Judd Apatow and Universal Purchase New Comedy Pitches

After 2007 and 2008 being the overload, it was a wise decision of Judd Apatow to have merely two films on the market this past year. A backlash against Apatow and his brand-name of comedy was all but inevitable. In fact, both 2009 efforts wound up being financial duds – Year One (which he produced) and his third directorial project Funny People. Has the worst of it already been felt? It’s still too early to tell, but the writer/producer/director is getting back out there.

Variety reports Apatow and Universal Pictures have bought up three pitches made by filmmaker Jason Woliner and actor/comedian Aziz Ansari (currently on Parks & Recreation). Woliner is set to direct all three films and Ansari to star. First we have Let’s Do This, a road movie about motivational speakers. Then two currently untitled comedies – one about a disgraced cosmonaut forced back into space to clear his tarnished name and the other is a spin-off movie set around Ansari’s bit-part from Funny People.

I guess they’re banking on the Forgetting Sarah Marshall spin-off Get Me to the Gig (which, you guessed it, also features Ansari) doing well next summer. Maybe we’ll finally get that McLovin movie the world has been pining for after all.

You have to tip your hat to Apatow. He’s been helping his friends get their foot in the door ever since his own break-through success with The 40 Year-Old Virgin. I say all power to him.