Though he achieved perhaps his biggest Stateside success last year when a BBC miniseries he starred in got edited into the acclaimed big screen release The Trip, Steve Coogan is a comedic actor who’s been around for quite a while. And one of his biggest claims to fame in the worldwide sense comes from his portrayals of the Alan Partridge character.
Partridge is an egomaniacal and insecure take on sports commentators and chat show hosts that Coogan has portrayed in numerous British radio and TV shows like Knowing Me Knowing You, The Day Today, and I’m Alan Partridge, and the character is so popular that there’s long been rumors about a potential movie being in the works. Up to this point that hasn’t amounted to much more than rumors and development hell, but an interview that co-writer Armando Iannucci (I’m Alan Partridge, Veep) did with Empire Magazine claims all that is about to change.
Iannucci told the mag, “It’s just about all come together now, so that’ll be shot later in the year,” and said of the film’s prospective title, “At the moment it’s The Alan Partridge Movie but that’s just a working title. [The script] is written [but] we’re always rewriting, rewriting and rewriting.” Apparently Declan Lowney, who helmed the bulk of the British TV series Father Ted has been hired to come on and direct. For fans of British comedy, that’s kind of a dream team of hilarious dudes coming together to make a big, heavily anticipated thing, and reason to celebrate.