BYU alumnus Neil LaBute, Chris Rock team up for 'Death at a Funeral'

It can't hurt to have too many friends in Hollywood. Just ask Neil LaBute.

The award-winning and Tony-nominated playwright has a side career as a filmmaker. One of the pals he's made during his cinematic endeavors is actor/comedian Chris Rock, whom he directed in the darkly comic thriller "Nurse Betty" (2000).

"I guess you could say that Chris and I got along pretty well," said LaBute, 47.

The two have kept in touch since then, and as it happens, Rock was planning to star in an Americanized remake of the well-regarded 2007 British comedy "Death at a Funeral."

Rock, who was also producing the remake, was trying to find the right director. For BYU alumnus LaBute, it was a matter of "perfect timing."

"I'd been looking to make a comedy for a long time, so this sort of fell into my lap," he explained by telephone from his Chicago office.

"And just to be clear, I have made things that had comedy elements in them — even 'Nurse Betty' had those kind of moments," LaBute continued. "But this is my first outright comedy."

However, LaBute did have some misgivings — he's gone the remake route previously, with his 2006 re-do of the British horror movie "Wicker Man." That project "didn't go so well," he said.

And while LaBute counts himself among the fans of the original "Death," he saw some "real possibilities for a different, if not better, movie."

"Fortunately, we were dealing with a movie that hadn't been seen by a ton of people," he said. "So we could play around with things and have some fun with it."

Like the first film, LaBute's version follows several siblings and other relatives during the funeral of the family patriarch.

"But instead of uptight Brits, we have a group of much more emotionally open and angry Americans," he said, chuckling.

His cast is largely comprised of African-American actors and comedians — such as Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan and Kevin Hart.

One holdover from the first film, though, is Peter Dinklage, who reprises a very crucial role. ("Let's face it, who else could have played that part?" he asked.)

According to LaBute, the acting "revelations" of the film may be Zo?Saldana and James Marsden.