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‘SNL’ star Forte brings ‘MacGruber’ to big screen
Movie
MacGruber
Only one American hero has earned the rank of Green Beret, Navy SEAL and Army Ranger. Just one operative has been awarded 16 purple hearts, 3 Congressional Medals of Honor and 7 presidential medals of bravery. And only one guy is man enough to still sport a mullet. In the 10 years since his fiancée was killed, special op MacGruber has sworn off a life of fighting crime with his bare hands. But when he learns that his country needs him to find a nuclear warhead that's been stolen by his sworn enemy, Dieter Von Cunth, MacGruber figures he's the only one tough enough for the job. Assembling an elite team of experts--Lt. Dixon Piper and Vicki St. Elmo--MacGruber will navigate an army of assassins to hunt down Cunth and bring him to justice. His methods may be unorthodox. His crime scenes may get messy. But if you want the world saved right, you call in MacGruber.
Contra Costa (Calif.) Times
Will Forte has learned that life can deliver you to some pretty weird and unexpected places.
When the “Saturday Night Live” star appeared in the first goofy “MacGruber” sketch, he never, in his most deranged dreams, envisioned his clueless, mullet-headed, bomb-diffusing character at the center of a big-screen summer action movie.
And he certainly didn’t foresee a scene in said movie that would require him to be filmed naked on a bitterly frigid night in a cemetery.
“Yeah, so there I was standing there, with nothing but a little sock around my genitals,” recalls Forte, 39. “And I’m adjusting the sock when, suddenly, (‘SNL’ executive producer) Lorne Michaels appears out of nowhere and snaps a photo with his cell phone.
Forte can thank Jorma Taccone for that awkward moment. Three years ago, Taccone, an “SNL” writer, pitched a sketch pegged to a spoof of “MacGyver,” the 1980s TV spy series about a resourceful secret agent (Richard Dean Anderson) who worked his way out of life-threatening jams using ordinary items such as a paper clip or a book of matches.
Forte’s first reaction? No, thanks.
Recalls Taccone, “He told me, ‘That’s a really dumb idea,’ which didn’t surprise me at all because it is. But I pestered him about it and finally wore him down.”
Forte was just as skeptical last spring when Michaels suggested he huddle with Taccone and fellow “SNL” scribe John Solomon to write a spec script that would expand the two-minute sketches into a full-blown movie.
“MacGruber,” which opens Friday, is just one of several projects being juggled these days by workaholic Forte.