Mascots: Christopher Guest movie trailer heavy on stars, laughs, costumes

What inspired writer-director Christopher Guest to delve into the world of costumed sports team boosters for his new comedy, Mascots? "I had spoken with my co-writer Jim Piddock about what we were going to do next after this HBO series we had done, Family Tree," explains the filmmaker, whose other directorial credits include 1997's Waiting for Guffman and 2000's Best in Show. "He thought this world of mascots would be interesting to do a real documentary about. I said, 'Well, I don't know about that, but I certainly know I can do this the way I do it.' I had an interest in this myself going back quite a way. When my kids were small, we would go to places that had mascots. I found it odd, I guess."

If EW, which has an exclusive look at all the comedic oddities in a new trailer above, were to play Dr. Freud, your writer might suggest Guest was also drawn to the subject by his own fondness for physically disappearing into such roles as Nigel Tufnel, his perfectly played British guitarist from the Rob Reiner-directed This is Spinal Tap.

"You can play Dr. Freud if you like, but actors want to play people who look and sound differently," says Guest. "That is the fun of doing that, when you're small, of saying, 'Well, now, I'm going to be a person with a different nose, and different hair, and I'll speak and walk in a different way.' That is the joy of doing that. If you are playing yourself [Laughs] then that is a different thing, which is not what I do. In this case it's even more removed because you're literally not seen. You can come out, whether it's the World Cup or whatever it is, and walk down the street, and no one will ever know that you've just jumped around on a trampoline, or whatever you've done."

Mascots will have its world premiere at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 10 and open in select theaters and on Netflix, Oct. 13. The film stars Jane Lynch, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, Ed Begley Jr., Christopher Moynihan, Don Lake, Brad Williams, Zach Woods, Chris O'Dowd, Matt Griesser, Susan Yeagley, Sarah Baker, Tom Bennett, Kerry Godliman, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, Michael Hitchcock, Maria Blasucci, John Michael Higgins, and Piddock.

See the Mascots suit up on the exclusive trailer, above.