Broken Lizard
From Free net encyclopedia
Broken Lizard is a comedy group best known for their comedy films Super Troopers and Club Dread. The five members of the group are Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Eric Stolhanske. All five also participated in the making of the 2005 Dukes of Hazzard film but the movie was not branded as a Broken Lizard vehicle. They all jointly write and act in their films, with Chandrasekhar as director.
The five met at Colgate University where they formed a sketch group called Charred Goosebeak. They began playing shows in New York City in 1991, and were eventually asked to write and perform in a short film, The Tinfoil Monkey Agenda. The group's first feature, Puddle Cruiser, was screened at the Sundance Film Festival.
Broken Lizard's Super Troopers premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Fox Searchlight. Fox released the film worldwide in February 2002 where it was a financial success at the box office, earning more than $18 million. Besides being one of the sleeper theatrical hits of 2002, Super Troopers has also found a massive audience in its video and DVD releases, selling in excess of a million DVDs and amassing millions of new fans in its run on cable television. The story of five somewhat inept Vermont state troopers trying to solve a murder case, Super Troopers exposed the world to the antics of Broken Lizard's unique brand of comedy and landed Chandrasekhar on Variety's "10 Directors to Watch" list in 2001.
It is rumored that the troupe is working on three projects: the movies Beerfest and Greek Road as well as a sketch tv show. Beerfest has received studio approval and will begin filming in February 2006; a late summer 2007 release is planned.