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This weekend, the Judd Apatow comedy train keeps on chugging, with an all-new R-rated comedy called Get Him To The Greek. This movie is the first among the many that Apatow’s produced, written, or directed that’s a full-on spin-off. Yes, for those of you who haven’t seen the raunchy 2008 comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, you may not know that the wild rock star in Get Him To The Greek is not only played by an actor from both films, Russell Brand, but that the character is the exact same person. Aldous Snow was first introduced in Sarah Marshall, and now he’s the main focus. Jonah Hill, who also appeared in Forgetting Sarah Marshall but isn’t playing the same character, co-stars with Brand in Get Him To The Greek, which may or may not be great (fingers crossed for the former), but is certainly a unique movie.

There was a time when spin-offs were all the rage on television, but it’s rare indeed for a movie to have a corresponding spin-off. There are always rumors, but when we’ve only known a character for a few hours, as opposed to a decade or so, it’s harder for a fully realized world to be created around said character. There’s a reason why, for example, Frasier was such a popular sitcom, as the show’s writers were given a nine-year head start on creating a show around Kelsey Grammer. The same can’t be said for pretty much every movie character. This week’s A-List endeavors to figure out what great movie character would be deserving of a spin-off film. Aldous Snow is certainly a funny character - and the scene-stealer of Forgetting Sarah Marshall - but there are far more deserving fictional folk to get a spin-off. Let’s see who they are.

Brick Tamland

Friends, there was a time when Steve Carell wasn’t a huge star. It’s hard to believe, I know, but true. For a long time, the only way you’d see him be funny was as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. Once he moved onto movies, though, he was immediately known as a force to be reckoned with. One of his first starring vehicles is one of the rare spin-off movies, Evan Almighty, and though that was a major failure, it only came about because of how amazing he was in his few short minutes in Bruce Almighty as a pompous reporter whose mouth gets taken over by a prankish Jim Carrey. That said, Carell’s best film character who didn’t already have a movie would have to be another scene-stealer: Brick Tamland from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

We know from the end of Anchorman that Brick would go on to be married, have kids, and be an advisor in the George W. Bush administration. Carell can obviously hold his own as a leading man, but movies like Evan Almighty prove that the man is far funnier when he’s not being the straight man. Even on The Office, he’s not a straight man, he’s the catalyst for humor. Brick Tamland, as established in Anchorman, could never be the straight man. He might think he is, but we all know that would never happen. What’s more, the story of how Brick gets into politics is a perfect 21st-century way of telling the story of Being There, a story about a childlike gardener who stumbles into being incredibly popular simply by people assuming his nature belies brilliance. Brick Tamland would be a great way to start this story. Are you listening, Steve Carell and Will Ferrell?

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