NEW YORK – Billy Crystal's "When Harry Met Sally" has finally gotten a sequel in a new Web video that mixes in a bit of "Twilight."
Crystal debuted his first video for the comedy website Funny or Die on Wednesday. In it, he and director Rob Reiner pitch a sequel to the 1989 film.
A studio executive, played by Adam Scott, requests one tweak to Crystal's plans: vampires. A trailer for the mock results follows, with Crystal falling for another woman, Sharon — played by Helen Mirren — in a retirement community.
Sharon, though, turns out to be a bloodsucking vampire. The film is dubbed "Grampires: When Sharon Bit Harry."
"I'm working in miniature now," said Crystal in a phone interview Wednesday. "I did 2 minutes on the Oscars and 4 minutes on FunnyOrDie and a lot of people see it."
The 4 1/2-minute video gives Crystal wide room to spoof the recent vampire resurgence in pop culture — and a Hollywood desperate to follow the trend — by marrying ghoulish maulings with old-age romance. A number of stars make cameos including Maya Rudolph, Rob Riggle and even Mike Tyson.
Crystal said the idea came to him at his grandson's first birthday party, where he was dressed in a little Halloween vampire outfit.
"I said, 'Oh, that makes me a grampire!'" said the 63-year-old comedian.
The video is something of a family affair, with Crystal's daughter Lindsay (a former producer on "The Daily Show") serving as director and a script written by his sons-in-law, Howie Miller and Michael Foley. Crystal's grandchildren are seen in the background.
"Over the years we've talked about, 'Could we make a sequel?'" said Crystal. "And I always thought there was a chance to do something with them. And nobody wanted to get involved with it. Then this little idea hit, and it seemed like the perfect way to have fun with it and also parody the studio system, which is really frustrating at times."
The video was shot with the help of FunnyOrDie, the site co-created by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, over three days in Los Angeles.
"It all happened so fast," said Crystal. "I wish movies could be like this."
It's something of an entry to the Internet for Crystal, who also just joined Twitter. New as the tools are, though, the experience recalled Crystal's earlier days on "Saturday Night Live" making videos with Christopher Guest.
"So it's right up our alley," Crystal said.
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Watch Billy Crystal's Funny or Die video:
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