There’s another “Wizard of Oz” spin-off coming to theaters this year and while it features fewer musical numbers, it’s funny, wild and original. Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is the latest comedy from director David Wain, a classic fish-out-of-water journey with friends whose framework is loosely based on the “Oz” mythology. But in this version, Dorothy’s quest to the Wizard is to fulfill her dream of having sex with Jon Hamm.

It’s precisely the kind of warped premise that fans of Wain and co-writer Ken Marino have come to embrace; since meeting on the first day of college in 1987, the pair have formed one of the most fruitful comedy collaborations in Hollywood. The film hits theaters July 10 after it premiered to an enthusiastic response at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, 25 years after they attended with Wet Hot American Summer, which Wain co-wrote and directed and Marino starred in. In that time, Wain jokes that audiences have become more accustomed to their sometimes surreal style. “The reaction felt different,” he notes. “People were more like, ‘Oh, we know what this is and we’re interested’ as opposed to, ‘What is wrong with these people?’”

In Gail Daughtry, Zoey Deutch stars as the titular character, a fresh-faced Kansas girl shocked when her fiancé  uses his “celebrity sex pass” — the  hypothetical agreement between couples that one person is allowed to sleep with the famous person of their choice, no consequences. To make things right, Daughtry travels to Los Angeles to cash in her sex pass, the aforementioned Jon Hamm.

To track down the star in this unfamiliar land, she is joined by her loyal companion Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), a wannabe agent lacking intelligence (Ben Wang), a tabloid photographer striving to have heart (Marino), and actor John Slattery, playing a cowardly, washed-up version of… actor John Slattery. The comparisons to Dorothy and friends don’t end there but it would be wrong to spoil any of the adventures, unexpected twists, and celebrity cameos that lie ahead.

The duo gleefully admit it’s a goofy premise, something they’ve embraced since their days in the cult sketch comedy troupe The State to multiple TV and film collaborations. “That’s the way we’ve always approached comedy — we never tried to be anything other than silly, to look at what makes us laugh,” Marino says.

“Though this is set in modern Hollywood, we wanted it to represent people’s perception of the city at any time. Some things are specific, but for the most part, this could be the Hollywood of the ’70s or ’80s or even current.”

Wain and Marino have a unique writing process that they’ve utilized on their previous feature films,  The Ten, Role Models, and Wanderlust.” Wain says they set aside seven days and “lock ourselves in a room for 12 hours each day to come up with a script.” They go in with no preconceived ideas about what to write, and by the end of that week have a draft.

But don’t be deceived by the timeline of the writing and 21-day shooting schedule. “We spent 10 years trying to make this movie,” says Marino. In the meantime, they teamed up in other capacities, from Children’s Hospital (the Wet Hot American Summer Netflix spin-off series) and to playing together in the the Middle Aged Dad Jam Band. Wain frequently directs Marino as an actor, something he’s been doing since his first film project freshman year of college. While Wain likes to joke he uses his co-writer “because he’s easiest to schedule,” he adds on some genuine praise. “Honestly, I can rarely think of an actor better than Ken,” he says. “Especially when we’re writing something, we’ll read it out loud and the way he delivers the lines is just so funny. I’ll tell him, ‘You’ve just to play this.’”

While Marino’s role in “Gail Daughtry” appears at first to be a sleazy tabloid photographer trope, part of the joy of their collaborations is the care and heart they bring to what could be shallow characters. While the film may lean into magical realism, they are careful to ground it in real human emotion.

Part of that is helped by the casting, particularly Deutch, who makes viewers fall in love with Gail’s wide-eyed  optimism. “We truly love our characters, even when they can be horrible or frustrating or just weird,” Marino says. “Because if we’re going to ask you to spend this time with them, we want you to care about their dreams, no matter how absurd those dreams may be.” Concurs Wain, “You don’t want to spend 90 minutes with a one-dimensional jerk.”

As for casting celebrities, they reached out to people they’ve worked with before for cameos. And they aren’t just limited to using actors. “It’s really a potpourri of different people,” says Marino, “from different generations and walks of life.” Wain adds, “The cameos aren’t meant to be distracting or indulgent. It’s honestly intrinsic to the story and the theme of the movie, especially in a film like this.”

When it came to casting Hamm and Slattery in far more significant roles, they waited until the script was done to pass it along. Fortunately, they had worked with both actors before and both were happily in on the joke. Slattery was particularly generous about his role, considering it portrays him as a sniveling coward who can’t get cast in Hollywood. “I think in a case like that, it’s so obviously far from the truth, he had no hesitation in playing along,” says Wain. “In fact, he was the one who called up Jon and told him they had to do it together.”