The People v. Gorilla Grodd is filming, and Skyler Gisondo says scenes are shot almost entirely on courthouse CCTV
Skyler Gisondo told Collider the DCU mockumentary from the American Vandal team feels like a play. HBO’s Casey Bloys confirmed filming but no air date yet.
Well, here's one you probably didn't expect from the DCU: The People v. Gorilla Grodd is officially in production, and, yes, it's a true-crime mockumentary about a talking gorilla on trial. If that already sounds unhinged, just wait until you hear how they're shooting it.
Mockumentary Mayhem
Skyler Gisondo is back in the Daily Planet saddle as Jimmy Olsen after first playing the role in Superman. The new series, cooked up by the blokes behind American Vandal (Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault), properly leans into the absurd: Jimmy is reopening the notorious Metropolis case that landed Gorilla Grodd in the slammer for allegedly offing his own dad, King of Gorilla City. All of this plays out as if the Daily Planet itself were making a true-crime doc, which—let's face it—is a genius way to dig the claws into superhero tropes without just doing another Marvel-pastiche send-up.
This show, especially, is so fun because I've never seen anything like it — the idea of a mockumentary set in a superhero world. Tony [Yacenda] and Dan [Perrault] are such masters. I was such an enormous fan of American Vandal, and so to be working with these guys whose work I love, I think this show is going to be a very unique angle on all of this stuff, and very unexpected in some way, and we're having a blast.
That was Gisondo chatting to Collider while doing his rounds for another HBO gig. He also compared the vibe to how Lance Oppenheim (of HBO's Primetime) treats his docs, which is a polite way of saying they're going all-in on the true-crime angle, but with superpowered apes and CCTV footage thrown in for good measure.
Read more: Superman's Jimmy Olsen says the DCU's Gorilla Grodd murder trial happens before Man of Tomorrow
Behind the Banana Curtain
The show's apparently shot with a lot of cinéma vérité stuff—so no clinical, glossy superhero action here. Gisondo described scenes filmed almost entirely via courthouse CCTV, making it, in his words, feel like a play. Early days, mind you, but he sounded genuinely chuffed with how it's shaping up. The proof, as always, will be in the surrealist superhero pudding.
- Jimmy Tatro dons the digital fur as Gorilla Grodd himself.
- Beck Bennett, Mikaela Hoover, and Wendell Pierce reprise their roles from Superman.
- Familiar comedy faces Mary Holland, Eduardo Franco, Arian Moayed, Andrew Leeds, and Tim Baltz round out the cast.
Best of all, HBO boss Casey Bloys has put it on record that filming is already underway. If you're itching for a release date, you'll have to wait a bit—the network hasn't let that slip just yet.
The People v. Gorilla Grodd is now officially filming, but no air date has been set.