In the 1970's, Harvard students Doug Kenney, Henry Beard, and Robert Hoffman founded a little magazine by the name of National Lampoon, which rapidly grew in popularity until it included all manner of media, from records, television, theater, and of course, movies such as ANIMAL HOUSE and VACATION. Based upon Josh Karp's book of the same name, Netflix's A FUTILE AND STUPID GESTURE tells the story of "comedy wunderkind Doug Kenney, who co-created the National Lampoon, Caddyshack, and Animal House. Kenney was at the center of the 70’s comedy counter-culture which gave birth to Saturday Night Live and a whole generation's way of looking at the world." Directed by David Wain (A WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER), the biopic doesn't exactly take the traditional route, with Martin Mull stepping in to narrate the film as an older version of Doug Kenney, even though the real Kenney died at the age of 33 after falling off of a cliff in Hawaii.
In addition to Will Forte and Martin Mull, A FUTILE AND STUPID GESTURE also stars Domhnall Gleeson, Thomas Lennon, Joel McHale, Matt Walsh, Jon Daly, Seth Green, Matt Lucas, Paul Scheer, Natasha Lyonne, Emmy Rossum, Finn Wittrock, and Joe Lo Truglio.
A FUTILE AND STUPID GESTURE will debut on Netflix on January 26, 2018.