Knock, Knock

Hey avid blog readers. Without our pending U.S release (May/June - we don't know for sure yet) my plan was to upload cutting room floor interview clips with some of our key players (Kevin Smith, Jason Reitman, Andrew McCarthy etc) - but my transfer deck is broken so I can't edit and upload at the moment. But they are a'comin.



Until that day I just wanted to take a moment to explain why we went on our "get an interview with Hughes" roadtrip.

It was never our intention to be in the film. After our first year of making the film and getting nowhere with trying to get the exclusive interview with the ellusive Hughes, we simply gave up. We focused on the people who worked with him or were influenced by him. It's not just that he hasn't given "an" interview since 1999. When Time magazine wanted to do an article with him, he said no. When the Biography channel wanted to do an interview with him, he said no. When MTV was giving him an award, he didn't show up. When his old high school wanted to give him an award, he didn't accept. When they dug up an idea Hughes wrote down on a napkin in the 80s (Drillbit Taylor)and Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow wanted to meet with him, he said no.

So, why did we go?

Simply, we were naive enough to believe everyone else just didn't try hard enough. Nobody else had put their lives on hold for four years, or spent private money making a tribute to him. And nobody else went as far to knock on his door and ask him face to face.

M

New Hughes Film

Well, we certainly heard it from a bunch of people we interviewed, a sorta legend that John had a barn/drawer/box somewhere out there, which had ideas for films, scripts, short stories and a whole bunch of stuff he either never made or didn't pursue making.

Well, it looks like it was true. Shortly after Hughes' death, his family discovered an endless amount of notes, binders, etc.

Naturally, Hollywood came-a-knocking and according to this site Paramount will be producing one of the screenplays. Apparently, It follows a rich Chicago family who lose everything and have no choice but to move out to the country.

Sounds like classic Hughes to me.

Whether this was going to be his comeback film or something he just felt wasn't up to snuff, we'll just have to wait and see. I really hope if they go through with it that they get Howard Deutch (Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful) to direct it.

M

What did you think of the Hughes Oscar Tribute?

I gotta say, to quote one of my producers (Fach) "It was nice to finally see him invited to the party."

I don't know when the last time was that somebody got special treatment like that during the telecast, and I'm sure it was an immensely special moment for his family that was there.

I was sorta hoping that instead of just an assembly of clips, that the segment's producers would have tapped into some of the things we weren't able to cover, but nonetheless, I feel like the cast of his films and the Oscars itself did a proper send off to him.

We are very humbled to have stumbled across this posting, comparing our film to the tribute.
http://http://www.geekweek.com/2010/03/the-john-hughes-tribute-was-not-good.html

Our mistake

We made a boo boo. In our completed edit we credited somebody that doesn't exist, in place of someone who does. We interviewed Joel Gallen (Director) and Mike Bender (Writer) behind NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE. One of the other credited writers was Jay Epstein. Somehow we amalgamated his name with Mike's to come up with MIKE EPSTEIN. I'm sure there's a Mike Epstein somewhere out there, and he's a super nice guy, but we didn't interview him in our film. We interviewed Mike Bender, and are so sorry we fudged it and it's out there now.

Other than writing some funny flicks Mike is also the brain behind a blog called AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. Check it out!

Mike's been good humoured about the mix-up, but still, we're pretty embarrassed. How could we mess up his last name when it's BENDER!!!??!!

M