Friday 26 September 2008 @ 7:15 pm
Here’s a “Zack and Miri” ad that you can embed all over the ‘net. If you’ve got the time and the inclination, please do so (there’s an embed code available at the end of the animation).
Zack and Miri Make a Poster and the Toronto Film Fest reaction
Friday 12 September 2008 @ 7:18 am
Our frustration in getting an MPAA approval on the American poster led to last-resort ideas about showcasing dopey, simple images instead of risque pics of our leads - which, in turn, led to what's now the official American poster for the flick...
I like it a bunch. Simple and kinda ballsy. Should be up in theaters this weekend.
------
Just got back from Toronto Film Fest debut, and the early word on the flick, critically, is pretty sweet
There’s also a Hollywood Reporter review, but I can’t get the link to cooperate.
Salon.com interview regarding the MPAA (HEAVY SPOILERS)
Variety Toronto Wrap-Up Piece.
————————
This is the poster in Canada…
NC17 No More and Toronto
Friday 15 August 2008 @ 1:01 pm
At an appeals screening last week, we were able to overturn the MPAA’s NC17 rating for “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” to a more audience-friendly R without making any cuts…
All that really means is that what you see in theaters will be exactly what we were hoping to show you in theaters. None of this waiting around for the unrated DVD shit.
Meantime, here’s another pic from the flick…
“Zack and Miri Make a Porno” opens October 31st.
Hi. Remember me?
Friday 9 May 2008 @ 10:23 pm
Anyway, long time, no update. I owe you, so here’s a new pic from the flick…
Been knee-deep in “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” type stuff, preparing for our first official test screening on Tuesday night (somewhere in the midwest). The flick’s current running time is 1:45, so we’ll see if putting it in front of an audience sheds light on any further possible cuts. Fingers crossed the flick plays great.
Making Porno, Part 2: Climax
Friday 14 March 2008 @ 11:50 am
It's been a long time since the last update, I realize; over two months, to be precise. My apologies for that and the total lack of SModcast during that period. I was preoccupied. Rest assured, SModcast will return the moment the recording gear gets back to L.A.
Around two in the morning Wednesday, we wrapped “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”. Poetically, it snowed right before we rolled for the last time… just after we’d laid a bunch of fake white stuff for an exterior shot at Zack’s job. It nicely summed up the uncooperative nature of the weather we’d grown accustomed to over the course of the production.
Banks did her last scene the night before, so Tuesday became a countdown of “production wraps” (when you check the gate after an actor’s/actresses’ last shot, and if it’s good, you announce their work completion on the show to much applause). First, it was Katie. Then, Mewes. Then Ricky. Then Seth. Then Traci. Then, we moved outside, and Craig and Jeff shot the only dialogue scene we had left to shoot. And with that, the last of our amazing cast was gone, leaving us with merely two establishing shots of a building before we had to say goodbye.
The crew was wonderful. Aside from working with people I’ve worked beside on almost every show, I got to work with people I hadn’t worked with since “Dogma” in ‘98. There wasn’t a weak link in the bunch.
Monroeville/Pittsburgh (and all the surrounding towns we also shot in, like McKeesport, McKee’s Rocks, Hazelwood, the Southside, etc.) were so kind and welcoming. Thanks to everyone we may have inconvenienced while in your backyards.
Some folks have asked why I've been so stingy with the details on this flick, as opposed to flicks we’ve made in the past, during which I was blogging and posting pics galore. There's no conspiracy behind it, really; I just wanna try something different this time. I want folks to discover the flick for themselves, instead of me jamming it down their throats. I'm also gonna try to keep from over-selling it with hyperbole and absolutes. I'll let you guys apply those (good or bad) when the time comes. Just know that we had a problem-free, productive shoot in which everyone was firing on all cylinders and the result was THE FUNNIEST FUCKING MOVIE WE'VE EVER MADE!!!
* ahem *
No more hyperbole starting from this point on, I meant.
I spent all of Wednesday traveling and got to sleep in my own bed last night. When I woke up, I instinctively bolted for the shower, fearing I was gonna be late for call time. When I remembered that not only were we done, but that I was over two thousand miles away from our equipment and locales, I smiled and did the next best thing: took a shit on my own toilet.
Can’t wait to share it with you.
The movie, not the shit.
Making Porno, Pt. 1: Foreplay
Thursday 10 January 2008 @ 10:36 am
Tuesday was day one of rehearsals, and lemme tell ya’: it was pretty awesome, hearing Zack and Miri come to life for the first time. Rogen and Banks are genius together (and apart - which, in the flick, is extremely rare): hilarious and rather sweet and touching when called for. The roles fit them like gloves. Shit, better than gloves: the roles fit them like condoms. Like custom-made condoms, even.
Yesterday was two of rehearsals - a term I use loosely, since it’s more of a read-through than anything else. This time, all the leads but two were present. So while I read every other role but Zack and Miri on Tuesday, four more people joined us yesterday, assuming their characters for the first time. And it sounds great; just fucking tremendous. We could’ve put it on wax - if folks’ idea of wax was seven people sitting around a hotel room reading a script aloud. But if we were doing a radio play? It would’ve been air-worthy. We’d have gotten multiple FCC fines for the content, but performance-wise? Totally air-worthy.
Today, we do camera tests (throw the actors into a bunch of their wardrobe/hair “looks” and shoot ‘em under a few different lighting schemes) then a nearly full cast read-through (nearly-full since a new baby is, understandably, keeping one of the leads from making it out for the rehearsal/read-throughs). Tuesday, we’ll start doing some location(s) rehearsing, blocking some stuff out in advance of our Wednesday start of principal photography. Back in the day, that’d make me nervous as fuck. One day of on-location rehearsal? I’d be nauseous at the thought. Now? It’s a different world.
I used to be a real rehearsal Nazi: insisting on at least three weeks of three to four hour days. Over the last few years, though - either based on time restrictions, more faith in the performers, or simply the experience that comes with doing a job for fifteen years now - I’ve learned to lighten up and do more on-set tweaking than anything else. Took awhile to reach that conclusion, though.
- On “Clerks”, we rehearsed in Quick Stop, every night for three weeks straight. None of us had ever made a movie before, and we didn’t have the cash to blow on multiple takes, so it felt like getting the performances and blocking (such as it was, considering Jeff and Brian were simply parked behind the counter most of the flick) as close to perfection made the most sense. We rehearsed “Clerks” like it was a play, really - so much so that by the last week of rehearsal, we weren’t just running scenes - we were doing the whole flick in sequence, minus the cat. The process just seemed to make sense, and because of it, when it came time to shoot, we rarely had to do more than two takes of any given scene. In fact, most of the time, we’d do one take and move on.
- On “Mallrats”, we did at least two weeks or rehearsal, starting in a hotel room and moving it to the actual mall to rehearse the scenes on their feet at their eventual locations. Since I’d only made one movie prior, I decided to stick with the rehearsal process that worked the first time - especially since, like on “Clerks”, we had a lead who’d never acted before; so scene drills and repetition felt necessary. One of the biggest differences was that we didn’t rehearse at eleven o’clock at night. Unlike our “Clerks” cast, the “Mallrats” cast didn’t have day jobs/weren’t doing the flick as a lark; these people were professional actors, paid to be in a movie. And since we were stranded in Eden Prairie, I guess they figured rehearsing beat sitting around their hotel rooms ’til the start of principal photography. We also had the luxury of time on our side, because (with the exception of Doherty) none of the cast was that famous or in-demand. Shannon, who’d just gotten the boot from “90210″, had the time to devote to rehearsals, too. She seemed to like it, even. Everyone did, really. We bonded, laughed, and kinda taught each other our jobs. And out of all that rehearsal time, the Jason Lee style was born.
- On “Chasing Amy”, we rehearsed for at least two weeks, probably closer to three. I’d been dating Joey at the time, so she had constant access to the script. Ben and Lee moved out to Red Bank a month before we started shooting, and we devoted lots of time to rehearsing - mostly in the old Red Bank office on Broad Street. Again, we were in a situation of having little cash with which to make the flick; so getting the performances as close to camera-ready was gonna save us from burning film (and stock and processing costs) and help us make our days. I remember getting uppity with the three leads one day, because we were three weeks out, and they were still on book. “How can we really rehearse if none of you have your fucking lines memorized?!” I’d said, pissed, calling an early close to that rehearsal day. When Ben left the office, he went over to the Dublin House bar on Monmouth for five hours and learned his lines. Joey went back to my condo and did the same. Within two days, Lee was, also, off book. That just seems funny to me now: me being mad at those guys for not having the entire script memorized three fucking weeks away from shooting. On “Catch & Release”, I memorized most of my dialogue on the day, repeatedly going over my sides in my trailer after blocking rehearsal. On the fucking day - like most actors. And here I was, bitching these cats out about not committing all their lines to memory three fucking weeks away from shooting. Oh, how naive I was…
- “Dogma” was the first flick in which I learned that, the more famous your cast, the less likely you’re gonna get the luxury of two/three weeks rehearsals. I think we got about a week and a half or serious rehearsal time. Ben & Matt were blowing up off of “Good Will Hunting”, Salma Hayek had just landed a Revlon contract, Chris Rock was still shooting “Lethal Weapon 4″ in L.A. (I actually had to go out to Los Angeles to rehearse with Rock before he could join us in Pittsburgh). Unlike my previous three flicks, people had lives outside of the movie. And since all of the actors were getting paid the same amount of money to do the flick, in a “favored-nations” deal, the last thing I could do was get shitty and decree “I need three weeks rehearsal with all of you or you’re out of the fucking picture!” Still, you’ve got people like Alan Rickman in the cast; how much rehearsal does an actor of Rickman’s caliber need, really? Ben I’d worked with before, so he knew what I wanted. Mewes had memorized the whole script (his lines as well as everyone else’s) so all I had to do with him was modulate and tweak. Matty Damon was… Matty fucking Damon, i.e. - he’s genius at every role. At the end of the day, that week and a half was all we needed.
- On “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”, I never rehearsed with anybody but Mewes, really (and maybe one or two days with Shannon Elizabeth). Since the flick was so cameo-driven, it would’ve been impossible to get any kind of full-cast rehearsal going (make people show up and stay all day just to rehearse six or eight lines? ludicrous). So the rehearsals on that flick mainly consisted of me teaching a heroin/oxy-kicking Mewes how to be Jay again - and even that wasn’t tough, considering he’d played the role four times already.
- For “Jersey Girl”, I got a week of rehearsals. We had Lopez for two days, though, since he manager wouldn’t let her rehearse until Miramax closed her deal - even though she was with us in Philly, sharing an apartment with our leading man. Said leading mad had sold me on doing this flick with him a year and change earlier, at a party in a house that’d one day be mine, when he said “I wanna do something like ‘Chasing Amy’ again - where it’s character-driven, and we rehearse for like a month before we shoot. I miss that.” What I didn’t know was he was just feeling a bit of the ol’ libations-fueled sentimentality in that moment, and that when it came time to actually rehearse, the chances of Affleck finding a month with decks cleared enough to concentrate solely on rehearsing were nil and none. Ultimately, it didn’t matter: this was my fifth film with Ben and he knew what I wanted, performance-wise. Carlin came loaded for bear; all we did in rehearsals was find his inflection and accent. Tyler is just always great. And Raquel? She mostly came together in editing (I mean, she was eight when we shot the flick). That week was all we needed, really. As it would turn out, we could’ve done six months of rehearsals, and still gotten fucked by the critics and at the box office. Sadly, that movie was doomed from the start.
- “Clerks II” was a different story. We rehearsed for around two weeks on the flick, both at my house and at the Mooby’s. Most of that rehearsal time was spent with Brian and Jeff, since they carry the lion’s share of the flick. Jeff had memorized all his lines prior to our first rehearsal, so he was already pretty much off book. After one day of rehearsals with Rosario, it was clear she didn’t need any work whatsoever, so natural was her delivery. Jen and Trevor I spent the second most amount of time with, trying to find the characters. Trevor’s Elias we arrived at almost by accident. He was written as borderline-retarded, but Trevor was just too good looking to play that. So instead, we went with extremely sheltered. When Trevor ad-libbed a “’cause” at the end of one of his lines, and I said “That’s it! That’s the guy! Do the whole performance like that!” What really helped our rehearsals on that flick was being able to do them on location. Since most of the picture took place in and around the Mooby’s, the moment it was construction-sound enough to get inside of, we all started meeting down there to rehearse - because then, we could also block it (the physical activity/actor placement of a scene). But it’s rare when you have a flick that’s set in one location, so you’re not afforded that kinda of time with the space you’ll shoot in/on very often.
Which brings us back to “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.” I’ve got a guy whose inflections I wrote for/to reading the scenes and sounding like he’s not acting at all, as much as being the character. I’ve got a chick who could read the Bible aloud and make it seem charming. They’re naturals. They’re excellent. There’s no need to sweat inflection or do drills; they innately get what they’re reading and say it like I heard it in my head when I wrote it. And while they’re not off-book yet, I’ve learned a thing or two about actors and their lines-memorization abilities since that “Chasing Amy” rehearsal back in ‘96; I’m not sweating that kinda thing anymore.
It’s weird to work one way for so long, and slowly realize it’s not necessary anymore; that it was just something you did when you didn’t know any better. I hired pros; aside from on-set tweaking and an extra take or two, they don’t need to be broken like wild horses or worked like puppets. Those days are behind me now. Now I spend more time thinking about/working on what the flick’s gonna look like - which, I guess, should be the primary job of the director.
Ratface has done a great job with the sets, as usual. Sal, too, knocked the costumes out of the park. Purcell (the man behind Mooby) has created another stellar corporate logo for our fake world (as well as a few not-so-corporate logos, and a brilliantly simple chair-back design). Scott and Laura have found a way to get Dave and I everything we asked for. Milos has tamed the production beast into a sensible, manageable schedule. Everyone’s ready to pull the trigger (or the pud, considering the subject matter). And I am, too.
We start shooting our eighth film on Wednesday.
The Man Who Would Be Zack
Monday 19 November 2007 @ 11:47 am
So, a bunch of folks have seen this…
…and asked “How the fuck did that happen?!?”
If you’ve got a minute, I’ll tell you.
In late 2005, I had a breakfast meeting with Harvey Weinstein at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Even though we were a few weeks away from shooting "Clerks II", he was asking what I wanted to do after that. I told him I'd been thinking about this flick called "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." I'd gotten no further than the title when he said "Done. I'm making that movie."
"Don't you wanna know what it's about first?" I asked.
He replied "I thought the title said it all."
"Well it doesn't."
"Fine. What's it about?"
"It's a meditation on the Holocaust."
He stared at me blankly for a beat.
"Alright," I relented. "The title says it all."
I never got to see "The 40 Year Old Virgin" in a theater. When it was released in the summer of 2005, we were buried in pre-production for "Clerks II", so it wasn't 'til the flick's DVD release that I was finally able to kick back and enjoy it. It was a significant watch for me, because that day, I fell in love with the bearded guy who talked about watching a chick fuck a horse and feeling bad for her. But I knew I wanted to work with the guy when I watched him play a video game with Paul Rudd's character and utter "I'm ripping your head off right now. It's off and now I'm throwing it at your body. FUCK you!"
The delivery of that "FUCK you!" had me rolling. I rewound that moment multiple times during that viewing.
A few days later, Scott and I had a meeting with Harvey (at the Peninsula again) to talk about the release plans for "Clerks II." When those discussions were out of the way, he asked "Where's that porno script?"
"I'm working on it," I lied. "But, hey - did you ever see '40 Year Old Virgin'?"
"Yeah. Funny."
"There's a guy in that movie I wanna cast as Zack."
"Steve Carell?"
"No - the guy who worked in the stock room. His name's Seth Rogen."
"I like that guy. I'm meeting with him next."
"What?!"
"He's coming in to talk about 'Fanboys'. You wanna meet him?"
I never wanna meet anybody. This guy, though, I did wanna meet. And meet him I did, on our way out, as he was coming in. Harvey introduced us, and I immediately told him how many times I watched him say "FUCK you!" to Paul Rudd. He said he was a fan, but I didn't take him seriously; in Hollywood, people tell you that all the time, even though they don't mean it. We talked a little bit about "Clerks II" and I said I'd happily show him the flick if he wanted to see it. The guy gave me his phone number and we said goodbye.
When I got home, I slipped the piece of paper with his phone number under the transparent blotter on my desk, beside pics of my kid, my wife, the original cast of "Clerks", and sundry other mementos. I never called him about that "Clerks II" screening because I figured it'd be awkward somehow - like he'd feel more obligated to go than anything else, and that's a position I never wanna put anyone in, let alone a guy whose work I like.
A year later, I finally started writing "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." At this point, it was a month out from the release of "Knocked Up", and I was seeing posters with Rogen's mug on 'em all over town. "I'm an idiot," I thought. "This dude's gonna be huge. I should've written 'Zack and Miri' a year ago."
A week later, I was done with the first unofficial draft - the one I send to Scott for a first look and possible edits. A week after that, on May 14th, I was done with the official first draft. When I submitted the script to Carla, our Weinstein Co. exec, I asked her if she, by chance, had Seth Rogen's email address (since she was also the exec on "Fanboys" - a movie Seth wound up doing some cameos for). So, on May 15th, at 3:31 in the afternoon, I wrote Seth the following emailÉ
Sir,
We met very briefly, about a year and a half ago, as I was leaving a meeting with Harvey Weinstein and you were entering a meeting with Harvey Weinstein. I don’t expect you to remember it, but I practically blew you over your “I throw your head at you. Fuck you!” moment in “The 40 Year Old Virgin”.
Anyway, I’m a fan, and that day, I started thinking about writing a script for you. But laze (and “Clerks II” promotional duties) got the best of me, so I never got around to writing it.
Until two weeks ago.
I know you’re probably buried in “Knocked Up” and “Super Bad” stuff at the moment, but if you’ve got an hour or two, I’d love you to read it. We’re not gonna be shooting ’til Jan/Feb ‘08, so there’s no immediate rush, I guess. I also know (or at least suspect) that you generate your own material, so I realize I’m doing you no favors, as you’re probably not hurting for work at the moment. Still, I’d love you to read it and, ultimately, be in it, so maybe we can hook up sooner or later.
As I hit send I thought "Yeah, you wanna hook up with him, alright. You and every studio in town, at this point. You snooze, you lose, fat-ass. Next time, don't be so fucking lazy. This dude's never gonna respond now."
At 4:42, that dude responded.
Dude,
This may sound like bullshit, but when I first moved to LA, I went out to meet with agencies, and one of them asked me what my goals were. I said “to be in a kevin smith movie.” That goal has not changed. I would be honored to read anything you wrote, and am truly flattered and amazed that you sent me this e-mail. I wouldn’t be a writer if it wasn’t for you and your movies. Its as simple as that. Thank you so much.
Naturally, I about fell out of the chair. My man-crush not only responded (quickly, at that), but he paid me just about the highest compliment he could've, short of "And 'Jersey Girl' is a misunderstood masterpiece." (Granted, it's not; but a guy can dream, can't he? And also delude himself?)
I made plans to get him the script before he went off on a press tour, then waited for a reaction.
And waited.
And waited.
Thus began the most tumultuous and agonizing summer of my adult life. "Knocked Up" opened huge and kept earning, turning the stock room worker from "40 Year Old Virgin" into a massive movie star. And movie stars don't do my flicks unless I knew them before they were movie stars. Add to all this the fact that he was the writer of a forthcoming flick that was enjoying huge advance buzz as well - which means this was suddenly a man who could not only get cast in anything, but could write it himself. Like I'd said in the email to him: he could generate his own material. A guy who could do that didn't need me or my script. Maybe the nice things he wrote in his email evaporated the moment he enjoyed his breakout success. The dude had something akin to a movie biz Bar Mitzvah; but he wasn't just a man now - he was THE man.
Then, word came back from his agent and manager that THE man read the script while abroad. Arrangements were made to meet upon his return to the states.
July 6th, Seth came over to my house. I barbecued him some steaks, and we sat around bullshitting about movies, comics, video games and a bunch of other shit. As much as I'd liked him in "Virgin" I know liked him even more. He was laid back like Mosier. He was geeky like me.
And he loved the script.
The plan had been to shoot in January, but we talked about maybe going in November instead, getting the flick done by Christmas. It was all, ostensibly, a go.
Then, a week later, the brakes were suddenly applied big time. Word came back from his agent and manager that we needed to slow down. Seth had other offers to consider, but more importantly, the dude was exhausted. He'd gone from "Knocked Up" to "Superbad" to "Pineapple Express" to "Knocked Up" whirlwind press tours both here and internationally, to a new, just announced gig writing and starring in "The Green Hornet." He was looking for a break.
So on July 18th, I wrote him againÉ
Hey,
Word is you might wanna/need to wait to do “Zack and Miri” ’til after the first of the year. If that’s the case, sir, then don’t sweat it. I know you got a bunch of stuff going on at the moment with “Superbad” opening and “Pineapple Express” in post, as well as “Green Hornet” now (congrats on that, by the way). It would’ve been nice to shoot in the fall, but if you doing the flick means waiting ’til January, then I’m willing to wait. I mean, I want you to be in it, obviously; I wrote it for you
But here’s the thing: I don’t wanna be the nut-biter that’s adding more shit to your to-do list, but if we can at least talk notes in the near future, that’d be nice to get out of the way. I keep hearing you’ve got thoughts/notes on the script, so naturally, since I’ve got time on my hands, I’d wanna address said notes sooner rather than later. If it’s a case of “I’m gonna wanna ad-lib and pitch jokes/alts while we shoot,” then no worries - I’m all for it. If it’s a case of “There are story changes I wanna make,” then that’s something I’d rather know now, so I can either get back to work on the script or be like “You’re out of your fucking mind, you Canuck Fuck.”
So when you’ve got time to go over it (either on the phone, over email, or in person), give a bitch a shout and let him know. With the exception of ComiCon weekend and the first week of August, I’ll be here in town. Waiting. Like a school-girl.
Twenty minutes later, he respondedÉ
Dude, thank you so much for understanding. It means alot. The fact of the matter is that I’m just naturally very lazy and the concept of shooting another movie before the new year gives me cold sweats. When we make your movie, I want to be raring to go. Right now I’m not raring to go anywhere but the couch. The notion of making a movie with one of my heroes when I’m in a headspace where I’m anything less than shitting a brick every second of shooting because of how psyched I am doesn’t seem right. I think right now, I’m just too worn out to be in that headspace. But not for long… Honestly, making a movie with you is a dream of mine.
I’ll read the script again asap and give you some thoughts. Nothing major. Just an idea for a new take here or there, but again, seriously, its one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.
At that point, we moved our start back to January and waited. Then, all was quiet for about two months, during which time, I was biting my nails, piss-scared this dude was gonna wake up and be like "Motherfuck a 'Clerks' guy. I'm too huge for his bullshit now."
I distracted myself by eating a lot and gained a shit-ton of weight. I also preoccupied myself writing "Red State" - which was weird because it's about as far from "Zack and Miri" as you can get. I ran into Seth again down at the San Diego ComiCon, and saw him briefly at the "Superbad" premiere - during which time I never hassled him about "Zack and Miri." I forced myself to stop sweating the situation: dude said he dug the script and wanted to do it. If it doesn't come to pass, it wasn't meant to be. If something better comes along and he opts to do that flick instead, at least I knew he liked what I wrote and, even for a moment, considered being in it.
Then, shortly after the San Diego ComiCon, we got word that Rosario Dawson (who I'd been championing as the Miri in "Zack and Miri") took a gig in the new Spielberg-produced, Shia LaBeouf flick. I was about ready to put a gun in my mouth.
On August 8th, Scott, Carla and I started looking to see what actresses were gonna be available in January. With the strike looming, actors and actresses were booking their fall/winter schedules like crazy. Folks started suggesting we do a list of available actors as well, in case Rogen found something else he wanted to do that was gonna be more high profile/pay him more, but I refused. Even though there was no forward momentum on making an official deal with Seth, I had to take the man at his word: he said he wanted to do our flick. Until he said otherwise, I refused to consider anyone for Zack but the guy for whom I wrote it.
Carla pulled together a list of around a hundred actress names. Alphabetically, Elizabeth Banks was at the top of the UTA list. Having dug her in "Invincible" and "Virgin", I put her into my top five choices. Carla told me her agent had called because she'd specifically asked about "Zack and Miri". That made me like her even more.
Then, another potential blow came by way of Aint It Cool News, when they erroneously reported that Jason Bateman was being considered for Zack. I started to panic: what if Seth saw that and was like "Fuck Fat Smith for looking elsewhere."
But this never came to pass, because in early September, after a long summer of feeling like Andi waiting for Blaine to ask her to the prom, Seth came over to the house again, at which point we ate pizza and talked about his notes on the script. He had exactly one, and it was a good suggestion. The fear that he was gonna ask me to wait 'til after he did "Green Hornet" was allayed when he said he didn't wanna try to make that flick pre-strike. We went over the potential Miri's and he went nuts for Banks, telling me that she was really funny and a quick ad-libber. We both agreed she was the perfect Miri.
After that meeting, on September 19th, four months after I first emailed The Man Who Would Be Zack, Weinstein Co. submitted the official offer to Seth's agent and manager. Negotiations were begun in earnest, during which time, we started auditioning folks for the other roles, with Seth reading opposite them. I met with Elizabeth up at the house and instantly fell in love with her sense of humor (and modest romantic history). She'd read the script and loved it, so Weinstein Co. started her negotiations, too.
On October 31st, while I was trick-or-treating with my kid, I got the phone call that Seth's deal had been officially closed. I was thirty pounds heavier than when I'd started this journey, but all the stress-eating was worth it. I can lose weight; I couldn't lose Rogen.
A few days before November 16th, the Weinstein Co. was able to close Elizabeth's deal as well, so the press release could reveal who both Zack and Miri were gonna be.
On November 25th, I head out to Pittsburgh for good, as we prep for our January 16th start of principal photography on my eighth film, starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks.
Very seldom does a situation work out exactly the way you'd like it to. Very seldom do all your dreams come true. I've led a pretty charmed life for which I'm thankful every day. I'm convinced I've been as lucky as I've been, both professionally and personally, because I'm gonna die young. As long as that early demise doesn't happen before we put "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" into the world (and "Red State" after it), I got no beef (and when I say "I got no beef", I don’t mean “I don’t care if I die young,” I mean my dick's small; naturally, I'd be pretty pissed if I don't get to see my kid grow up because I'm dead).
I owe a great deal of thanks to many people, before we roll a frame of film.
Thanks, Jen - for putting up with five months of me laying on the bed, in a near-fetal position, moaning "If Seth Rogen doesn't do this flick, I'm gonna make a real porno."
Thanks, Marsha and Blair - for not insisting that your client aim higher.
Thanks, Mos, Carla, and Phil - for never losing faith and staying on top of this from day one.
Thanks, Harvey and Bob - for stepping up and giving us 25mil to make this flick.
Thanks, Elizabeth - for being Miri.
Thanks, Seth - for reminding me that sometimes in this business, people say what they mean and mean what they say. You could've done anything you wanted, and you wanted to do this flick; I'll be forever grateful for that.
And lastly, Thank God - we're finally making "Zack and Miri."
