Post by hutchshottie on May 5, 2007 4:00:18 GMT -5
Well well they actually interviewed Andrew!!!!!!
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Wilson brothers recall the odyssey of 'Wendell Baker'
05:13 PM CDT on Friday, May 4, 2007
By ALAN PEPPARD / Staff Writer
The 1996 film Bottle Rocket was the instrument of transubstantiation for brothers Andrew, Owen and Luke Wilson from endearing but aimless Dallas prepsters to multithreat Hollywood players. Fast-forward a decade: The Wendell Baker Story, written by Luke and co-directed by Luke and Andrew, premieres Monday at Dallas' Inwood Theatre. For the first time, the three locally raised sons of former KERA president Bob Wilson and his photographer wife, Laura, will be together for a film opening in their hometown.
Laura Wilson
In the film, Luke Wilson plays Wendell, a dim but sunny criminal who makes fake driver's licenses. Once Andrew and Luke locked the final edit in early 2005, Wendell Baker should have been a slam-dunk. Owen, a bankable star nominated for a screenwriting Oscar, plays the sleazy bad guy. Luke, a go-to leading man, plays the sleazy good guy. Andrew, who'd cameo'd as reliable man-meat in both Charlie's Angels movies, was preparing to dual with Jimmy Fallon for Drew Barrymore's love in Fever Pitch . And the film was generating big buzz by screening in a high-profile slot at the 2005 South by Southwest Film Festival.
But The Wendell Baker Story remained frustratingly suspended in amber as its original production company, Mobius Pictures, filed for bankruptcy. Shot in and around Austin in 2003, Wendell Baker spent almost three years in what Andrew calls "Hollywood purgatory."
"Having it not come out was hard for me because we put everything on the line," Luke says. "Having Owen do it. Having [Kris] Kristofferson do it. Will Ferrell came in for a part. The crew, a lot of different guys I'd worked with, went above and beyond. What with the Internet now it's not like the movie was just forgotten. People would say, 'What's with The Wendell Baker Story?' I didn't have an answer."
At last, it ended up in the hands of Think Film, which is releasing it in Texas, New York and LA on May 18 and nationwide in early June. "Now that it's coming out and premiering in Dallas, I just couldn't be happier," Luke says.
Stars at premiere
Monday's American Film Institute-sponsored premiere and post-screening party at Ghostbar will also bring in Mr. Kristofferson and co-stars Harry Dean Stanton and Seymour Cassel.
"We've never done anything like this," Luke says. "The Inwood was our neighborhood theater. I used to walk up there from our house on Farquhar. I remember going to see King Kong, the one with Jessica Lange."
The Wendell Baker odyssey began when Luke, 35, was still Hollywood small fish, before big roles opposite Uma Thurman, Kate Hudson and Sarah Jessica Parker. "I just wrote it as something to keep me occupied," he says. Perhaps he was angling to catch some of the lightning middle brother, Owen, 38, and his writing partner, Wes Anderson, had tapped by penning Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.
Luke plays Wendell, a dim but sunny criminal who makes fake driver's licenses for illegals in his Airstream trailer, a.k.a. Wendell Baker International. Even a short stint in Huntsville (where he negotiates a prison truce between the Crips and the Aryan Brotherhood) can't crush his optimism. Owen is an even dimmer yet more ambitious head nurse with a taste for sadism at a retirement home where the paroled Wendell gets a job.
"He had a rough draft that was about 250 pages long," says Andrew, 42. "A typical movie script is 120 pages. We worked together to get it down to shooting length and took it to Mark Johnson, who is a big producer ( The Chronicles of Narnia, Diner, Donnie Brasco)."
But the gantlet of genuflection that goes with selling a script left Luke queasy. "I was going to all these meetings and was at the mercy of the people with the money," he says. "I was having to listen to their ideas. I'm all for good ideas, but people have you over a barrel because they've got the money. I thought, 'Why not just get Andrew and do it ourselves?' "
Executive producer Elie Samaha had a compromise solution: According to Andrew, "Elie said, 'You deliver Owen and I'll deliver the money,' and by God, he did it."
Brotherly collaboration
Unlike Luke, Andrew at least had a little experience behind the camera.
"In 1992, Hamilton Jordan hired me to do a 10-minute biopic on Ross Perot," he says, referring to the Carter White House chief of staff who worked on Mr. Perot's first presidential bid.
With Luke in virtually every shot and Andrew behind the camera, the two displayed a fraternal chemistry free from seismic turmoil that might be found in, say, a Baldwin brothers' collaboration.
"There are six years between us," says Luke. "Andrew claims he didn't even know I was his brother until the late '80s. He just thought I was a neighborhood kid who my parents had doing chores."
"I'm not competitive with my brothers," says Andrew. "If we're playing a sport, I'm literally trying to kill them, but when it comes to our careers, I'm just a big fan."
They wrapped shooting in '03, headed to the editing room and reveled in their achievement. "The odds of getting a movie made without studio backing are minuscule," says Andrew. "When we finished, I thought, 'We've done it. The war's over.' It turned out the battle had just begun."
When Mr. Samaha's Mobius Pictures went out of business, The Wendell Baker Story became a casualty. "We entertained the idea of buying it back ourselves, but they wouldn't sell it," says Andrew. "Our hands were tied. We didn't own the movie."
Fortunately, the film is not set in a specific time. "We watched a lot of the movies of the '70s with Steve McQueen and Kris Kristofferson," says Andrew. "And as a director, we really admire Hal Ashby. We imitated those for the look of this film. I don't think we have a car in it made after 1980. That indeterminate time frame worked in our favor with the lag time between production and release."
And, after years of struggle to get The Wendell Baker Story to the screen, the financial return seems an abstract point.
"If you add it all up, I probably made about two bucks an hour on this one," says Andrew.
"This is the perfect way for it to come out," Luke says, sounding as buoyant as Wendell Baker. "Just getting in touch with all the people who worked on it. It will be so much fun to be in the old neighborhood, with our parents in the theater and with old friends and teachers. I'm excited."
I love this interview.
And hey, its going be released all over US at some point, maybe the UK will get it soon
oh and i love this bit
05:13 PM CDT on Friday, May 4, 2007
By ALAN PEPPARD / Staff Writer
The 1996 film Bottle Rocket was the instrument of transubstantiation for brothers Andrew, Owen and Luke Wilson from endearing but aimless Dallas prepsters to multithreat Hollywood players. Fast-forward a decade: The Wendell Baker Story, written by Luke and co-directed by Luke and Andrew, premieres Monday at Dallas' Inwood Theatre. For the first time, the three locally raised sons of former KERA president Bob Wilson and his photographer wife, Laura, will be together for a film opening in their hometown.
Laura Wilson
In the film, Luke Wilson plays Wendell, a dim but sunny criminal who makes fake driver's licenses. Once Andrew and Luke locked the final edit in early 2005, Wendell Baker should have been a slam-dunk. Owen, a bankable star nominated for a screenwriting Oscar, plays the sleazy bad guy. Luke, a go-to leading man, plays the sleazy good guy. Andrew, who'd cameo'd as reliable man-meat in both Charlie's Angels movies, was preparing to dual with Jimmy Fallon for Drew Barrymore's love in Fever Pitch . And the film was generating big buzz by screening in a high-profile slot at the 2005 South by Southwest Film Festival.
But The Wendell Baker Story remained frustratingly suspended in amber as its original production company, Mobius Pictures, filed for bankruptcy. Shot in and around Austin in 2003, Wendell Baker spent almost three years in what Andrew calls "Hollywood purgatory."
"Having it not come out was hard for me because we put everything on the line," Luke says. "Having Owen do it. Having [Kris] Kristofferson do it. Will Ferrell came in for a part. The crew, a lot of different guys I'd worked with, went above and beyond. What with the Internet now it's not like the movie was just forgotten. People would say, 'What's with The Wendell Baker Story?' I didn't have an answer."
At last, it ended up in the hands of Think Film, which is releasing it in Texas, New York and LA on May 18 and nationwide in early June. "Now that it's coming out and premiering in Dallas, I just couldn't be happier," Luke says.
Stars at premiere
Monday's American Film Institute-sponsored premiere and post-screening party at Ghostbar will also bring in Mr. Kristofferson and co-stars Harry Dean Stanton and Seymour Cassel.
"We've never done anything like this," Luke says. "The Inwood was our neighborhood theater. I used to walk up there from our house on Farquhar. I remember going to see King Kong, the one with Jessica Lange."
The Wendell Baker odyssey began when Luke, 35, was still Hollywood small fish, before big roles opposite Uma Thurman, Kate Hudson and Sarah Jessica Parker. "I just wrote it as something to keep me occupied," he says. Perhaps he was angling to catch some of the lightning middle brother, Owen, 38, and his writing partner, Wes Anderson, had tapped by penning Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.
Luke plays Wendell, a dim but sunny criminal who makes fake driver's licenses for illegals in his Airstream trailer, a.k.a. Wendell Baker International. Even a short stint in Huntsville (where he negotiates a prison truce between the Crips and the Aryan Brotherhood) can't crush his optimism. Owen is an even dimmer yet more ambitious head nurse with a taste for sadism at a retirement home where the paroled Wendell gets a job.
"He had a rough draft that was about 250 pages long," says Andrew, 42. "A typical movie script is 120 pages. We worked together to get it down to shooting length and took it to Mark Johnson, who is a big producer ( The Chronicles of Narnia, Diner, Donnie Brasco)."
But the gantlet of genuflection that goes with selling a script left Luke queasy. "I was going to all these meetings and was at the mercy of the people with the money," he says. "I was having to listen to their ideas. I'm all for good ideas, but people have you over a barrel because they've got the money. I thought, 'Why not just get Andrew and do it ourselves?' "
Executive producer Elie Samaha had a compromise solution: According to Andrew, "Elie said, 'You deliver Owen and I'll deliver the money,' and by God, he did it."
Brotherly collaboration
Unlike Luke, Andrew at least had a little experience behind the camera.
"In 1992, Hamilton Jordan hired me to do a 10-minute biopic on Ross Perot," he says, referring to the Carter White House chief of staff who worked on Mr. Perot's first presidential bid.
With Luke in virtually every shot and Andrew behind the camera, the two displayed a fraternal chemistry free from seismic turmoil that might be found in, say, a Baldwin brothers' collaboration.
"There are six years between us," says Luke. "Andrew claims he didn't even know I was his brother until the late '80s. He just thought I was a neighborhood kid who my parents had doing chores."
"I'm not competitive with my brothers," says Andrew. "If we're playing a sport, I'm literally trying to kill them, but when it comes to our careers, I'm just a big fan."
They wrapped shooting in '03, headed to the editing room and reveled in their achievement. "The odds of getting a movie made without studio backing are minuscule," says Andrew. "When we finished, I thought, 'We've done it. The war's over.' It turned out the battle had just begun."
When Mr. Samaha's Mobius Pictures went out of business, The Wendell Baker Story became a casualty. "We entertained the idea of buying it back ourselves, but they wouldn't sell it," says Andrew. "Our hands were tied. We didn't own the movie."
Fortunately, the film is not set in a specific time. "We watched a lot of the movies of the '70s with Steve McQueen and Kris Kristofferson," says Andrew. "And as a director, we really admire Hal Ashby. We imitated those for the look of this film. I don't think we have a car in it made after 1980. That indeterminate time frame worked in our favor with the lag time between production and release."
And, after years of struggle to get The Wendell Baker Story to the screen, the financial return seems an abstract point.
"If you add it all up, I probably made about two bucks an hour on this one," says Andrew.
"This is the perfect way for it to come out," Luke says, sounding as buoyant as Wendell Baker. "Just getting in touch with all the people who worked on it. It will be so much fun to be in the old neighborhood, with our parents in the theater and with old friends and teachers. I'm excited."
I love this interview.
And hey, its going be released all over US at some point, maybe the UK will get it soon
oh and i love this bit
"There are six years between us," says Luke. "Andrew claims he didn't even know I was his brother until the late '80s. He just thought I was a neighborhood kid who my parents had doing chores."