Hamlet 2

Hamlet 2 is a comedy film directed by Andy Fleming, written by Fleming and Pam Brady, and starring Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler, and David Arquette. It was produced by Eric Eisner, Leonid Rozhetskin, and Aaron Ryder. Hamlet 2 was filmed primarily at a high school in New Mexico from September 2007 to October 2007. The film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and will be distributed by Focus Features. The film had a limited release on August 22, 2008, followed by a wide release on August 29.

After an opening recapping the highlights of Dana Marschz's unsuccessful acting career (undignified television commercials and a bit acting part), the film joins him "where dreams go to die": Tucson, Arizona. He is an even more unsuccessful suburban high school drama teacher, with only two (enthusiastic) students and a history of producing school plays that are merely stage adaptations of Hollywood films. When the new term begins, a bunch of inner city kids are forced to transfer schools and take his class, as it is the only remaining arts elective available. He gets off to a rocky start with the new students, and is floored when the school notifies him that the drama program – a worthless waste of money in the administration's judgment – is to be shut down at the end of the term. Unintentionally inspired by the school paper's ruthless pre-adolescent drama critic, Dana undertakes to write and produce an original play: a sequel to Hamlet featuring a time-traveling title character, and a song-and-dance number featuring the Son of God, called "Rock Me Sexy Jesus". He begins to win the cooperation of his students, but is further traumatized when his wife leaves him for the uninteresting – but fertile – boarder they had taken into their home to supplement their modest income. The students rally to finish the play, especially after the school shuts down the production over its controversial content, staging it in an abandoned warehouse and rave spot, amid a media frenzy.

Written and directed by Andrew Flemming (Nancy Drew of all things) along with South Park-writer Pam Bady, Hamlet 2 surrounds Dana's struggle to keep his drama program alive in the face of school cut-backs. The former commercial actor never helped secure much relevance for the program, being that the department was made up of two humdrum drama students who shelved anything considered classic and enacted plays based on mainstream blockbusters. (Coogan joked recently that following the department's "Hamlet 2" production, they probably would have tackled FX's "The Shield.") The department grows exponentially when another school program is canceled and a group of what most would consider "inner-city youths" joins the awkward threesome. From there, we witness a sequence of scenes that is in many ways Coogan's own take on Dangerous Minds.
Through Coogan's quirky style, his character breaks down the walls of culture and drama-stigma, bonding with the new students to come together and hold a final unlikely production in the hopes of saving the department. "Hamlet 2" draws the ire of the high school higher-ups due to its "modern" approach to the subject matter, and the play is subsequently canceled. Not unlike organizing a rave, the resourceful students find a warehouse and equipment to host the production instead. Through obligatory missteps and setbacks, the play goes on, even with a good part of Tucson in attendance.