Seth MacFarlane goes old school spaghetti western in his latest comedy movie, A Million Ways To Die In The West, following up on his 2012 feature-length debut, Ted. With McFarlane taking the lead role alongside Liam Neeson (The A-Team movie) as the Wild West baddie and Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road) as the tough-adze leading lady, it could a whole lot of gun-slinging, talking bear, big giant chicken fun [note, for reference there will be no talking bears or giant chickens. Their mention was a poor joke on the part of the writer in a failed attempted homage to Family Guy].
Set for a UK release date of the 30th May 2014, the film is also set to star both Amanda Seyfried (Epic), Sarah Silverman (Wreck It Ralph), Giovanni Ribisi (Gangster Squad) and How I Met Your Mother‘s Neil Patrick Harris. Taking a little influence from the western spoof classic, Blazing Saddles, and throwing in a fair amount of the same shlacker humour that made Family Guy what it was, it looks like it’s got the potential to be a cool new western comedy to add to the mix.
The story is a zero to hero tale as Seth McFarlane’s sheep-tending character, Albert, tries to pick himself up after losing his girlfriend, Louise (Seyfried), when he drops out of a gun fight duel to the death. When the spineless shepherd meets new girl in town, Anna (Theron), she inspires a little more confidence in him, as well as teaching him how to shoot a gun. However, his new-found metal is put to the test with the arrival of Clinch (Neeson), the angriest gun fighter in the west, who takes an instant dislike to little Bert.
From the look of the trailer, the Arizona town setting is plagued with quick and easy deaths, in a vague parody of the way most period movies skip over the phenomenal mortality rate of the time. It also features a pretty funny side story with Ribisi playing Albert’s friend, Edward, who’s got his own women troubles, sort of, as he starts up a relationship with Ruth (Silverman), one of the town’s most renowned prostitutes, which we’re expecting a whole lot more laughs from in the movie.
Now that we’ve had a chance to see the trailer, we’re pretty sure we know what the real plot for the film is though: [cue wistful western background music] American comedy-genius geek Seth creates a few massively successful TV shows to scrape together enough money to make a movie set in Arizona in 1882. In a bid to fulfill his boyhood dream he casts himself in the starring role in a one-in-a-million, but equally brilliant bid to get off with one of Hollywood’s hottest screen goddesses.
It’s essentially The Great Gatsby, set in the wild west with a much happier ending, and in all fairness it’s won us over as a result.
As well as taking the lead role, and the potential kissing scenes with Charlise Theron, McFarlane also takes credits as the director, co-producer and co-writer. If A Million Ways To Die In The West is as successful as Ted was then we’d expect to see a whole lot more of him in front of and behind the lens.
