Post by MyTatuo on Nov 15, 2006 17:37:22 GMT -5
SpielbergFilms.com fansite interviews Darin Beckstead, director of "Courage & Stupidity", inspired by Spielberg's making of Jaws.
FULL INTERVIEW: www.spielbergfilms.com/jaws/1134
Here, Beckstead speaks of early casting choices, with Zack Braff ("Scrubs") possibly playing young Steven, or with bigger names as the shark movie's producers...
SPIELBERGFILMS: Besides Braff, you also met with Rodney Dangerfield. Did you write the part of the gruff producer with him in mind? If not, what led you to want to cast him and meet with him?
BECKSTEAD: Initially I really believed that I would need at least one recognizable star to get this thing accepted by the festival circuit. I spoke with Robert Culp’s (‘The Greatest American Hero’) agent and he was attached for quite some time. I still would have loved to have used him and hope I have the chance to in the future. We ended up putting the money in to other areas of production. Now Rodney was a riot. Guillermo and I met with him in his home. The day will not be forgotten. He was very gracious and talented in many ways. I think because he is so well known it would have taken the spotlight off of Steven’s character. Any movie that has Mr. Dangerfield in it is known as a ‘Rodney Dangerfield’ production because he is known as a larger-than-life talent.
SPIELBERGFILMS: The parts of the producers that you talked with Culp and Dangerfield about differ greatly from Steven Spielberg’s real-life producers on ‘Jaws.’ Did you ever think to make the producers more like Richard Zanuck and David Brown, or did you always just want them to be more caricatured?
BECKSTEAD: I always had planned to make the producers the antagonists. I always thought the two balcony hecklers from the Muppet series would have been funny. Always something to say and nothing to contribute.
<snip>
FULL INTERVIEW: www.spielbergfilms.com/jaws/1134
Here, Beckstead speaks of early casting choices, with Zack Braff ("Scrubs") possibly playing young Steven, or with bigger names as the shark movie's producers...
SPIELBERGFILMS: Besides Braff, you also met with Rodney Dangerfield. Did you write the part of the gruff producer with him in mind? If not, what led you to want to cast him and meet with him?
BECKSTEAD: Initially I really believed that I would need at least one recognizable star to get this thing accepted by the festival circuit. I spoke with Robert Culp’s (‘The Greatest American Hero’) agent and he was attached for quite some time. I still would have loved to have used him and hope I have the chance to in the future. We ended up putting the money in to other areas of production. Now Rodney was a riot. Guillermo and I met with him in his home. The day will not be forgotten. He was very gracious and talented in many ways. I think because he is so well known it would have taken the spotlight off of Steven’s character. Any movie that has Mr. Dangerfield in it is known as a ‘Rodney Dangerfield’ production because he is known as a larger-than-life talent.
SPIELBERGFILMS: The parts of the producers that you talked with Culp and Dangerfield about differ greatly from Steven Spielberg’s real-life producers on ‘Jaws.’ Did you ever think to make the producers more like Richard Zanuck and David Brown, or did you always just want them to be more caricatured?
BECKSTEAD: I always had planned to make the producers the antagonists. I always thought the two balcony hecklers from the Muppet series would have been funny. Always something to say and nothing to contribute.
<snip>
