sniffing at Gilligan's door about the script. "Every year or so," Gilligan said, "somebody pulls it out of the file drawer and blows the dust off and thinks about acting in it." No one has yet. 

Ferrell, it seems, became interested in about 2005 and actually signed on as a lead actor by 2008. But even more quickly, the project fell apart entirely. According to Gilligan, it was easy to see why. It was a comedy about racism that had a lot of racial slurs in it. "I don't know that the movie will ever get made," he said, "because at the end of the day, it's a little bit tricky, because it's a comedy with the N-word in it." Eep. Yeah, it seems that, even if presented tactfully, there was no way a modern audience would accept such a wild premise. Even with a superstar like Will Ferrell attached, it seems that studios didn't want to touch "Two-Face." 

The project has remained dormant ever since. Gilligan, however, doesn't need it. In 2008, he launched his series "Breaking Bad," which, if I understand correctly, was something of a hit. That series lasted five seasons, and /Film has ranked those seasons. 

But that wasn't the end of it. It seems that Will Ferrell, despite not getting "Two-Face" made, still liked the script and still liked Vince Gilligan's style. It seems that Ferrell hired Gilligan to work on a different project for him. Sometime back around 2006, Ferrell had signed on to act in a film that was to be called "Fly on the Wall." Written by Neil Tolkin, "Fly on the Wall" was about a sad sack character who unwittingly saves the life of a talking, intelligent fly. The man and the fly become friends, and the fly will aid in turning the man's life around for the better. Presumably, Ferrell was to play the man, and not the voice of the fly. The script had already been written, but Ferrell wanted Gilligan's touch on it. Gilligan re-wrote the script to Ferrell's specifications, and they had every intention of making it.

That project, too, fell apart. Perhaps a talking fly didn't much interest Hollywood. 

The Vulture article has a whole litany of stalled comedy projects that Gilligan worked on, but that never saw the light of day. One of the more intriguing was about a scientist who invents an MRI machine that can erase the belief in God from people's brains. That kind of sci-fi high concept feels more in keeping with Gilligan's "X-Files"/"Pluribus" sensibilities. What are the consequences for someone who can essentially kill God? The story about the atheism machine, however, didn't sell, and it may be easy to see why; as Gilligan said himself, "it was not going to be a big crowd-pleasing movie."