Community Movie has One Philosophical Issue According to Dan Harmon

Dan Harmon, creator of Community and co-creator Rick and Morty, has updated fans on his plans to bring a Community Movie to life in a recent interview with SyFy. However, it’s not all sunshine and roses with the project as Harmon has gone on record to say he’s struggling with one major ‘philosophical question’- ‘Are you supposed to service a mythical new viewer?’

Harmon answered this saying: ‘The obvious, dogmatic, practical, off-the-street answer is like, No, you don’t. It’s fan service. 

‘Why would there be a Community movie? Who do you think is going to walk in off the street and buy popcorn and sit and watch a Community movie like that? They deserve to be punished. Why are they doing that?’

Although he does note that it is hard not to write a movie that will have a broad and wide appeal even if you dismiss the idea of a person who is going ‘to walk in off the street’ and watch the film:   

‘Saying that that person doesn’t exist is a lot different from asking yourself structurally if you’re supposed to design the movie for them, because there’s a new viewer inside of all of us. 

‘If every Marvel movie started with inside references to all 90 other Marvel movies, even if you had seen all of them — even if on one level you’d be like, This is the greatest Marvel movie ever because all of the movies are in here — I think that a part of your brain would be going, Yeah, but it’s kind of not a good movie for this reason. It’s just speaking in gibberish. What does this mean? I exist in that camp like you?’

What this really means is that film should be able to stand on its own and appeal to both old and new viewers, with Harmon going onto say: “Formalistically, you owe a movie that I think the fans can not only enjoy, but they can stand back and go, You know, the crazy thing about this Community movie is that if you didn’t know there was a show, this is an insanely good movie. 

‘There’s a reason to watch it and then definitely watch the series because now you’re like, Holy crap. I don’t know if that’s arrogance, pretentiousness, responsibility, self-deprecation, torture. I can’t get myself out of that camp.’

Another issue that arises from the idea of a community movie, is paying service to those iconic characters that appeared in the TV show and how to keep them fresh and new rather than treading over old ground and story points with them. 

Aside from Harmon’s inner philosophical conflict at writing the film he indicated that the reason this has become such a conflict for him is that he has been thinking about the story for the film and is closer to writing it than he has been for a while: 

 ‘I started writing to keep my parents from hitting me, and I now only write to feel valid. But the upside of that is yes, I am, at least once a week, thinking about it, because the gears are turning. 

‘There is, like … a thing is happening. Logistically, the locks are coming away. And the only problems are becoming the creative ones, which is great because I love those problems. I love having these conversations, and they’re being had.’

What do you think about a Community Movie? Do you think it’ll be Street’s ahead or ruin the legacy of a classic show? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

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