Young Americans Update (formerly Kids in America)

Rob filmed a movie called "Kids in America" which is now "Young Americans" starring Topher Grace, that was supposed to be released in 2008. According to IMDB, it will now be released in 2010. So, what's holding it up? This interview with Dan Fogler might give you some insight.

And in case the link disappears, here's the text:

Dan Fogler On Topher Grace, Anna Faris, And The Cocaine Problems Of ‘Young Americans’

Published by Larry Carroll on Monday, May 11, 2009 at 10:29 am.

It’s a film modeled after such instant classics as “American Graffiti” and “Dazed and Confused.” It features big names like Topher Grace, Anna Faris and Michelle Trachtenberg. So, why haven’t we seen “Kids in America” yet?

If you’re looking for the answer, you might want to start inside Dan Fogler’s nose.

“That is called ‘Young Americans’ now,” the “Balls of Fury” funnyman told me recently when I asked what had happened to the hilarious-looking film whose set I visited in early 2007. “I think that is going to open this year…there’s a lot of talk about it now, but nothing is solidified.”

Unfortunately, the tale of “Young Americans”/”Kids in America” is a long and twisted one that began when Grace was a red-hot actor on the verge of “Spider-Man 3″ superstardom; after he poured himself into writing, producing and starring in the Eighties-set film about an aimless college grad trying to find himself at an all-night party, Fogler told me that the people behind the film learned a valuable Hollywood lesson: Marijuana is funny, but cocaine is not.

“The movie has sort of become a hot potato, because there is a tremendous amount of drug use in it and it ain’t just pot,” explained Fogler, whose directorial debut “Hysterical Psycho” recently ppremiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. “It’s cocaine, and a lot of it is done by my character. And I think that became a very sensitive issue.”

“It’s one thing if it’s just pot. But when you introduce cocaine and you introduce how wildly it was abused back in the Eighties, I think that some people got a little touchy-sensitive,” explained Fogler, who plays Grace’s hard-partying pal in the film. “It started to float around [among distributors] like ‘Who wants to be responsible for releasing this insane movie?’.”

The dilemma of “Young Americans” exposes an interesting double-standard in Hollywood. While modern-day audiences have embraced pot-loving characters in the “Harold & Kumar” movies, “The Wackness,” “Weeds” and the rest, many within the industry are convinced that abusers of other drugs carry more risk of controversy and less comedic potential.

But, according to Fogler, there might be light at the end of the “Young Americans” tunnel. “I think it’s finally gotten into the right hands…It feels like a classic, rated-R Eighties movie, and I think there is a huge audience for that,” Fogler insisted. “And whoever finally releases it is going to be really happy.”

With any luck, we’ll finally see “Americans” in late ‘09/early 2010. And, in the meantime, Fogler laughed, perhaps somebody can try pushing the comedic boundaries of another drug.

“I guess you can find something hysterical about heroin,” he laughed. “But I don’t want to be the man that tries.”