Week Of October 23, 2006 - TCIFF Mon / Wed / Fri

October 25, 2006

Flowers For OscarNom

The air was thick with Oscar in the City of Angels on Tuesday. My name is Poland. I work the streets… the streets that are paved with gold. Or so they hope.

As I threw off the sheets, the phone rang. The town was still buzzing from the Hollywood Film Festival Gala. It wasn't so much that the event much mattered or that the win for World Trade Center in a Yahoo! Movies vote was so impressive. It was the unexpected parade of bold boldfaced names who showed up. Clint, DeNiro, the Stones (Oliver & Sharon), Lindsey, Nic, Sandra, Demi, Ashton, etc, etc, etc.

It was a big moment for this event. After stories in both the Los Angeles and New York Times, the proof of the pudding was getting all of these big names to show up… and show up they did. The foundations of the show are still pretty much Mickey & Judy with the charming Portuguese accent of Carlos De Abreau, but perception is reality in this game and in reality, he won and won big.

Before I knew it, another phone rang and an Oscar consultant was on the phone pushing my buttons.

And this was all before I got to Michael Pena, the "other guy" in the rubble in World Trade Center. Michael turns 30 this year, but he still glows with the energy of a kid. He bounces. And he burns bright.

Our Blackberrys went head to head as we each indulged each other's addiction. (His is new and comes with an earpiece.) But when he got focused, he was completely there.

Pena is a self-taught actor. Growing up on the west side of Chicago, he was a math wiz. After working in a bank for a bit, he took and aptitude test and scored so well that the bank was willing to pay for his college education. But that would have also meant an obligation to the bank. Just days before he was supposed to sign his 20s away, he got a role as an extra in a film… and he never looked back.

Just a few years later, he had saved up 25 grand and made his way to Los Angeles. Soon he got a few lines in the Matthau/Garner comedy My Fellow Americans and he was cruising. With his financial background, he was thrilled not to have an agent. After all, he got that role. But he soon figured out that the 10% was a bargain.

But amazingly, it was Felicity where he finally felt like he figured out what the job of an actor really was. JJ Abrams and Company gave him words to say that finally made him really think about what he was doing. And in the process, he started to work out his way of building character, which has more than a little to do with imprinting on a person, whether it's someone he knows well or some moment he catches with a relevant stranger.

When he went in to audition for Crash, he looked to his brother, who is a parent, to come up with this gentle man who speaks to his child as though she is an equal and not someone to be patronized by an adult. This hook played out throughout the characterization.

In the case of World Trade Center, he talked about two hooks. One was the performance of the pain his character was suffering, trapped in the rubble. He focused on a moment catching someone who was tired smacking their knee against some furniture. The response was not outwardly dramatic or loud, but internal and rolling.

The other hook came from Will Jimeno. Michael was suspicious of the cornball potential in the line, "I always wanted to be a cop." But then Michael met the real Will and what was the first thing out of his mouth? "First thing… I always wanted to be a cop." (Screenwriter Andrea Berloff, who altered the early version of the script dramatically after meeting and getting to know the Jimenos and the McLoughlins, probably got it right from the horse's mouth too.)

Pena has the energy and excitement level that Terrence Howard was showing at the start of the Oscar season last year. Of course, he doesn't quite have the grabber that Terrence had with Hustle & Flow. But his work in World Trade Center is exceptional and easy to overlook. And he is just the kind of young actor that appeals to Academy members. He was part of the Crash phenomenon last year. He delivered again this year. And he is still modest and charming and real and a working actor. And in the pitch of World Trade Center, he and Maria Bello are the most accessible actors, with Nic Cage a big star and Maggie Gyllenhaal just having given birth.

On to Michael Arndt, another bootstrap guy. The writer of Little Miss Sunshine has been around for a decade or so (pretty much Pena's schedule) and after waiting five years to see Little Miss Sunshine made, suddenly he is a hot commodity at the word processor.

Arndt doesn't have the gee-whiz of Pena. His view of the industry has been from behind the scenes from the beginning and he knows where and how some bodies are buried. Not just anyone can claim to be behind the scenes (behind Matthew Broderick) in that Addicted To Love/Godzilla/Election/Inspector Gadget cycle.

Arndt put his mind to the idea of being a screenwriter. And he wrote. And he wrote. And he wrote. And after reading hundreds of pounds of scripts while working for Broderick, he kind of knew the drill… especially in studio comedies. One central comedy hero, lots of supporting performances, relationship mismatch, big second act challenge, big third act recovery and love.

But Arndt wasn't so happy with what he was writing. And he threw a lot of scripts out. But in the process, he developed a group of instincts and people he trusted. And when he got to Little Miss Sunshine, he found that he had hit it just right. In fact, it came so strongly that he wrote it in record speed.

It was anything but conventional. Arndt talks about character development in a way not dissimilar to the way actors build character. He wants them to have a back story and a strong motivation for participating in the story. He also commits to a universality that lasts beyond the specifics of each character. So while not many people might be in their 70s, talking sex and doing drugs, Arndt is really speaking to the idea that people do get to an age and just say, "Fuck it." You may not be a gay expert on Proust, but everyone has been dumped and allowed it to color their perception of themselves. And of course, we all have screwed up families… and we all know that in the end, these are the people closest to us in powerful, painful, and supportive ways.

Arndt also brings perspective to the history of this project. He got it to Yerxa & Berger first. They brought it to New Line, where they have a deal, but the studio passed. Then they brought it to Turtletaub & Saraf, who loved it. The group set the film up at Focus, where development started, eventually pushing Arndt off the film to be rewritten by another writer. But that didn't last and Arndt came back. But then Focus dropped out anyway. After a few more failed attempts at finding a home, Turtletaub and his business partner David Friendly committed the money to make the film. And in the spring of 2005, they actually started making the movie.

But with all the hoopla over the film, Arndt has kept his head. Perhaps it was the four years of Christmas cards to co-directors Dayton and Faris that read, "This is going to be the year." But when the discussion over a possessory credit for the duo on the film, they asked and he quickly said, "Hey, it's your movie now." And when he talks about Abigail Breslin, who was the last hire on the film, he candidly says, "She saved my ass," noting that the movie wouldn't work without her character being 100% believable.

And if you want to see him lower his head in a full "aw, shucks" try talking to him about the Oscars. He doesn't exactly say it's impossible, but when offered that his nomination for Best Original Screenplay is about as close to a lock as any this season, he is clearly fighting the urge to get sucked into believing it.

A good guy. And a writer who really, really aspires to do it and do it right.

It was a full day by 2 in the Botoxed city… and there was still the Death of A President and the Paramount cocktail party for World Trade Center to go. But that's a whole other story…

E Me.

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