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Capone vs Seinfeld -- THE BEE MOVIE!
Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here. A couple weeks back, Jerry Seinfeld brought about 25 minutes of clips from BEE MOVIE to Chicago as part of a joint presentation with the films co-directors Steve Hickner and Simon J. Smith. After the presentation, I got a chance to sit down with the directors (that interview is coming soon) and well as take part in a small-ish roundtable with Mr. Seinfeld himself. During the presentation, Jerry also answered a few questions from the audience and described how the idea that sparked his doing the movie in the first place was nothing more than a title that he shared with Dreamworks head Steven Spielberg, who in turn told Jerry to start writing. So the first question relates to that initial conversation. Jerry did a little comedy during his presentation in front of a mixed audience of writers and the public, but during tour interview, he was pretty serious about the process that went into getting this movie made. That's where we begin…
Question: So, how seriously did you take Steven Spielberg when he suggested that you take this idea and run with it? The origins of this whole movie just screams “Hollywood urban legend.”
Jerry Seinfeld: It does sound like one of those made-up stories, I agree, but it actually happened. I did not take it seriously; I didn’t think that I’m going to make a movie about bees. Do they really want that? Could I do that? How would I do it? I’m not moving back to L.A. Then they explained it to me. When you go to that studio and you look at these images and they show you how they do it and what they can do to create this whole world and create characters that look any which way that you want--I think what got to me was that you could let your imagination run wild here and do anything you wanted. You can’t do that really even if you are making KING KONG--there are limits to what you can do--but there are no limits animation.
I thought, “Gee, what would it be like to bring my kind of humor into that kind of visual environment?” That was when I started to get interested and that is when I wanted to make it. I wanted to see if I could do it because it was a very different challenge from anything that I had done before. I knew I could make a regular movie--that is basically a TV show, only longer--but with this, could I create the visual elements that you needed and could I do something that I wanted to do that kids would get and like? Also, these movies are works of pure imagination. You aren’t even dealing with a known universe; you have to invent the entire universe. What does he know? What can he do? What can’t he do? Can he talk to just her, or can he talk to anyone? How far can he fly? Every single thing is something that you have to decide, you know? The sheet of paper was so blank that I just couldn’t resist it.
Capone: You said that you could make a regular movie. How did you know that since you haven’t made one since the end of the TV show?
JS: Well, I thought that I would know how to go about it--I would take the same approach that I took with the TV show. But I never wanted to; it just wasn’t exciting or different enough. I was just tired of looking at scripts and auditioning actors. I know that maybe that sounds silly, but I don’t think people knew how involved I was or they didn’t know what it is to work on a television show seven days a week for nine years. You just kind of get tired of the process of it because you know it so well. It just didn’t excite me. I had made 90 hours [of the show]--90 hours is a whole career and to make another hour and a half for what? To prove what?
Question: Why do you think that bees have been so under represented in movies, at least as heroes, and why are they so misunderstood?
JS: I think people didn’t know how to handle the stinger aspect--I think that is what is intimidating about them. They are carrying a weapon and they will not hesitate to use it. They do have a very dark side, and there is a fear of bees along with a fascination, and that is what made them interesting characters for me.
Question: One element of “Seinfeld” that people enjoyed was the fact that the characters were not nice most of the time, that was the thing that made them funny and made them real. Are you enjoying reversing expectations with this movie?
JS: You mean because the bee character is nicer than the guy I played on the show? Is that what you're referring to?
Question: Well, people normally see bees as a negative thing while TV sitcom heroes are usually nice people. What interests you about taking that normal perception and inverting it?
JS: See, I wouldn’t say that I’ve inverted it. Maybe I have a slightly different version of the character that I played on the show--this character is more innocent and altruistic. He does care about the other bees and wants to help them and wants to do his part. He isn’t selfish.
Question: He does go a little Che Guevera there at one point. . .
JS: Yes, but that is in the middle part. In the middle, he decides that they have been wronged and that he is going to fight for what he sees is justice. However, it doesn’t lead to where you think it is going to go. That's our favorite thing about the movie--you can’t get ahead of it. There is no way that anyone can get ahead of it. It takes a series of left turns, and that was what was fun to create.
Question: Did you have any particular cinematic inspirations for how you structured the film?
JS: A little bit. I started with “The Graduate,” which is my favorite movie--you can see that we imitated it in one scene. There is some similarity in the situation--he has graduated from college, and his parents are expecting him to go to work in the factory like everyone else does but he isn’t so sure about it. There are some similarities there. The other movie, thematically, was “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying,” which is a story about how the company is everything. That is the bee life–they live for the company and die for the company. I guess those would be the inspirations.
Question: Can you talk a little about the actual process of writing the screenplay? In terms of structure and narrative flow, writing a screenplay is, after all, much different writing stand-up material or a sitcom script. What was it like to adjust to this different form of writing?
JS: Here is the problem with writing a movie, which is the hardest thing that I have ever done and something that I don’t think that I am really cut out for, to tell you the truth. I had to struggle quite a bit to make this thing work the way that I thought it should work. It was extremely challenging, so I think I do have to go back on my statement about how I knew I could do it. It was much harder than I thought it would be and I now have much more respect for filmmakers than I ever had before. I will never walk out of a movie and go “Ahh, junk!” These things are so damn hard to do that anyone that does one accomplishes a lot.
To answer your question, the challenge of making a movie vis a vis a television episode is that with a movie, you are making the pilot episode and the series finale all rolled into one , those are the two hardest episodes of any TV series. Those are the killers. The ones in the middle are actually pretty easy--people know the characters, you know what it is, and you are kind of putting out another issue of the same newspaper. A movie takes on the challenge of introducing you to the characters, involving you with them, telling this whole story and then leaving you in the perfect place. It is absurd, and I don’t know why anyone does it.
The other thing is that we have found that kids like it and grown-ups like it. I didn’t write it for kids. I wanted to make a comedy and use the look of CGI and whatever happened would happen. I don’t know how it happened but I feel that it has an across-the-board appeal to it. The last thing I wanted to do was make something totally accessible because that is always the trademark of something that stinks--if it works for everybody, it works for nobody. I don’t like those kind of generalized things like a ride at Disneyland that is totally broad-based but somehow, I seem to have stumbled into it.
Question: When you got involved with the film, what did you have to shift--what muscle was dormant that you finally had to use?
JS: The story muscle, which is my least favorite muscle. My favorite muscle is the joke muscle. We need this character to say something funny in this moment--that's when I want them to call me into the room. That's not the hard part of the movie, I found out. I didn’t know that when an audience goes into a darkened theater, they have a different investment than they do in a nightclub or in front of a television screen. It is a different mindset that they bring. They’ve gotten into their car. They’ve parked and walked. Maybe they’ve paid a babysitter. They’ve paid to get in. When people pay to get in, they are looking for a different story; they want a story that totally holds their attention. I am not by nature a storyteller. I am a stand-up comic. I like things short. It took me years on the TV show to learn how to tell a 22-minute story and I didn’t really like doing that either. I just like doing the lines in the scene. Larry [David] was great at doing the story, and that's why we were great partners.
Capone: I've been really fascinated with the marketing campaign for the film. First you had the live-action teaser trailers, then you showed up at Cannes in the bee costume, and now you have the TV Juniors on NBC. Whose ideas were these, and why are you doing the marketing in these unconventional ways?
JS: Because I can. They will let me do it. [laughs] The teaser trailers were expensive. We built a 90-foot windshield for one, and we got Spielberg for the second one because he owed me the favor. He made me make this movie, and now I'm going to make him do something that I want. I am in this unique position from the TV show where people will let me do things. I always like to give the audience different things. I’m really excited about the TV Juniors--the two we showed you were very early, and as went on with making those, we got better and better and some of them really work very well. I just think that it will be an interesting new quantity on television, a minute-15-second comedy show right in the middle of the commercials. I just like to see how different things hit people.
And as soon as it began, our time with Jerry was over. My interview with the directors is actually much longer and more informative, so stay tuned for that later this week.
Capone
Mail Me Some Honey!
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were about as funny as tuberculosis. So I'm not sure about this, yet another CGI movie about insects. But what do I know, I'm sure it will be huge with kids and soccer moms.
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..."what's the deal with only one sock in the dryer?" The horse-faced sumbitch might actually pull this off.
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I'd like to know.
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Are they?
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just done a feature length Superman/Seinfeld adventure. That would have been much more interesting.
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...is not exactly something that puts the movie in a favourable light. Basing an entire movie an a gimmicky title pretty much reveals the thought process and mentality of the entire movie. I would be more impressed if it were a story he had worked on, or came to him out of inspiration, and he decided to adapt the story into a movie about bees. But by revealing the true inception, it shows that its nothing more than a money-making venture.
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Going to see American Gangster instead.
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Especially the ones who can't shut up about their unfunny 3D animated movies.
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Have Jerry do a Q & A, Harry please!!!Ask him why the most successful seinfeld alum never appeared on the show on camera!
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Just like that pun I just made. The more I watch Curb Your Enthusiam, the more I realise that it was Larry Sanders who was the real genius behind Seinfeld. After all, Jerry's act has always been pretty middle of the road and safe. I expect nothing less from this. After all, he freaking gave Oprah a part in it from what I understand. Ugh...
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Oct 29, 2007 8:41:02 PM CDT
jerry....i cheated in the contest, jerry.
by lloyd bonafide the korean war veteran
cause im a cheater!!!!
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Cuz I guarantee you they're probably funnier than the movie.
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you're just jealous of him, you basement dwellers, pathetic virgins spitting your venom at real creators like Brett Ratner, Len Wiseman, Roman Polanski or Jerry Seinfeld.
Just joking BTW this movie looks like shit and the last time Seinfeld was funny Clinton was in the Office. -
"Any more of those cupcakes...?"
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Plus their dog. And I would still love him. Free pass for life, buddy.
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Oct 29, 2007 10:28:20 PM CDT
Jerry Seinfeld could join the Church of Scientology,
by 'cholera's ghost
kick me in the nuts, motorboard my mamma's chest, and drape himself in velvet, for all I care.
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I hear Orny Adams CEE Movie is the better of the two works.
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IT MUST HAPPEN!
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you know that Seinfeld is not a scientologist, right? they approached him and bothered him about joining a while back, and flatly said no, privately and publicly.now My Name is Earl...that is run by, written by, and stars Scientologists...
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Seriously, this movie is just flat out wearing on my nerves at this point. And the funny thing is I just might have seen it too. But I am so sick of the publicity machine that all interest is gone.
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wherez that nigger
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"No honey for you!"
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didnt i already see this?
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Although I probably wouldn't have seen it anyway, by this point it could be the funniest movie ever made and you'd have to force me at gunpoint to go. Even my local NPR station is shilling this stupid thing.
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By a so-called comedian, anyway.
He sure sounds full of himself, though, doesn't he?
I won't be seeing this. Jerry, you forget that you were the weakest link on "Seinfeld." -
freaky kids movie
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but the cartoonist who drew the cow-boy comic strip for Comics buyers guide wrote and drew an educational graphic novel about Bees. He actually did his research and knew what he was talking about. They should have bought that and made that movie. Seriously, a movie based on a title based on a pun. What's the deal with that?
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Larry David. Larry David. Larry David.
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Good interview dude.
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... with washed-up comedians with gigantic horse teeth and a desire to violate a cardboard Superman plugging unfunny shit in an unfunny interview?
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"Why do you think that bees have been so under represented in movies, at least as heroes, and why are they so misunderstood?"
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Oct 30, 2007 7:18:16 AM CDT
Heh, I was just about to post the exact same thing, VB
by seppukudkurosawa
Someone got paid to ask that?
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and even tho hes not a scientologist, he was, for a while.
will dan akroyd play a wasp? -
arthur and the antz bully's life
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Jerry Rules! Dude, you gotta do another TV show or movie!
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Every 8 year old and under that hasn't been to a movie since summer will see it. My kids already know about it from cereal boxes
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bees didn't have multi-faceted eyes but instead had eyes like they do in this movie? Kinda Zanti Misfits style without the creepy-factor? I bet people would like to get stung if bees had these big goofy pop-out eyes instead of those weird alien multi-faceted things.
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whatsthedealect
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That's what I think of when I hear Seinfeld talk. Thanks but I'll pass on the torture of having to sit through this. The only guy with a more annoying voice is Gilbert Gottfried, and luckily his role wasn't very big in Aladdin.
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with that voice of his. Throw them both under a bus
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Oct 30, 2007 10:33:31 AM CDT
what's the deal with lampshades?
by lloyd bonafide the korean war veteran
if its a lamp, why do you need shade?
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Damn this movie looks lame
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PERVOMATIC--Its Larry David not Larry Sanders...
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By the time any big movie comes out, the studios have been beating me over the head with it so incessantly, for so long, that I'm totally sick of it and have no interest or desire to watch it. It's the difference between "hmm, the trailer looked promising, maybe I'll check that out" and "oh God, no more SPIDER-MAN 3, I just can't take any more SPIDER-MAN 3" - with the release still a month or so away. Still haven't seen it and I probably never will, because I'm still sick of it. Used to be I had to watch something repeatedly before I got sick of it - now I don't have to watch it at all.
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. . . all I can say is OUCH!!!
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Good job on mixing up Larry David with a fictional character.
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I was stung by a bee this past summer, and I'm still traumatized by it. It's just too soon for there to be a bee movie with a bee as the protagonist.
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And if so, do they like it cheese or no cheese?
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I've enjoyed all of Dreamworks' animated efforts so far, thus I see no reason why I won't like this. (Which is odd, considering so few are made by the same people.) For my money, they've had a better batting average in the last 10 years than Disney (minus Pixar) has. 'Nuff said.
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is "Invasion of the Bee Girls." Considered by some to be one of the most original B-movies ever. Just the scene of the naked girls having honey poured on them is worth it.
First screenplay by Nicholas Meyer and directed by Oscar winner Denis Saunders. -
Trader Groucho 2, Pervomatic was right, even when he got the name wrong. Seinfeld started straining so much trying to be funny after Larry David left the series that he nearly burst at the seams. And these endless intrustions into NBC programing with incredibly forced bits to promote this film show you why Seinfeld has laid low for so many years after he closed down his show. HE KNEW LARRY DAVID WAS FUNNIER ALL ALONG! Watching Jerry's hamhanded acting on 30 Rock in a thinly disguised effort to push the film (he even plugged the film directly to camera at one point), and then fill every broadcasting moment on NBC with Schill Fill makes me realize that JERRY HIMSELF was the first victim of the Seinfeld curse. The second victim? EVERYONE WHO HAS PAID TO SEE HIM SINCE. And with crap like we've been getting thrown at us recently, we're paying dearly just by watching FREE TV.
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By the way, have you seen her during the press push? She looks like her eyes and lips were stung by a million bees. What has happened since she had us at "hello??"
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I could never get into that show. Granted, I only tried watching a few episodes here and there, but it never grabbed me. Although Curb Your Enthusiasm is absolutely great.
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Before you start fumbling over yourselves with ignorant rants, Seinfeld was a funny show. And as for Seinfeld himself not being funny, just stop right there. While acting isn't his strong suit, comedy is. And if you ever been to one of his shows, you would know that. Writing comedy is a lot easier than delivering jokes in front of 15,000 people.
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In fairness, that's your opinion, just like I have my opinion that I didn't like Seinfeld. If his awful stand-up (my opinion) he did at the end of each Seinfeld episode was indicative of his stand-up routine, then I'd never want to see a full show. Again, my opinion, just as you're entitled to yours.
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Yeah, I meant Larry David. I had just finished watching some of the Not Just The Best Of The Larry Sanders Show on DVD earlier and I fucked up the names, so sue me. Anyway, I still stand by my opinion that Larry David was the true genius behind the Seinfeld pehnom. Jerry was just the figurehead.
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Oct 30, 2007 9:23:32 PM CDT
No Advance Screenings + Overkill Marketing Push = Lame Ass Movie
by sideshowrob
Why hasnt Dreamworks screened BEE MOVIE in its entirety for press/public. ROTTEN TOMATOES has no advance reviews listed. History has shown when a Studio fails to screen a Big Budget Flick in advance, they're probably hiding something. The TV Junior campaign's pretty lame.
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And they both are pretty negative. A quote from The Hollywood Reporter says: "Unfortunately, bees just aren't that funny. They talk funny now and then thanks to that force of comedy, Jerry Seinfeld, who co-wrote, co-produced and stars in his first animated feature. But they aren't intriguing cartoon creatures. Nor is the odd story Seinfeld and his collaborators dreamed up very inspired. The film labors too hard for its comic moments and never discovers a cartoon logic that will allow bees and humans to interact." Sounds as lame as the ad campaign has been.
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It's overkill; it will open big this weekend; the merchandising will sell; enough already with the shameless, cutesy promotion.
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Y'know, flying around and calling black beetles the "N" word.
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I know a nasty joke when I hear one. That was...funny in a twisted, insensitive way. Harsh shit that makes you laugh and feel guilty about it afterward.
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Curb is FUH-NEE.
As for Seinfeld (he dabbled in Scientology? Really???), he definitely was NOT in his element on that show the first season or so, but he did grow into it.
Larry David and NBC were smart enough to surround Jerry with three actors with strong improv backgrounds. I don't doubt for a minute what Seinfeld has said in interviews about his work schedule and involvement with the show, but it is really clear just from what we see on-screen that Alexander, Richards, and Louis-Dreyfus worked their asses off to make that show good.
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You know what this movie needs, More Hype.
Seriously, how much hype can one movie need. -
I MEAN THEY DONT LOOK ANYTHING LIKE THE SECOND LETTER OF THE ALPHABET!
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I haven't seen the movie, but it doesn't surprise me that the main complaint seems to be there is no story or underlying message... especially after reading above that JS "hates" that part -- and is more focused on the one-liners. Very telling, and someone at the studio should have stopped him from saying things like that! Come to think of it, he had -- what, like 10 years -- to say something deep or meaningful on his TV show, and yet it remained true to its concept to be about nothing. So here is his movie about nothing. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'll see it for a laugh.
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His show irritated me. Buncha selfish New Yorkers bringing pain to thrmselves and others. Newsradio was the great 90's sitcom.
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What a silly cook book.
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...because he sucks. He's a terrible actor and a one-note comic presence. He should simply take his millions, buy himself an island, and grow fat ala Brando. (I take that back - Brando was unique and interesting. Jerry should give all his money away, move to Central Park, and waste away while sleeping on a bench.)
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Have you noticed though, how none of the cast has really been that funny since? Chemistry. Lightning in a bottle.
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Oct 31, 2007 2:39:13 PM CDT
If only this movie wouldn't have been over-marketed
by detective_fingerling
It's a shame Seinfeld has come back from his "retirement" like this. Maybe I was too young to notice if he was a sell out during his Seinfeld run, but Jerry never came off as a media whore. For a guy who has made millions hand over fist, he is acting like this Bee Movie is his payment to the devil for selling his soul for success. Did anyone at Dreamworks think Bee Movie would have done anything less at the box office without the advertising blitz?
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Oct 31, 2007 4:27:08 PM CDT
Those "TV Junior" promos are the worst ads I've ever seen.
by minderbinder
Just unimaginiably painfully horrible. Even if the movie is OK, I'll bet those are so annoying that they turn off many people who would have otherwise gone to see the movie. My guess is this thing continues the trend of DW animation continuing to make less and less money. And Jerry, it's probably not the most encouraging for audiences to hear that you didn't really like making your TV show...and now you didn't really enjoy making this movie. Currently 38% at rotten tomatoes (at least it's up from 20%).
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The twin marketing juggernauts for the Seinfeld-brand "Bee Movie" and his wife's "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook are really something. Legendary overkill at best. The deal with the book is that "The Sneaky Chef," also about hiding vegetables in your kids' brownies, was written months earlier, and Harper Collins had rejected it twice, before buying Jessica Seinfeld's book (repped by WMA) at auction. Of course, neither book is terribly original, but to hear the flacks at HC, you'd think that Mrs. Seinfeld had invented meatloaf, banana bread, and vegetable lasagna. And, that's what's so infuriating about this Bee Movie B.S.: this presenting of unoriginal, formulaic ideas as if it's the greates thing since sliced bread. Plus, we're all fully aware that the Seinfeld's are billionaires, and nothing galls me more than when those with more money than they'll ever know what to do with try and come off like they're still just plain folk, all while engaging in a shameless and egregious marketing campaign in furtherance of obtaining even more loot.
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...the above post is not a critique of the book or the movie, which I've neither read or seen, but rather, the bad taste left in my mouth by the overmarketing of it all.
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ITS NOT EVEN A DAY FULL OF FRIES! WHATS THE DEAL WITH THAT?
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Just wondering.
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No this is just how I sound when I cry!
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Hmm, that did't go too well, did it? Uh, oh, better send Oprah another four dozen pairs of shoes.
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Nov 04, 2007 11:38:43 PM CST
How do you manage to work "Che" into an interview, yet not ONE..
by conspiracy
mention of Shoshanna Lonstein?
Come on..Seinfeld had FRESH 17yr old Tang and DD bresteses in his possession at one point and you bring up Che??
could you not have asked something like..."So..Jerry...how is this movie different and Fresh? Is it Fresh like tender, young, underage Shashonna; or, is it yet another Stale CGI craptacular?" -
I saw this movie last night and seriously, I think Seinfeld must have wrote it while he was watching the Halftime Report on Monday Night Football. No development, no story, no comedy, just a bunch of bees and Seinfeld's voice. Since Seinfeld makes so much money I think he owes me a refund.
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I can't say how surprised I am that he's a scientologist. It's really a turn off. The fact that he can't see through their scam makes Michael Richards not seem that bad. "Oh, no I didn't!" Yeah, I don't think Richards is really a racist as much as a kook but scientology... Any cult that would have Tom Cruise as a member. Well, I don't know how to finish that sentence.
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