The new comedy “Tenure” earned some Hollywood street cred by being one of the more infamous unproduced screenplays.
The film, now on DVD, deserves attention more for its sly humor than any production snafus.
Writer/director Mike Million shares with WWTW how he secured his preferred leading man, Luke Wilson, and why the reports of indie filmmaking’s death are exaggerated.
WWTW: First-time directors sometimes struggle to land recognizable stars, but that clearly wasn’t the problem with “Tenure.” Can you share how the cast came together?
MM: Persistence and a lot of luck. “Tenure” was a script that people in Hollywood were fairly familiar with, which didn’t hurt. It was on “The Black List” in 2005 which has become a really big deal (kind of like the Sundance of unproduced screenplays). So the exposure the script received from The Black List was great. Luke Wilson was actually the actor who I pictured in my head when I was writing the script. Once we had a financial backer, we had a casting meeting at CAA (Luke’s agency) and they got him the script.
The funny thing is that years earlier I had asked my old boss – Jim Lehrer (yes, the PBS news anchor) if he would give “Tenure” to Luke’s father because I knew they were friends. Jim agreed to give Luke’s dad the script — but nothing ever happened. When I finally met Luke I asked him if he had gotten the script from Jim Lehrer and he laughed and said “yeah, this is kinda like the script that wouldn’t die…”
WWTW: David Koechner can be a live wire on screen. Here, he dials down his madcap persona to great effect. Please discuss the evolution of Jay, the Sasquatch hunter.
MM: I’m glad you asked this — because it’s something that David and I worked really hard on. I wanted the character of Jay to be funny, absurd (there’s that word again) but also believable. So David and I talked about the part a lot before we started filming. Two of my favorite comedic roles in film are “Walter Sobchak” (John Goodman) in “The Big Lebowski” and “Dignan” (Owen Wilson) in “Bottle Rocket.”
Both of those characters are so, so misguided but they have a ton of heart. So you can’t help but to cheer them on even though you know they are going to do the wrong thing most of the time. I wanted “Jay” to have shades of both of those guys in him and I think David pulled it off.
WWTW: Your film will debut on DVD shortly. A decade ago that would have meant the film in question wasn’t good enough for theatrical distribution. Today, that’s no longer the case as your film proves – it’s a winner. What are your thoughts about the changing film industry, and what does it mean for young/independent filmmakers?
MM: There’s no doubt the industry — and the way people see films is changing every day. I wish “Tenure” had been in theaters and I believe it deserved to be there, but our distributor went out of business, the economy tanked, etc. etc. and, well, it just wasn’t in the cards. So “Tenure’s” entrance into the world was not as glamorous as I had once hoped. That has been difficult for me to deal with, but when it comes down to it, the most important thing is that people have a chance to see your film. That’s why we do it, right? You make movies to (hopefully) entertain people. And whether that’s in a theater, on DVD, or on an iPod, that goal has not changed. DVD is a great outlet for “Tenure.” In three weeks at Blockbuster it rented 140,000 copies — and that’s a lot of eyeballs on my film.
Indie film is having a tough time right now. Big “event” movies are doing great, but people are not flocking to the theater to see indie films. Everybody in the independent film world dreams of that big sale at Sundance and a “Little Miss Sunshine” type of theatrical run. But, unfortunately, that is happening less and less these days. DVD, On-Demand, Cable have all become very viable outlets for great films to debut on.
I think Indie film is a very resilient beast, though. And it’s already “coming back” in some exciting ways. I’ve seen some REALLY good films recently that were shot for under $500,000. There’s a lot less money around these days which is forcing filmmakers to tell their stories on smaller budgets. So everyone is tightening their belts — which I think can be a really good thing.
(Photo: Luke Wilson plays a college professor jockeying for power with a new colleague – Gretchen Mol – in “Tenure.”)
Related posts:
- WWTW Interview: ‘Tenure’ writer/director Mike Million – Pt. I
- WWTW Interview: ‘Extract’ writer/director Mike Judge – Pt. 2
- WWTW interview: ‘Extract’ writer/director Mike Judge – Pt. 1
- WWTW Interview: ‘The Wackness’ writer/director Jonathan Levine
- WWTW Interview: Writer/director David Spaltro (…Around)
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