The movie “The Hangover” started production this week. Great comic premise:

The story revolves around three buddies, played by Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis, who lose their best friend (Bartha) at his Caesars Palace bachelor party just 40 hours before his wedding. The trio must attempt to retrace all their bad decisions from the night before and figure out where things went wrong.

Stars Bradley Cooper and Heather Graham, directed by Todd Phillips from a script by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore.

This is an example of what is sometimes called a “frustration comedy,” where the protagonist characters are under pressure to achieve a goal, but are constantly frustrated by events.

Another notable aspect of “The Hangover”: time compression. As a writer, it’s so much easier to build narrative momentum, sustain pace, and avoid the Dreaded Episodic Curse — where a reader says about a script, “It felt episodic” — with a story that covers a short period of time like 40 hours.

Assuming the script is any good, this project was a no-brainer to greenlight: great high concept, easy to market, one location (Las Vegas), moderate budget.