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The Onion Inks Deal To Produce Three Movies With Lionsgate
(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The Onion, which produces the only fake news we’d ever need, has inked a deal with Lionsgate studios to produce three movies that are set to run through 2018, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The setup will also see the Onion partner with Serious Business, the production company that is responsible for Comedy Central’s @midnight, in which comedians are pitted against each other in a sort of improv game involving internet memes.
The arrangement, in true Onion form, is accompanied by a bunch of wry, self-reflexive statements from the companies involved. “With the help of Serious Business and Lionsgate, we’ll make room on our award shelf for some Oscars. To the basement you go, Pulitzers,” said Kyle Ryan, vice president of Onion Studios.
“Somebody needs to be the grown-up in this press release and give a substantive quote, so I guess it will be us,” said Jordan Gilbert, vice president of digital production for Lionsgate. Gilbert then proceeds to talk about business-y, adult-y stuff that you probably don’t have much interest in.
So far, there is no word on what the movies will be like, according to The Wrap. Will it involve the talking heads that are featured every day on "American Voices"? Or maybe God? We’ll have to wait and see.
There has been a lot of change in recent times for the Onion, which had its humble start back in the late ‘80s on the campuses of Midwest colleges. Today, it has spawned two existing arms of publication: the A.V. Club, which focuses on pop culture, and ClickHole, which mimics the absurdity of internet culture. Last January, media giant Univision dropped $200 million to buy a 40% stake in the Onion.
The three-movie deal isn’t the publication’s first foray into movies. In 2008, writers for the Onion developed a movie called, what else, The Onion Movie, which went straight-to-video. The project, which was more or less a montage of Onion vignettes, included a Steven Seagal spot in which he played a martial artist called the “Cock Puncher,” who basically does what his name implies. The film also saw appearances by Michael Bolton, Daniel Dae Kim, and Meredith Baxter.
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