In most versions of the classic 1831 Victor Hugo tale, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, the female protagonist is Esmeralda, a French Romani girl who is so beautiful that every major male character in the story either wants to marry her or seduce her. (She’s also only 16 in the novel—a book from over 200 years ago). For all her kindness and compassion, Esmeralda is basically treated terribly throughout the story and finally ends up hanged for a crime she didn’t commit, just as she reunites with her long-lost birth mother.

Quasi, a satirical new take on the story from the Broken Lizard crew (Super Troopers), has a decidedly different view of its female lead. Directed by Broken Lizard’s Kevin Heffernan and written by him and the rest of the team—Steve Lemme, Jay Chandrasekhar, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske—the film dispenses with the tragic Esmeralda in favor of Catherine (Adrianne Palicki). Katherine is the (still beautiful) new Queen of 13th century France and she is both amused by and way ahead of everyone else around her, including her husband King Guy (Chandrasekhar) and the Pope Cornelius (Soter). Both leaders hire the same man, the deformed torturer Quasi (Lemme), to assassinate each other, while Catherine and Quasi developing an affection for each other.

“She’s definitely the smartest person in the room,” Palicki tells us. “A lot of times, queens are made to be the evil character, especially in movies like this. What drew me to it, outside of working with the guys and that it’s hilarious, was the fact that it was just different than anything I’ve ever done.”

As one might discern from the description above, this is a very loose (to put it kindly) adaptation of the classic story, with the characters speaking modern English, using contemporary vulgarities, and acting as anachronistically as possible amidst the period costumes, period settings, and period torture devices. While there are still moments of gross-out humor that were a trademark of earlier Broken Lizard efforts like Super Troopers and Club Dread, the template here is more Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

“It was super fun,” says Palicki about the shoot, which largely recreated medieval France in Santa Clarita, California. “It had that Monty Python feel that we haven’t seen for a very long time. And to have the woman be like the smartest person—no offense, but a lot of guys cannot write really well for women, but they can really write really well for women. On top of that fact, there was a lot of fun improv that went along with it.”

Read the entire interview at Den Of Geek.

Adrianne Palicki co-stars with comedy troupe Broken Lizard in Quasi. The raunchy and hilarious plot offers a decidedly different take on The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Set in a 13th century French castle, the titular protagonist (Steve Lemme), bullied and ridiculed for his deformity, finds himself in a sticky situation. The sexist and cruel King Guy (Jay Chandrasekhar) wants the hapless hunchback to publicly assassinate the visiting Pope (Paul Soter), who also threatens Quasi if he doesn’t kill the King in the same fashion.

Queen Catherine (Palicki) takes pity on Quasi after learning of his dire predicament. King Guy ignores his latest wife’s intelligence and continually berates her as a woman. The disgusted Catherine finds a kindred spirit in Quasi. The lovable loser wins her heart, but their secret romance adds another dangerous complication.

Palicki was “shocked” and “flattered” to be offered the role. She thought the script was great. The Princess Bride is one of her favorite movies. She relished the opportunity to play a character like Buttercup. Broken Lizard made her feel “like one of the guys.” Palicki was able to seamlessly fit into their improv dynamics. This was especially needed when filming some of the crazy scenes. A torture rack hook up will have audiences rolling.

The interview with MovieWeb didn’t have good news for fans of The Orville. The brilliant sci-fi series has not been renewed for a fourth season. Palicki, who’s superb as Commander Kelly Grayson, confirmed “there have been talks” but the cast is no longer under contract.

MW: Talk about the process of being cast in a Broken Lizard film?

Adrianne Palicki: I honestly was so shocked. I randomly got a phone call from my manager in Egypt. You got an offer for this movie. That’s awesome. I was so flattered. I read the script. I was probably about 30 pages in, and I was like, there’s no way I’m not doing this movie. This is amazing. Then I got on the horn with [Steve] Lemme and [Kevin] Heffernan. We did a Zoom call. I live in Austin. They were in LA. We just kind of wanted to see how we all felt. They immediately insulted me, and I gave it right back (laughs). It’s my favorite century. The Princess Bride is my favorite movie and is genuinely the reason I became an actor. Playing the Buttercup role has always been a dream of mine.

Read the entire interview at MovieWeb.com

The official trailer for Quasi was released recently! The movie will be streaming on Hulu on April 20th.

Searchlight Pictures has set the release date for Broken Lizard’s Quasi, a satirical take on The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The film will be available to stream starting April 20, 2023, on Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ in all other territories.

Quasi stars Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Jay Chandrasekhar, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske and Adrianne Palicki. Heffernan serves as director and penned the script alongside Lemme, Chandrasekhar, Soter and Stolhanske.

Quasi is the story of a hapless hunchback who only yearns for love, but finds himself in the middle of a murderous feud between the Pope and the King of France when each orders the hunchback to kill the other.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

There are now 144 images of Adrianne Palicki from the public appearances she has attended so far this year!

    

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Hi everyone, it’s Jennifer, the co-web here at Adrianne Palicki Fan; long-time visitors may remember me from way back in 2010-2011. I’m going to step in and start getting the site back up to date while Holly takes a break from updates. You can think of me as a foster mom for this site to help keep things going for Adrianne fans! I will be updating with recent photos and adding missing images in the coming weeks – so stay tuned!

I have added captures of Adrianne from her part in the series South Beach to the image gallery. It is the best quality that I could find for the show so my apologies for the somewhat blurry caps. Enjoy!

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I am very happy to release this new version of Adrianne Palicki Fan! Both the header and theme base were done by my fabulous friend Claudia. We have also moved hosts after some issues and are proudly back at FanSt! If you find any links broken, please use the email address under the affiliates to let me know so that I can get it fixed ASAP. I hope everyone likes the new look as much as I do!

I have added episode stills and captures of Adrianne from the episodes of The Orville that have aired so far on Fox to our image gallery. Apologies for adding them so late, I have been dealing with some personal things.

Gallery Link:

• Television > The Orville > The Orville: Season 2

High quality photos of Adrianne at Comic Con have been added to our image gallery. Sorry for the delay in adding them!

Gallery Links:

• Appearances and Events > 2018 > Comic-Con International 2018 – “The Orville” Press Line
• Appearances and Events > 2018 > Entertainment Weekly Comic-Con Celebration