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Saturday, March 14, 2009
Random SXSW sightings
Roam around enough during SXSW film and you’ll spot some interesting faces and alarming characters …
Legendary psychedelic harlequin and philanthropist Wavy Gravy at the world premiere of his documentary “Saint Misbehavin’: The Wavy Gravy Movie” on Saturday at the Alamo South. More about the movie and its other screenings HERE.
Comic actor Danny McBride (“Pineapple Express,” “Tropic Thunder”) was bumming around with Jody Hill, friend and director of their cult comedy “The Fist Foot Way,” on Saturday night. Hill’s at SXSW for his new Seth Rogen flick “Observe and Report.” The scoop on its Monday screening HERE.
“Super Size Me” star-director Morgan Spurlock hangin’ with some Dutch clogs, which dangled (and made nice noise) at the art-exhibit and party for the artist Trimpin in the State Theater lobby. The documentary about him and his sui generis artwork, “TRIMPIN: the sound of invention,” world-premiered Saturday night. More about the film HERE.
Fabled documentarian and SXSW veteran Ron Mann was spotted Saturday afternoon on Sixth Street. His new doc “Know Your Mushrooms” screened Friday and shows two more times. Learn about it HERE.
Homemade goblins appear at the showing of the terrific documentary “Best Worst Movie,” which traces the unlikely fandom of the awful movie “Troll 2.” They were scaring SXSWers on Saturday in the lobby of the Alamo South. More showings and details for “Best Worst Movie” HERE.
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A ‘Love’ fest with stars Rudd and Segel
Paul Rudd and Jason Segel are the kind of co-stars who easily fall into a rhythm with each other on-screen and off. And they’re the kind of actors who offer you bacon on a Saturday morning.
They need to eat, of course. It’s the day after the premiere of their new bromance comedy, “I Love You, Man,”kicked off the South by Southwest Film Festival. They’ll be on a plane out of Austin in the afternoon, but not before rounds of interviews and a panel appearance.
“Are you sure you don’t want some?” asks an apologetic Rudd, pointing to his plate, and soon, he and Segel delve into a short back-and-forth over real versus turkey bacon. Real bacon wins.
It’s a golden time for these two actors. Witness the wildly approving audience reception to their new movie the previous night. And, on its April cover, Vanity Fair has declared them, along with fellow Judd Apatow collaborators Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen, “Comedy’s New Legends.”
So how are they and their comedic conspirators enjoying this wave of acceptance, praise and love that started five years ago with Apatow’s “Anchorman” and just kept building with “40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up” and last year’s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”?
“It’s a little scary,’ says Segel.
“Here comes the fall,” counters Rudd only slightly grimly.
Although it seems unlikely now, that pragmatic observation makes sense. Hollywood builds you up just to knock you down — isn’t the crash of such a huge wave inevitable?
Adding to this, says Segel, is that “what drove Judd and the rest of us was the sense of our always being the underdog,” he says, pointing back to “Freaks and Geeks”and “Undeclared.” (ABC dropped the ax on “Freaks,” the 1999 sitcom produced by Apatow and starring Segel and Rogen, halfway through its first season. Two years later, their next TV project, “Undeclared” met the same fate on Fox).
“It was us against the world,” says Segel, now a co-star in the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” and writer and star of last year’s well-received “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” “It’s a scary feeling for sure to be where we are now.”
The ensemble approach that led to their success today also brings with it an intense responsibility to keep it going for the sake of everyone in their extended comedic clan.
“No one wants to be the iceberg that sinks the Titanic,” deadpans Rudd.
It’s hard to imagine a disaster in their near future, especially after the early reaction to “I Love You, Man,” a movie directed and co-written by John Hamburg (“Meet the Parents” and the underrated but brilliant “Safe Men”).
The comedy boldly examines the inner workings of those mysterious male friendships, complete with Rush-inspired jam sessions and all. The script deftly taps into stereotypes as well as surprises, all made even funnier by the cast’s improvisation, encouraged by Hamburg.
“It’s fulfilling creatively to improvise,” says Rudd. “You’re really collaborating, which makes the day so much fun.”
Being longtime friends was an obvious boon for two actors playing best buds, but it had its drawbacks. Hamburg wanted them to improvise their first “man date”— an evening of fish tacos and drinks — but Segal says an hour into their riffing, Hamburg had to reel them in.
“He had to remind us that this was the first time our characters had really talked,” Segel says.
Rudd and Segel’s affable chemistry is undeniable, but it was also there between Rudd and actress Rashida Jones, who plays his fiancee.
“We’ve been great friends for many years,” says Rudd of Jones (“The Office,” the upcoming NBC sitcom “Parks & Recreation” and daughter of SXSW Music keynote speaker Quincy Jones). “I love her. I was so excited that she was doing the movie.”
But Rudd and Segel were both somewhat nervous to work with other castmembers — namely, the gentlemen of the legendary prog-rock group Rush.
“They’re so mysterious,” says Rudd, who was worried Geddy Lee and company would get tired of playing “Limelight” 40 takes in a row.
If anyone knows what that was like, it was Rudd and Segel, who had to film their hysterical “Tom Sawyer’ cover over two 14-hour days.
“’Tom Sawyer’ still haunts me a tiny bit,” says Segel.
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They’ve got the funny. Now, where’s the money?
Some of the biggest names in online comedy videos (Ricky Van Veem of collegehumor.com, Keith Richman of Break Media), along with “Colbert Report” writer Meredith Scardino, actor B.J. Novak of “The Office” and BOXEE’s Avner Ronen gathered in the cavernous ballroom A at the Austin Convention Center to discuss comedy, and content in general, online.
As one might expect, there was not too terribly much new ground covered here. But such is the case with a nebulous, growing and unpredictable medium.
Richman admits that one of the biggest problems for online content and its producers is the fact that it is still too hard to monetize online content. He claimed that even though some of the videos on his site may get more views than 30-50 digital cable channels, he is still not able to find a way to make the money those channels do.
While people may be watching more and more online content, Van Veem said that a recent study found that Americans average 151 hours of tv watching, so it seems tv is not going away any time soon.
The boon for viewers and the trouble for tv, however, may come from the fact that with the Internet, people can watch what they want and won’t waste time watching shows they don’t like, as they might with TV. According to Novak, this should serve as a bit of a warning for bad content on TV. The good shows will stay on the air, he says, but maybe we will be lucky enough to see the bad stuff go away.
The biggest challenge for producers of online content will continue to come from the struggle to get money and distribution. The good news seems to be that online content is judged and promoted in a democratic way. If people like a video, they will pass it along, and eventually the process of passing along clips will be the new stamp of approval as opposed to the stamp of approval that comes from a late-night talk show host or television producer. Web 2.0 — you be the star, star-maker. As for the salary of said stars and star-makers, we’re still working on that part, it seems. The future holds the answers. As always.
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The art of acting, according to Jeffrey Tambor
Part acting coach, part Buddhist, part life coach, part stand-up comedian, Jeffrey Tambor wowed the participants at his acting workshop this afternoon.
The first half of the two-hour event had the actor and writing coach workshopping a scene with two actors, putting them through paces and exercises to find an emotional honesty and vulnerability. His cajoling and direction helped the two find the purpose of their scene, to, as Tambor put it, “break the glass” to find how who they were and what the scene was about.
His biggest direction was to get the actors to get outside of themselves and not worry about being “overmuch.” As an anecdote, he described Mickey Rourke’s now-famous acceptance speech at the IFC Awards as one of the greatest speeches he had ever seen. That kind of letting go was what Tambor was trying to evince from the actors.
“There’s no honor lost in being excited and emotional and passionate,” Tambor said.
His method was supportive, tender, humorous and fully honest. That honesty, humanity and candor carried over into the question-and-answer portion, as Tambor discussed the role of the artist and finding confidence in your life and work. Tambor touched on the relationship between actors and writers, and how there must be trust and respect from both sides. Creating a play or movie is a malleable process, not anarchy, but cerainly a give-and-take, he said. He also shared his personal battle with worrying and confessed that it was having children that got him outside of himself. In that same vain of generosity, he said that when you are trapped in your own head or being obsessive and neurotic, the best thing you can do is to do something for someone else. The artist must listen to himself, believe in himself, never think to please and always surround himself with people who give him confidence.
Tambor’s humor, grace and honesty undoubtedly left many in the audienced embued with that sense of confidence, fearlessness and self-reliance of which he spoke.
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Linklater’s new film to screen at SXSW
The “Super Special Screening,” we hear, slated for 11 a.m. Monday at the Paramount is Richard Linklater’s “Me and Orson Welles,” starring Zac Efron and Claire Danes. Look out for the official announcement.
The movie did well at the annual Toronto film fest last year and received upbeat reviews. It’s still looking for a distributor.
More on the film HERE.
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SXSW Film kick-off party pix
Shots from the SXSW film opening night party Friday at Buffalo Billiards.
But first, a snap of John Inwood, writer-director of the Austin-made “ExTerminators,” which premiered Friday at the Paramount after “I Love You, Man.” More on his movie and screenings HERE. He’s arriving on the red carpet.
OK. Back to the party …
Mike Judge (“Office Space”)
“I Love You, Man” promo silliness
Austin filmmaker David Zellner, who co-stars in “Beeswax” at SXSW
Austin filmmaker PJ Raval, who shot Tim McCanlies’ SXSW comedy “The 2 Bobs”
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‘I Love You, Man’ Q&A
Back to Friday night’s noisily successful opening night with the Paul Rudd comedy “I Love You, Man.” Just for a minute.
The post-screening Q&A was moderated by charming first-timer Janet Pierson, doing a wonderful job handling her virgin experience as SXSW Film Producer. “It’s my first Q&A. I’m kinda struggling here,” she said, though the audience rebuked her with a swell of cheers and applause. (You’re doing great, Janet!)
Tiny, quickie excerpts:
Co-star Jason Segel, who introduced his freaky real world of Dracula Muppet-style puppets and dreams of a Dracula musical in last year’s SXSW hit “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” assured the crowd that a movie version is happening: “The script is done. I love it … I think you guys will like it. It’s like a late-’70s or early-’80s Muppet movie. … I’ve written stuff for all my (acting) friends. Everybody’s in it.” (He pointed at Rudd.)
After Segel told us we we’re a “great audience,” a very happy writer-director John Hamburg said, “I’m excited. I’m pumped up. I feel like Cate Blanchett!”
Asked if he’d be working with his “Swingers” pal Vince Vaughan again, co-star Jon Favreau said yes, that they’re doing a comedy he wrote called “Couples Retreat” with Jason Bateman. It should be out in October. (More on that movie HERE).
Rudd projectile vomits on Favreau in “I Love You, Man,” and says he insisted to Hamburg that he really vomit, with no FX. So he did. He used five cans of Italian wedding soup.
SXSW film producer Janet Pierson, commanding the crowd. Great job!
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Jeffrey Tambor will rock you today
One of the annual highlights at the SXSW Film Conference is actor/funnyman Jeffrey Tambor’s Acting Workshop, happening at 3 p.m. today in Room 16AB at the Convention Center.
He was in town Friday night for the film kick-off party at Buffalo Billiards on Sixth Street, and looked dapper. Proof:
During the panel, Tambor (“The Larry Sanders Show,” “Arrested Development”) “explores the practical and philosophical approaches that lead to a great performance. He will rehearse and refine a scene with actors to break down the performance process. It’s for those interested in bridging the gap between actor and director. Directors and filmmakers are encouraged to attend and bring questions.”
Those are SXSW’s words. Actress Jess Weixler (“Alexander the Last”) will join him.
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SXSW: Opening Night
SXSW Film kicked off Friday night at the Paramount with a cyclone of laughter and celeb-juiced buzz: What the hell, Paul Rudd and Jason Segel were there, doing the red carpet and sitting in the audience, watching with nearly 1,000 viewers their new “bromantic” comedy “I Love You, Man.”
They cracked up as much as swooning fans. We saw them. True.
Jon Favreau — actor in “Swingers,” of course, and the director of last summer’s “Iron Man” — joined the posse, along with co-star Rashida Jones (daughter of a certain Quincy) and the tart, fashionably brittle Jaime Pressly.
The full house went mad for the opener, a very funny Hollywood comedy in the mold of all the Apatow, Inc. hits preceding it, like “Knocked Up” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” which also screened at prior SXSWs (meaning Rudd and Segel are happy SXSW vets).
Some shots:
Paul Rudd, arriving at the Paramount on a damp Friday night
Jon Favreau, shooting the marquee of his movie on his cell
Rashida Jones, who plays Rudd’s fiancee in the comedy
Pressly on the carpet
And here’s SXSW producer Janet Pierson (far left) and “I Love You, Man” writer-director John Hamburg, producer Donald De Line, Rudd, Segel, Jones, Favreau again with his unforgiving, all-seeing cell phone, as they introduce the preordained blockbuster:
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