The new movie starring Steve Coogan...  Looks quite funny from the trailer. Added with the fact it has the delicious Elisabeth Shue in it as well.  Here's an interview from Movies ONline with Mr. Coogan...

MoviesOnline sat down with Steve Coogan ("Night at the Museum") to talk about his new movie, "Hamlet 2," a world premiere at – and the comedy smash of – the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Andrew Fleming, "Hamlet 2" also features Catherine Keener, David Arquette, Amy Poehler, and Elisabeth Shue.

In the irreverent comedy, a failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama teacher (Coogan) rallies his Tucson, AZ students as he conceives and stages a politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Steve Coogan is one funny guy and we really appreciated his time. Here’s what he had to tell us about his new movie:

Q: You didn't want to play this guy English?

SC: Oh that's right, yes, no I didn't. For two reasons, because when I read the script, you got a feel that what was coming off the page to me was quite clearly someone who was American. You sometimes hear an accent when you read something and I definitely didn't hear an English accent when I read it. And I didn't hear someone who was English when I read it. And also the fact that he was so emotionally open and demonstrative is not really a British thing. However, people on the west coast of America, there's a kind of, those people are very emotionally, explore themselves emotionally. You go into so many airport bookstores and there's self help books. As a British person I think, "God, how many books can you need on how to make yourself a better human being?" But this character, Dana, is the kind of person who I'm sure would avidly consume all those kinds of books. And also, his accent, I thought if he'd been British, it would start to become a defining thing. He'd have to start talking about English stuff and it's not about that. It's about someone who's creative and loves the arts. Thirdly, I thought I'd quite like to do something that's not English, especially in America so that I don't end up playing bad guys and butlers for the rest of my life.

Q: Were you into Shakespeare at school?

SC: Was I into it? I don't think I was into it really. I found it kind of interesting. I had a good English teacher. I think I understand. I'm fairly, fairly familiar with Shakespeare's major works. I went to see a lot of them and I did some school productions and stuff like that, so yeah, yes, there are some fantastic passages in some of his work that are amazing, that are very usable. So I saw its relevance and the fact that it was resonant. I understood all that when I was younger.

Q: What about mastering roller blades?

SC: That's something that I realized, I thought well, maybe I could be really good at it. Then rapidly that became obvious that it wasn't going to happen. I was in Venice Beach and I took some lessons. I checked into a hotel. I checked into Shutters and was there for two nights and booked, I said, "I'd like two days, or three days, maybe three nights." Yeah, so three days straight, I just kept going up and down. There were these two roller skating experts. I just wanted it to look like it was conceivable I could commute to work on them but I can't.

Q: Isn't it better that he's not good?

SC: Well, that's the direction we went in. Play to your strengths.

Q: Was there a lot of improv?

SC: Not really. There was a lot of collaboration. I mean, Andy and Pam, we became very friendly and we became sort of like a creative threesome. We talked about a lot of that stuff. A lot of what I suggested about the character they sort of took on board, but it's their script and it remains pretty faithful to what they wrote. Sometimes, the curse of writing a good, well crafted script is that it flows so comfortably, people think it must be improvised and in actual fact, it wasn't. It was written. Although having said that, there were, I would say about 10% of the time, there was stuff that wasn't in the original script. But that wasn't something we'd improvise on camera. What we'd do is before we did a take, I'd say, "Why don't we try this? Shall I do this? Why don't we do, try something like such and such?" Then Andrew would say, "Well, show me." Then he'd laugh and go, "Okay, let's try that here." If he was convinced about it. He was calling the shots pretty much.

Q: Did you have any drama teachers like Dana?

SC: I went to drama school for three years, instead of studying properly at university. I met lots of people. It's like a sanctuary, drama school is I think a sanctuary for people who are terminally bewildered.

Q: Is swearing at children, showing your ass and playing Jesus a dream trifecta?

SC: Yeah, I do sometimes like to see what you can get away with. Not just in terms of throwing toys out of the pan just to try and shock people. I like to see – sometimes you do do that in comedy. You think, "I wonder if I can get away with this."

Q: Like the phallic balloons?

SC: That's something, knocking the balloon against his face, that was something that came out of Skylar and I were saying, "What can we do that's funny?" He said, "What about if you did this?" We talked about it and I tried it. I said, "What if I actually did…" we showed Andy. So we actually came up with that. That was sort of something we said, "Can we try this?" And Andy said, "Let me see" and he started laughing. He said yes and just thought it was funny. I thought it was funny but it made sense. It's because it's funny and sad and it's complicated at the same time because he's clearly in love with me. That's the closest he's going to get to intimacy so there's a sort of emotional truth to it even though it's stupid.

Q: How was it conquering musical numbers?

SC: That was difficult. I mean, we had to rehearse. We rehearsed the way, because we were doing a musical show, but we were making a movie and then we were doing this musical. So you had to rehearse the musical because it's very specific moves and things. I did a little bit in it but mostly it was the guys, the kids.

Q: Did any of them help you?

SC: Skylar did. He was in actual fact, and Phoebe, they were both very smart, sort of infectious likeable, lovable people. But Skylar is very, I think he's going to do very well because he's happy to - - he plays naïve and vulnerable very, very convincingly. More than that, he was actually, he made suggestions to me I was a bit shocked at at first. I thought, "Why is this 20-year-old kid trying to tell me how to do my job?" But his suggestions were smart and funny which shocked me because he'd say, "Why don't you try this?" And I'd go, "Oh my God, that's a really good idea." So after that, I actually said to him, "If you've got any ideas, throw them my way please." I learned that you can learn something off everyone. The fact that he's young enough to be my son is probably - - it just taught me to listen to people who you might not think had something useful to tell you because they do sometimes.

Q: Have you met an American like Dana?

SC: Well, I think it's a combination of theatrical people who I've known who I have met in Britain, coupled with that west coast American thing of wanting to talk about how you feel all the time. Which is what he is. He's very, very in touch with the way he feels. So that's something I see in a lot of people I know in Los Angeles. It's been very familiar to me and it amuses me. But it doesn't mean I judge it. It's important when you do a character for the character to be real and empathize. When you do it, you can be mocking but you have to love the things that you mock as well and give him real humanity. I think that was the hardest part of doing the part, playing the part. It wasn't the comic stuff which is kind of mechanical and hard, but once you nail it, you've nailed it. It's doing the stuff which makes people connect emotionally with what you're doing. That's really the tough part.

Q: Are you looking for more American films?

SC: I love working here. I love working in America. I love working with Americans. Not the least because they give me an opportunity to do stuff which is different. I actually just partly became a victim of my own success in Britain and associated with Alan Partridge which was this huge success. Everything got measured against that. Everything that I did was judged in the light of that so it became a little bit of an albatross, but work I'm very proud of at the same time. Actually, when I started to work in America, the creative people I found a connection with are people who had become educated about my stuff all at once. So there was a whole bunch of stuff that I'd done in Britain that my agents went, "Look at all this" and shoved a lot of stuff in front of them, of which that was part of it. So they said, "This person is someone we'd like to work with." They judged everything as a whole. I would never, ever have an opportunity to play a part like this in Britain because partly, I don't really get offered work. They either think I'm doing my own thing or if they did work with me, I'd have too many of my own ideas, which might be annoying.

Q: How is Night at the Museum 2?

SC: I've not done it yet. I'm doing it next month. It's being shot at the moment and they're about halfway through, but my stuff comes right near the end. Owen and I do our stuff right at the end of the shoot.

Q: For the FX?

SC: Yeah, the special effects and the other stuff, they can control it in a different way but yeah.

Q: How are you and Owen?

SC: How am I and Owen? Owen and I have always been very, very good friends despite what you might have read on IMDB, spouted by people who have different agendas.

Q: Would you like to set the record straight?

SC: I don't normally comment on that kind of thing but the only time I ever, because sometimes a story emerges and there may be a modicum of truth to it. In that instance, if it's possible to have a story with less than zero credibility, then that was it. I had to make a statement about that just because I don't want my silence to imply anything. No, Owen will say the exact same thing if you ask him. So I've always been a very good friend of his and he's a colleague and a friend. We're looking forward to doing this. I see him quite frequently so we're looking forward to doing this sequel.

Q: How do your characters appear at different museums?

SC: Well, I've seen the script and I probably won't give too much away, but I think stuff gets moved around somehow. I'm trying to think, crosses a few wires and stuff.

Q: An exhibit tour?

SC: Oh, I think sometimes stuff in museums are stored in places where they're not being viewed so that's part of it too.

Q: Are all the great British comedians a backlash against reserved British culture?

SC: Yes, it is. I think the British, there's a reserve and a temperament to the British which is basically complaining a lot about everything, comedy being a way of laughing at. I think the attitude is life's a bit rubbish, life's crap but let's have a laugh about it. Whereas in America, life's good, let's have a laugh at it.

Q: Any feedback on Rock Me Sexy Jesus?

SC: Yes. Well, not specifically although I've been told by people, and by people, the studio folks, that there are kind of rumblings from certain quarters about it. It doesn't worry me personally, not because I don't care, but because I think I can justify it. Also, I think it depends. I'm not into the idea of being shocking for the sake of shocking, or the idea of being tasteless in a kind of teenage contrary sort of way, an adolescent way. There are several things. It's where comedy comes from, what the intention is behind a joke, what the spirit is and the context. This movie has a kind of generosity of spirit. It's not mean spirited. Within that context, I think people will find it acceptable.

Also, part of the joke is the inappropriateness. By its very nature, it has to be credibly offensive because there are protestors within the film. So part of the joke is a slight lack of sensitivity if you like on his part towards those people. So it has to have credibility. The other thing is, doing comedy which is risqué is a long tradition of comedy, sometimes rubbing some people the wrong way. Monty Python's Life of Brian did it in the '70s and a lot of people thought that was terrible and sacrilegious and then as time goes by, they realize it was quite a film fondly remembered and it was sort of making a point as well as being funny. It wasn't just vacuous.

And thirdly, the notion, it's only the word sexy that people get all hung up about. I don't know why. There are so many issues about sex and religion and repression of basic human things. You can talk about it til the cows come home but I think the notion of portraying Jesus in that way that looks kind of attractive was done in Jesus Christ Superstar. It was done in Godspell and if you look at the Sistine Chapel, you'll find that Jesus Christ looks reasonably attractive. I'm sure Michelangelo and Caravaggio also got there before me when it came to portraying Jesus in that way.

Q: Can you do comedy without offending?

SC: Yes, of course. Of course you can do benign family-friendly comedy and there's a role for that. I'm not all about oh, I want to be a shock jock.

Q: But a joke that someone is not the butt of?

SC: Yes, I think so, but it's an interesting question. I don't know. That's an interesting question.

Q: Won't controversy help awareness?

SC: Well, if you worry about, if you try to please all the people all the time, you wouldn't have a character like Barney the Dinosaur because Barney the Dinosaur insinuates to creationists that the world was born more than five and a half thousand years ago.

Q: And it offends everyone?

SC: Well, Poehler has a go at the sort of aggressive liberal if you like, which she does very well.

Q: Were you familiar with South Park?

SC: Yeah, of course I was. I'm a huge fan and I watched Team America about a dozen times. I love that film. It's just great. I'm so excited to work with Pam. I love Pam, I love her sense of humor. I sometimes see stuff, I'm staggered at what they get away with. But somehow, even when they're apparently being really tasteless and vulgar, underneath it there's sort of a kind of love of humanity. There's not a contemptuous, just mean spirited thing, even when they're being really apparently offensive. It's actually about the greater good.

Q: Do you think Americans are more open to humor than the British?

SC: I think they are more. You look at something like South Park, it takes some big risks. And Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder, on the face of it, ostensibly you could find that offensive. But you look at it within context, you realize it's making a point about something. If something is just done for the sake of being controversial, then it's invalid. I think there is such a thing as bad taste. I produce TV shows and I go through the scripts with other people. I actually go through sometimes and put lines through some of it saying, "I find that morally unacceptable." I've actually said if I think I find that joke tasteless, I'll say that to other people about their material, so I'm not someone who thinks you can do whatever you like whenever you want.

"Hamlet 2" opens in theaters on August 22nd.