Film producer Chad Troutwine had little trouble procuring some of the biggest names in the documentary field for his latest project, “Freakonomics.”
Just do the math.
The film version of the international best seller by Stephen Dubmer and Steven Levitt crunched numbers in a way they hadn‘t been crunched before.
“Freakonomics,” out in select cities Oct. 8, is told in four separate, provocative parts.
“I thought of it as an omnibus project from the beginning,” says Troutwine, who previously produced the anthology film “Paris je t’aime.”
Troutwine met “Super Size Me” director Morgan Spurlock at the Sundance Film Festival and mentioned the idea of turning “Freakonomics” into a feature documentary – “just to see what he thought of it,” he recalls.
“’I’m in,’ he said. Not, ‘let me talk to my manager,’” Troutwine says.
The producer reached out to Errol Morris next, but the director of “The Thin Blue Line” had too many projects on his plate. Alex Gibney of “Taxi to the Dark Side” fame was both available and a natural fit for the book’s treatise on cheating in the sumo wrestling world. Gibney had lived in Japan for some time, and his films routinely deal with corruption.
The film also features Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (“Jesus Camp“) directing a segment on how cash incentives affect student performance and “Why We Fight’s” Eugene Jarecki exploring the link between abortion rates and crime.
Troutwine considered adding a fifth director into the mix, with Spike Jonez and Larry Charles circling the project. But the final call came down to four segments with “The King of Kong’s” Seth Gordon weaving the mini-films together via lively interstitials.
Dubner and Levitt play a key role in the film, appearing as talking head style pundits to break down the numbers even further. But Troutwine says their contributions to film came much later in the process.
“They took a step back and said, ’We trust you to do this,’” he says.
The “Freakonomics” book benefited from both word of mouth appeal and the photosphere to spread the word of its existence. But Troutwine is wary of film studios leaning too hard on social media to sell soap.
“People have to respond to the material and choose to spread them. You have to earn it,“ he says.
The film did employ a little “Freak”-style marketing late last month. A sneak screening of the film asked ticket buyers to pay as much – or as little – to see the film as possible. The choices ranged from a penny to $100.
“We learned that when given the opportunity they’ll pay as little as they can. The penny was the most popular option, but nine people paid the full $100 and some paid $5,“ he says.
Movie fans who don’t live near an art house theater can still check out “Freakonomics.” The film is available via Apple’s iTunes store and can be seen via Video on Demand services.
“It seems like such a natural, especially for documentaries,” he says of the film’s distribution channels. “We wouldn’t want our viewers to be limited to be just urban dwellers.”
The film’s most contentious segment involves the notion that high abortion rates can be tied to lower instances of crime. But Troutwine contends the film isn’t partisan. The movie processes data, not ideology.
“I love politics, but I’m not part of the right or the left. I’m fiercely independent,” he says. “Some of our filmmakers are more outspoken about their liberal views, but we can work these different on the political margins without picking sides.“
And, Troutwine believes, the information can be used in any number of ways to improve our lives.
“I really believe in the kind of analysis [Dubner and Levitt] employ. It’s a powerful way to make decisions,” he says. “If you understand the data, we can be better business people … better parents.”
(Photo: The film “Freakonomics” details the corruption rampant in sumo wrestling during one of its four segments. “Freakonomics” is a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.)
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