Key and Peele on 'Police Academy' reboot and working with Judd Apatow
This week, Key and Peele served as the guest editors for our comedy issue. We’re lucky to have gotten them, too, because they’re incredibly busy guys: On top of their Comedy Central series Key & Peele (which premiered its fourth season last night), the guys are juggling a scary amount of TV and movie projects at the moment.
For instance, there’s the Police Academy reboot they’re producing. “We were brought on to take the creative lead with it,” Peele tells us. “We got two of our friends, Ike Barinholtz and Dave Stassen [both of The Mindy Project]—brilliant, funny men. They’re going to be penning the script.”
At this point, Key and Peele aren’t sure if they’ll be in it, though it is an option. “When we start working with the script and seeing it, we’ll make the decision,” Peele says. “Is Key and Peele a distraction from Police Academy? We’ll figure it out. Either way, we’ll make the best call for the movie.”
On top of that, the duo are also currently looking to get Mr. Garvey— a.k.a the star of their viral instant-classic “Substitute Teacher” sketch—his own movie.
“We’re in negotiations at Paramount to make a ‘Substitute Teacher’ movie,” says Key, who plays Mr. Garvey on the show. “Two of our writers are penning it. Well, they’re not penning it as we speak — it’s getting there.”
And then of course, they’ve got their Judd Apatow project, which is still in nascent stages. “We’re starting at step one again with that,” Key says. “There was an idea with Judd, [but] we’re not doing that idea anymore. Now we’re going to start from ground zero and start all over again.”
They’ve got their work cut out for them, because Peele tells us he’s also developing a movie with Darko Entertainment—and he’d like to direct it too. “That’s a straight horror movie,” he says. “I want to be essentially a thriller director. I’m a big fan horror movies. Rosemary’s Baby, Stepford Wives—I’m sort of taking a lead from that genre of film. It’ll be, just, very cool.”
We don’t doubt it.
For more, check out Key and Peele’s issue of Entertainment Weekly, on newsstands Friday.