Paul Feig knows he’s lucky to be a director who can take on any genre.
While Feig is playing the roulette of rotating projects — including his upcoming first foray into franchising with the “A Simple Favor” sequel, plus his thriller debut for Blumhouse — the director/producer returns to his action comedy roots for his latest comedy, “Jackpot!”
The Prime Video film stars Awkwafina as an unassuming jackpot lottery winner who must survive until sunset to cash in on her winnings — while the whole world is trying to murder her and take her prize. John Cena plays an amateur lottery protection agent who agrees to safeguard her for a percentage of her profits. Simu Liu portrays Cena’s onscreen nemesis and big bad in a “Shang-Chi” reunion with Awkwafina.
Feig previously directed other beloved action comedies like “The Heat” and “Spy,” both starring his frequent collaborator Melissa McCarthy. But while McCarthy has repeatedly voiced her desire for a “Bridesmaids” sequel, Feig has a strict no-franchise policy (that does not extend to franchise reimaginings, like his 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot also starring McCarthy, given his love of the original film.)
In fact, the only sequel of his films is the upcoming “A Simple Favor 2.” Yet Feig just might make another exception for a franchised “Jackpot!,” if he can strike gold twice — even if he did think the initial premise was “stupid.”
Below, Feig teases his “maximalist” career goals, love of genre, and upcoming projects with IndieWire, including divulging how “Jackpot!” is linked to his Blumhouse debut inspired by the viral Netflix true crime docuseries “Worst Roommate Ever.”
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
IndieWire: How did you first become involved in “Jackpot!”?
Paul Feig: The script [by Rob Yescombe] got sent to me. When I did “School for Good and Evil,” we did it with Roth Kirsch, this company, and they had this property. It was called “Grand Theft Lotto.” In my head, I was thinking, “That sounds really stupid.” Then they sent me the script, and I was like, “OK, should I read this or not?” And then I heard that John and Nora [Awkafina] were both attached to it, and I was like, “Wait a minute, that’s catnip for me.” I started reading the script, and I thought it was the funniest thing I had read.
I saw the possibility to make the Jackie Chan action comedy that I’ve always wanted to make in this. I’ve always wanted to do physical comedy and action comedy but finding the right story, that’s the biggest part.
What other types of comedies do you want to direct? What else is left for you to do?
So many things. Howard Hawks is my hero of directors. He did so many different genres: He does a Western, then a screwball comedy, then a gangster movie, and does them all beautifully well. I’m really just trying to work my way through all of the genres and figure out how I can bring a fun take to all of the genres. I’m dying to do a musical, dying to do a Western, dying to do a big sci-fi epic, dying to do a horror movie. There are so many genres I would like to put a spin on. There’s a lot more to go.
It is interesting you haven’t intersected yet with Awkwafina and John Cena professionally. Have you ever crossed paths with either of them prior to “Jackpot!”?
Well, Nora and I became friends after she came to the premiere of “A Simple Favor” in New York six years ago. We became pals after that. We wanted to work together on something. At one point, she had a script that she wanted to do at our company [Powderkeg], and then she got busy with stuff, and that script sort of went away. When this script popped up, it was like, “Oh, thank god I can work with her,” and the fact that I get to take her into a very physical world that she has not done to that extent yet… And I liked the fact that she hadn’t done it before because the key to Katie, her character, is she’s not a good fighter. She’s a normal person who is thrown into this thing and has to defend herself any way she knows how, especially until John Cena shows up. And even then, she loses track of him. It was really fun to find the perfect comedic role for her both physically and emotionally.
And then for Simu Liu, that’s a reunion for Awkwafina and him as well after “Shang-Chi,” from an action space. At what point was he cast?
He was cast later. We were already kind of in pre-production and getting ready to go. We weren’t really sure who our bad guy was going to be. We were considering a bunch of people, and then we got a call from his people saying that he was interested in playing this villain. I was like, “Wow.” I never expected that Simu would want to do this. I’m a big fan of his. I loved him in “Shang-Chi.” I’ve seen his Canadian TV shows and think he’s really great. He just came in and wanted to do it and was willing to just play with this thing.
The hardest thing about action comedies is you can’t have a silly villain because if you have a silly villain, there are no stakes. You’re just like, “OK, well, they’re just going to make big jokes, and I’m not really worried they’re going to kill somebody.” And what Simu is able to do so masterfully is be real and be scary, but be funny at the same time. He finds the funny. He’s got that rant about La Croix that is one of my favorite things that I’ve ever had in a movie. He gets so angry in his defense of La Croix. That takes a masterful actor to really pull it off and make it funny.
Simu Liu’s guest role in “The Other Two” was one of my favorite performances. You mentioned meeting Awkwafina at the “Simple Favor” premiere years ago. Can you tell us anything about the sequel? Where are you at in production, and why won’t it be in theaters? [The film was announced to be a Prime Video streaming release.]
Well, we don’t know. There’s a chance it could be in theaters. I think that’s the path it’s on, but you never know. Never say never, because I’m a big theater guy. But I love being on streamers, too. I just love being able to make movies.
We’re in post-production right now. We’re about seven weeks into my director’s cut. We did do a test screening of it last week, and it scored through the roof. We are very excited. We’re definitely on the right path. I think we got it right, and it’s just a lot of fine-tuning to get it really singing, but I’m excited.
I’m excited to be wearing my pantsuit at a theater or at home, either way. With so much on the horizon that you would like to do, are you looking to revisit any more projects as a sequel? I know every “Bridesmaids” cast member has said they would return for that.
I’m always looking forward. I had so much fun doing the sequel to “A Simple Favor,” but I try to avoid them. I don’t want to fall back on old properties all the time. I just think they’re good on their own. There aren’t that many great sequels in the world, I hate to say. But with “A Simple Favor,” I was like, “Maybe we can make ‘Godfather 2’ and not make ‘Speed 2,’” or whatever. That was always my goal.
But that said, “Jackpot!,” I really would like to do a sequel to. I know what the story for the second one would be. We have now created a world, and have these two characters that I love, and I think there’s things to explore there. Sequels really come down to: Is there something new you can bring to it and explore and have new character revelations? Because if you don’t have character arcs, you don’t really have a movie.
For “Jackpot! 2,” would it be an anthology, like a new lottery with an entirely new cast?
It could go to that. I would like to revisit these characters for a few more. But we also love the idea that this could become an international franchise, too; see what different countries and different cities do with their lotteries if this lottery expands across the globe. I think there are a lot of opportunities.
That’s so fascinating because I know the Russo Brothers are doing that with “Citadel” and more TV shows as opposed to films. The “Jackpot!” logline is almost like “The Purge” meets “Squid Game,” but funny, and both are franchises now, too.
I’m a big fan of “The Purge” franchise, definitely.
Me too! And there’s great comedy in that as well, even though it’s not marketed as a comedy.
But that’s the new thing. Horror is the new comedy. It’s amazing we got to make [“Jackpot!”] because hard comedies don’t tend to get made anymore, especially not on a bigger budget. I think the fact that we had this seemingly very dark core to it and dark logline to it, gave it that extra thing that made it a little bit stickier — a sticky concept, as we say in the business.
“The Purge” is very dark because it’s literally all of mankind is in this thing. What I love about “Jackpot!” is the only people who are in it are people who choose to be in it. You choose to buy a ticket. So if you choose not to be part of it, you can just watch the weirdos and the crazy people do it. I think it’s a little more hopeful on mankind than “The Purge” is because more people than not choose to be in it.
That’s a great point, but then it’s also preying on people who would purchase the ticket and whatever they’ve got going on.
Oh, of course! It’s evil at its core. That’s no cherry-coating that.
You’re getting more into horror with your collaboration with Blumhouse, with “Worst Roommate Ever,” based on the viral Netflix true-crime series. Where that does fit in with your lineup of projects? Will you jump in on that next?
Yes, that will be next. I want to surprise people with the casting. We’re working on fine-tuning the script right now. We’re rewriting it and getting it to where it will be one of my movies but still be true to the genre. I never want my comedy or my take on stuff to overtake the genre. I’m very religious about the genres and respecting the genres. I just want to play within it to make it more fun. To me, “A Simple Favor” is like a Hitchcockian thriller. Like the way that Hitchcock has funny side characters, the characters are acting in extreme ways, and you laugh during Hitchcock movies when you’re not being like, “Oh my god!” That, to me, is the greatest combo for getting laughs and entertaining audiences.
For bringing a certain flavor and campiness to something, like with those side characters, how do you know how much to push it, within the genre limits? So many auteurs like yourself don’t think of genre limits anymore; they just want to disrupt it all.
I think you push as far as you can. I like extremes. I’m a maximalist, definitely. But if you are bound by a desire to make sure the characters feel real and are real people, even if they are extreme real people…We all have friends who have outrageous personalities. Those are the characters I like to have in movies because you never go, “Oh, that’s just bullshit. That’s just the actor making fun of the character.” I think if you have extreme characters and put them in the most extreme situations, as long as you don’t break with the audience the believability, then you can go as far as you want.
“Jackpot!” premieres August 15 on Prime Video.
