The upcoming movie Middle Men tells the incredible true story of Jack Harris; the internet mogul, and extremely successful entrepreneur, who became a multi-millionaire in a matter of months, after he took the plans of Wayne Beering and Buck Dolby (two troubled geniuses with a brilliant idea), and literally invented the way in which adult entertainment is bought and sold on the world wide web.
But Middle Men isn’t your average, down then up with a vengeance, success story, as Harris; the happy family man with a successful, yet normal, career (fixing companies); soon becomes mixed up with a 23 year-old porn-star, the F.B.I., the mob, and a state senator with an unusual, yet exceptionally keen, interest in his business.
it’s set back in 1995; the year that saw the coldest ever U.K. temperature recorded in Scotland, the European release of both the original Playstation, and the Sega Saturn, as well as the cinematic releases of Bad Boys, Die Hard With a Vengeance, Toy Story, and Waterworld (which were all eventually released on video cassette, as the DVD standard still hadn’t been finalized, and Blu-ray wasn’t even a glint in a developers eye at that point); an important year, as it would end up shaping the way in which the internet would be used from there on out, essentially giving birth to the modern world wide web, and downloadable porn; and paving the way for the development, and promotion, of films such as Axel Braun’s superhero parodies, and a wealth of online only content.
Luke Wilson (Old School) will be heading the cast as the uber successful businessman Jack Harris, and joined by Giovanni Zibisi (who was most recently seen in Avatar, but best known for his recurring role as Phoebe’s brother Frank, in the American sitcom Friends; the one with Ross and Rachel) as Wayne Beering, and Gabriel Macht (Whiteout) as buck Dolby; the two bumbling geniuses; as well as James Cann (The Godfather), Kelsey Grammer (Frasier), Martin Kove (The Karate Kid, 1984), and Laura Ramsey (The Covenant).
Middle Men is a film that was dubbed by Variety as “Boogie Nights meets Goodfellas”, and looks to be so funny, outrageous, and downright crazy, that if it wasn’t a true story (even though it’s fairly loosely based on real events), no-one would believe it. It’s due to be released in the U.S. this coming August, but has yet to be given a date for U.K. distribution; all the Brits can do is watch the trailer below, wait, and hope that it eventually gets picked up.
