Filmstew Interview - June 20, 2007

[size=133:159jd2pe]Hunkering Down with Humourbeasts
[size=100:159jd2pe]They were roommates and stand-up comedy partners. Now, Kiwi clowns Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement are hoping to become modest box office stars.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
By Pam Grady

[size=100:159jd2pe]First-time feature writer-director Taika Waititi is also a stand-up comedian, so it should come as no surprise that getting a straight answer out of him is something of a chore. His comedy, the New Zealand import Eagle vs. Shark, had its U.S. premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Following an appreciative audience reaction, Waititi explains to FilmStew in the dark backroom of a basement bar on Park City's Main Street how he came to take the role of Gordon, the beloved dead older brother of video game-obsessed geek Jarrod.

"
Originally, it wasn't meant to be me,” he reveals. “It was one of those last-minute sort of things. I kind of thought of other people that could've been good, but I couldn't think of an actor as good looking. He needed to be absolutely stunning, you know what I'm saying? A muscular and an all-around talented guy."
Hearing this, the movie's Jarrod, Jemaine Clement, laughs.

The actor, best known stateside for a series of Outback Steakhouse commercials and as the star of the new HBO series Flight of the Conchords, used to room with Waititi and the two were once a comedy duo known as Humourbeast. "
The most gratifying thing that I found is, me and Taika have worked a lot together and we've always had this joke, 'Well, done, little brother!'” Clement chuckles. “We're always trying to make each other the little brother and he actually cast me as the younger brother…I'm older."


Jarrod may be one of the more socially awkward creatures ever to grace celluloid with his lummoxy charm, but to shy fast-food maiden Lily (Loren Horsley), he is the most desirable stud on the planet. After she dons shark garb and finally captures her man's attention at a costume party, their love faces the test when she returns with him to his hometown, where his obsession with settling an old score with a former schoolmate threatens to undo their budding relationship.

As vividly as Jarrod is written, the idea for Eagle vs. Shark actually began with Lily. Waititi saw Horsley playing that frequently mortified character in a small part in a play."
I really fell in love with the character and I wanted to see more of her,"
he recalls. He and Horsley began creating a world for Lily to inhabit, which led inevitably to wondering what kind of man would win her heart.

"
That the genesis of the project,"
Waititi says. "
What is the type of guy this girl is going to go for?"
"
Someone who's dangerous and lonely,"
he adds, a summation met with laughter by his stars. Horsley allows that Jarrod might be a danger to himself. "
Dangerous?"
Clement chortles. "
There's a lot of danger to him!” Waititi protests. “That's what I love about him, the unpredictable. He unpredictable. He's dangerous like an eagle!"


Waititi is back to joking, this time about how much Clement resembles Jarrod in real life. Clement objects, claiming that he is nothing like Jarrod and Horsley agrees, but Waititi is adamant. "
Parts of Jemaine were taken for the character,"
he says solemnly, adding, "
I mean, things like his hands. The character's hands are just like Jemaine's!"
Clement allows that a scene of Jarrod lifting weights that did not make the final cut is taken from his own life. "
That was based on something I did when we all flatted together, me in the living room doing weights. But the character's more like [Taiki]."
"
I was definitely the videogame playing geek,"
Waititi agrees, adding. "
I don't play video games anymore."
"
I don't let him!"
laughs co-star and girlfriend Horsley. "
I make him read books."


Premiering at Sundance was the icing on the cake for a project that the Sundance Institute helped developed. Waititi and Horsley both attended so that Horsley could workshop her character on film. "
There are really amazing people here who helped me out like Philip Seymour Hoffman, "
Waititi reports. Adds Horsley: "
The amazing thing about the Sundance Institute is that they help you the whole way through. They don't just dump you once you've made the film. They stick with you."


Indeed, the Institute went along with the production through its entire journey all the way to postproduction when Waititi was able to send in various cuts of the film for feedback. "
I know there's that saying, 'Too many cooks spoil the broth,' but I don't believe it,” Horsley suggests. “In this case, the quality of the advice so amazing."


Certainly, the advice seems to have paid off, at least so far. Eagle vs. Shark came into Sundance with a distribution deal with Miramax already in place. It has gone on the win the Film Discovery Jury Award for best screenplay at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival and the Feature Film Award for Best Comedy at the Newport Beach Film Festival. In just three theaters this past weekend, the film averaged $6,787 per screen, the beginning of what Miramax hopes is a Little Miss Sunshine-style summer sleeper run.