"We felt like in the first one we were just discovering the characters," he says, "and we were just trying to figure out what was going to be funny about them. Certainly the story was important, but we were trying to just make people laugh. So the story is something we wanted to be better, and we wanted to try to get license to do even more outrageous things." In that--with the introduction of Mini-Me, the feral midget clone of Dr. Evil, and the grotesque, self-explanatory character Fat Bastard--they have succeeded.
Seattle residents will enjoy the fact that Dr. Evil's headquarters is in a Starbucks at the top of the Space Needle. Says Roach, "Number Two [Robert Wagner] decided a more strategic way to take over the world is through investments, stocks. He reveals that a while back they invested in a small, Seattle-based coffee company, and tries to sell him on the idea of taking over the world through Starbucks. To Starbucks' credit, they completely got it. It wasn't at all a cross-promotional thing. We wrote it into the script because we thought it was funny, and thank god they got it."
Next up for Roach is an adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or Spy vs. Spy or a "great script" called Meet the Parents. Unless he finds his next project in the stack of scripts he brought along with him. First up, though, is a little time off.
The outrageous comedy Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is now playing at the Meridian, Metro, Oak Tree, and outlying theaters.