Week Of October 16, 2006 - Mon / Wed / Fri

October 16, 2006

It's always fascinating to worm one's way into the DNA of a successful movie. As the saying goes, failure is an orphan and success has a thousand parents.

But on a small film like Little Miss Sunshine, success's many parents are not jumping on the gravy train late. There are eight producers credited on the film and I now have a pretty clear picture of six of the eight.

Go back a long way with Marc Turtletaub, who got into the movie business after great success in business, particularly in starting The Money Store. He teamed up with veteran David T. Friendly to produce Laws of Attraction and The Honeymooners. He also got involved with the indie, Duane Hopwood.

Meanwhile, Albert Berger & Ron Yerxa, who have become well known for having great taste (Soderbergh's King of the Hill, Alexander Payne's Election, and Anthony Minghella's Cold Montain, among others) got a script from then-unproduced screenwriter Michael Arndt, who had worked on Election. The script was called Little Miss Sunshine.

Berger and Yerxa brought the script to Turtletaub and Friendly and together, they started moving forward.

As time passed, Peter Saraf joined the team. Saraf had a distinguished list of indie credits, really accelerating through Team Demme, first working with Ed Saxon on Ulee's Gold, then on a couple of Jon Demme projects. He also lent an uncredited hand on Duane Hopwood.

The group attached commercial directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris to the script, set it up at Focus and waited for it to get to the green light. But it never did.

In the meantime, Saraf and Turtletaub teamed up to make Everything Is Illuminated together, making what would become a producing team for the future, tight in much the same way Yerxa and Berger are.

Both teams are, as is so often the case, made up of the Quiet Guy and the Quotable Guy. One look at Peter Saraf simply screams "nice guy." He drives a yellow VW bus, much as seen in Little Miss Sunshine. But he's considering a trade-in, as he is getting a little too much attention for it these days. Marc Turtletaub is leaner and lankier and dominates the conversation in an easy, relaxed way. He drives the story. But his enthusiasm and passion for the work is undeniable.

Ron Yerxa is Mr. Quotable in the other team. The white shock of hair and dark glasses, so familiar to anyone attending any major film festival of the last five years, are as striking as is the man. You never quite know what's going to come out of his mouth. But he is funny and smart and interested in more that any simple conversation about work, his or yours. He's open to whatever is coming to the table. Albert Berger is not quite as much a walking surprise… but he doesn't seem all that surprised either. Been there, done that, ready to discuss what you're there to discuss.

The elephant in the room is the time at Focus, where the film ended up in turnaround. But no one actually seems to be upset with that situation. In fact, everyone seems to have embraced the idea that alls well that ends well. And things have gone rather well at Fox Searchlight.

The film was financed indie after all the hope at Focus went away. They were thrilled to get Steve Carell, even though he was cast before The 40 Year Old Virgin happened, though they did get to see the rough cut. Toni Collette, Alan Arkin, Greg Kinnear… all happy choices, not attempts to chase funding or studio acceptance. And even though Dayton & Faris were first time directors, they were one element that no one ever seemed to question. They team, well-paid for commercials, actually passed on other projects along the way, waiting for this one to become their first. They all believed in Arndt's script that much.

The film started getting buzz before Sundance even occurred. But they couldn't quite figure out how, since no one had really seen it (except John Sloss at Cinetic, of course). So Turtletaub and Saraf made the rounds at the studios before Sundance without showing anyone the film. And they got two offers of more than the cost of the movie in the process… again, without anyone having seen the film they were pledging to buy.

But the decision was made that they would wait for Sundance, even if it was a risk, because they didn't want to take the chance that the buyer would turn out not to care for the film when they finally saw it. And regardless of what the deal states, the effort put behind a release really depends on the enthusiasm of the studio.

And so, the film premiered at Sundance. And Searchlight showed the love, the commitment, and the willingness to make the producers gross players for the first time in a Sundance deal. It was one of those all-night affairs. But the deal got done. And soon thereafter, Searchlight figured out just how to sell the film into being the biggest indie/dependent success of the year.

Which two of the five (Berger, Yerxa, Saraf, Turtletaub, Friendly) or the other three (Michael Beugg, Jeb Brody, Bart Lipton) will take the stage if LMS becomes a Best Picture nominee in February? Good question. But it does seem likely that this group will find a way to make it work.

(Edited - 10/16 @ 9pm for a timeline error.)

E Me.

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