Once presidential rivals in the middling political comedy The Campaign, funnymen Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis are set to team up on a film that could provide some of the comic gold missing from their 2012 film. The actors will head to China in Larry’s Kidney, based on a bizarre memoir from author Daniel Asa Rose that could just be outlandish enough to work with both Ferrell and Galifianakis’ brazen comic sensibilities. Better yet, director Richard Linklater is slated to helm. The last time Linklater made a dark comedy based on true events, we got the sublime Bernie, one of his most under-appreciated gems.
The book Larry’s Kidney has the verbose subtitle, Being the True Story of How I Found Myself in China with My Black Sheep Cousin and His Mail-Order Bride, Skirting the Law to Get Him a Transplant–and Save His Life. I doubt Linklater’s film will go with the Dr. Strangelove-ian title, but it provides a pretty good synopsis. Ferrell is attached to play Rose, while Galifianakis will portray Larry Feldman, Rose’s cousin. Feldman had been waiting many years on a transplant list waiting for a kidney, so along with his author cousin, they travel to China to get the organ.
Coincidentally, there was a subplot in The Campaign about a scandal involving a Chinese company, so Larry’s Kidney could also be making satirical commentary about the success and failures of that populous, Communist region. Regardless, the China setting could also be a big help to international grosses.
It could be a while until Larry’s Kidney gets going, since Ferrell has two films in the pipe (Get Hard and Daddy’s Home) and Galifianakis recently signed on to star in Will for The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius. As always though, we’ll let you know when we hear more.
