Michael Keaton's early career as a stand-up comedian isn't remembered by many, mainly because it was mostly unremarkable. But the experience he gained from it obviously informed many of his great comedic performances as an actor, starting when he landed the TV role in All's Fair back in 1976, and then on to his sterling movie career. Now one of the earliest relationships he started back when he was on the stand-up circuit is about to payoff, as he's just joined the untitled improv comedy starring Larry David(Curb Your Enthusiasm).
Keaton gave an interview with Grantland, and revealed his role in the film, also talking about how David was one of the first people he met doing stand-up. David came up with the idea for this latest film, which has him squaring off with Jon Hamm, and Keaton will be thrown into the mix in some way. Much like his hit HBO series, it sounds like David will simply come up with a basic outline of each scenario, then throw it to his stars to make it happen, with the freedom to improvise as necessary. Greg Mottola(Superbad) is directing, and hopefully he'll find more success here than he did with Paul last year. Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel (The Dictator) have done some work on the script, which for a movie like this has to have been the easiest job ever. All three have worked with David in the past so they know what he wants.
After falling under the radar for awhile, Keaton's had a pretty impressive comeback, from voicing Ken in Toy Story 3 and as the pop music-quoting police chief in The Other Guys. Let's not forget there's that Beetlejuice sequel he's expressed some interest in.
