It’s a busy Ben Stiller morning as the comedic actor has recently been reported to be approached for a new Twilight Zone movie. For more than ten years, Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way has been trying to develop a new Twilight Zone feature film for Warner Bros., as The Twilight Zone is said to be DiCaprio’s favorite TV show, but it has been a bumpy ride with the project passing through the hands of multiple directors and screenwriters. After Stiller’s run with the immensely popular Severance, he is now under consideration.
However, Stiller has not left the comedy world behind, as it’s also been reported that he and De Niro are preparing to return to the Meet the Parents franchise for a fourth installment. Wicked star Ariana Grande has been announced to be joining the fray in the role of a “ball-busting” woman engaged to Greg (Ben Stiller) and Pam (Teri Polo) Focker’s son. People recently asked Stiller about the movie and the comedy actor kept his lips sealed on details except for teasing Grande’s role. He stated, “I can’t really talk too much, I guess, at this point about the movie.” Stiller later pays Grande a compliment by stating how she is “so great with comedy.”
Stiller continues to say, “But the character she’s playing is— she’s going to be really, really funny and kind of the whole engine of the new movie. So it’s exciting.”
As for why it’s time to add another installment in the Meet the Parents series, Stiller said, “I think what spurred the idea was that at this point in time. I’m the age that Bob was when we did the first movie. Teri [Polo] is the same age [Ariana] was when we did it, and there was this sort of sort mirror to the first film in terms of my kids are grown. And my kid, one of my kids, is thinking about introducing his person to the family. I think life informs everything that’s happened in the last, you know, 25 years, and it’s been a while since we did the last one. I think what like 15 years ago? So it’s kind of like great to look at it as a sort of like a new thing. But of course, there’s all these great memories and I feel like our connections are still there. When we get back together, it’s just like, it’s kind of like, all baked in there.” Despite the timing playing out perfectly, De Niro said that he was trying to get a fourth Meet the Parents going while Little Fockers was filming.
