Mike Myers, the actor who starred in "Wayne’s World," "Austin Powers" and on "Saturday Night Live," and whose career began at Second City, will play the role of real-life improv guru Del Close in a new bio movie co-produced by the Chicago comedy theater and training center.
Dubbed "Del," the new movie is to be written by Nick Torokvei and directed by Betty Thomas, once a student of Close. Close, who died in 1999, was a longtime local actor and pioneer in the early years of improvisational theater in Chicago. The movie has long been in the works, but Second City owner Andrew Alexander said Thursday that it now is on the fast track.
Alexander said principal shooting will begin in Chicago in April, with about half of it being shot in Second City spaces, mostly using Chicago-based actors. Alexander’s wife, Diane Alexander, is to be the lead producer alongside Paul Hanson, the CEO of Covert Media.
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Alexander said the roughly $5million movie has its financing in place. The target release date, he said, is fall 2017.
As far back as 2005, Alexander had optioned the lively book "Guru: My Days With Del Close," penned by Close’s former assistant and student, Jeff Griggs. It has taken a dozen years to get to this point.
Meanwhile, Charna Halpern, Close’s longtime creative and business partner at iO, also has been trying for years to get her own, separate movie about Close produced.
As the Tribune first noted in 2013, there is some irony in Second City producing a movie about Close, given his famously antagonistic relationship with the late Bernie Sahlins.
Sahlins, a founding father of Second City, believed in improv as a tool for developing scripted sketch work (a format that proved hugely influential in the comedy industry), whereas Close, an improv purist with metaphysical interests, was committed to improv as a unique art form in its own right. The pair reconciled on Close’s deathbed in 1999, but the animosity remains the stuff of legend.
Alexander acknowledged that history. "But we also did a lot of great shows at Second City with Del," he said.
With Myers attached, it’s far more likely now that the film will find an audience. For all his local fame in Chicago, and his influence on generations of actors and comedians, Close remains largely unknown to the general public.
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