As Mike Myers‘ fans await the returns of beloved characters like Shrek, Austin Powers and his many "Saturday Night Live" bits, Myers is hard at work coming up with something new. "The Love Guru" will be his next live action film, and it is a character he has already been performing to theater audiences for the past year.
"The Love Guru is a Canadian kid who was left in India, raised in an ashram, becomes a guru and has to help a star player of the Toronto Maple Leafs who’s gone off the rails, get it together to win the Stanley Cup," said Myers. "I’ve been in New York, I sort of did it in small theaters, sort of secret shows for about a year and a half and then I spent about a year and a half writing it and now we’re filming it in August. I take a page out of the Marx Brothers playbook. They would tour their movies for a year before they committed it to film so they could figure out [what works]."
Creating the magic of an "Austin Powers" or a "Wayne’s World" can be more of a science than some artists might admit. "I do tons of read-throughs as well. There’s sort of two things you’ve got to chart in a movie, which is going for the dramatic goal, and you’re big laughs. They have to be figured out to get that comedic momentum. It’s more journeyman and like being an engineer that way. And it takes time. That’s the thing. I’m a 9 to 5 guy. I get in at 9 and leave at 5."
Indeed, this is how some of Myers’ best work came to light. "Something hits my ear and it kind of happens. Usually it’s music. In the case of ‘Austin Powers’, I was driving home from hockey practice and I heard The Look of Love and I went, ‘What happened to swingers?’ And then started doing this voice and I toured the character for a year before bringing it to a studio."
Known for playing multiple characters in a single film, "The Love Guru" may introduce even more Myers’, though he will not play the hockey star. "I’m on the fence. There is a couple that I could do and they’re not sure. There’s so many forces at work that have nothing to do with you that are hard to juggle."
"The Love Guru" begins shooting in August.
