DOWNEY, California — They've lampooned blaxploitation films and horror movies — heck, they even built an entire flick around lampooning the Hilton sisters. Now the Wayans family's spoof factory is reaching for its most sacred target yet: Zac Efron?
Hitherto known simply as "The Untitled Wayans Brothers Project," the upcoming film from Marlon, Shawn, Keenen Ivory and nephew Damien will be appropriately called "Dance Flick" and spoof movies like "Save the Last Dance,""Hairspray,""You Got Served" and, yes, "High School Musical."
(You can see the "Dance Flick" poster exclusively on the MTV Movies Blog.)
"We watched a few [dance movies]. We watched a couple ... couple hundred thousand," writer/producer Shawn Wayans laughed when MTV News visited the set of the film over the summer, a late-night shoot that involved a complicated scene from the end of the movie. "We thought it'd be a funny [next step]."
Shawn's assertion that the team behind "Scary Movie,""Little Man" and "White Chicks" watched "a couple thousand" dance movies aside, it's hard to argue that the genre has seen so many new entries in recent years that it's reached a level within public consciousness large enough to satire.
Indeed, visiting the set was like a walk through some kind of bizarro role call, with actors and actresses all cast for their physical resemblances to their more famous targets. There was a plumper, perkier Nikki Blonsky (Tracy Transfat in the film); a grittier, more urban Omarion; and, um, well a very effeminate Efron.
Ask Shawn a simple question about what they're currently filming, and three different movies get name-checked in about 10 seconds.
"Basically, it's 'Step Up 2' on the streets, and our Tracy Transfat character, who's kinda like the big chubby girl from 'Hairspray,' got tossed into the air and lands on the car from 'How She Move' and blows the windows out, and so that's the ending of the big 'Step Up 2' dance scene," Wayans said of the setup, somehow managing to forget the living parodies of "Save the Last Dance" and "HSM" standing to his right and left.
While the style of the film will be similar in parts to the Wayans Brothers' other spoofs, the name behind the camera won't be. Well, not entirely.
Stepping into the spotlight is Damien Wayans — nephew to Shawn, Marlon, Keenen, et al — and a first-time director.
Just don't call it passing the baton.
"We ain't handing them the baton. We're running with them and we're all running together. We just gave them half the baton to run with," Shawn joked. "I see all of myself in Damien. He steals me basically. He's a thief. He stole my soul. I stole Keenen's soul. Lil' Damien stole all of our souls.
"It's a little bit mixed up," Shawn continued, the machinations of his newest spoof movie running in the background. "We're one big mixed-up family."
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