The Lonely Islandhave already shared their absurd musical comedy onSaturday Night Live and three studio albums. But now the trio (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone) are branching further into feature film with a new, as-yet-untitled project acquired by Universal. According to The Hollywood Reporter, all three will star in the big-screen comedy, which is set in the music world. The trio will co-produce the movie, along with Judd Apatow Productions; Schaffer and Taccone will co-direct.
The Lonely Island first rose to national attention on SNL (Samberg as a cast member, Schaffer and Taccone as writers), creating a series of highly popular digital shorts including Dick in a Box (which featured Justin Timberlake crooning about a phallic surprise), Lazy Sunday (which found Samberg and Chris Parnell as devoted nerds-cum-hardcore-rappers rhyming about Yahoo! maps and The Chronic(what?)-cles of Narnia) and the highly literal track Im on a Boat. Since leaving the show following the 2011 and 2012 seasons, theyve released three LPs, including 2013s The Wack Album.
The trios first film project was 2007s Hot Rod, which was directed by Schaffer and starred Samberg as an idiotic stuntman. (The trio helped co-write the film, though their contributions were uncredited.) Schaffer and Taccone have kept busy with acting and directing, while Samberg has found success with his TV comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Back in January, the group teamed with Tegan and Sara for the song Everything is AWESOME!!!, which appeared on the soundtrack for The Lego Movie. The synth-driven cut found the trio in a less raunchy mood, rapping about teamwork and dipping their bodies in chocolate frosting.