Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here, with the third and final interview in connection with last week's release of THE TEN. My talks with Paul Rudd and Ken Marino preceded this, and now I have the film's director and co-writer David Wain to round things out. Wain directed WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER, so to me the man had already reached demi-god status in the comedy world even before THE TEN. He's also a founding member of MTV "The State" and one of the creators of the short-lived Comedy Central series "Stella." And from what I understand, the man is about to get very busy as a director, including making another film with Paul Rudd in the near future. Here's my quickly conversation with David Wain. Capone: So, it’s been a whirlwind day for you guys, it sounds like. David Wain: Yeah, a classic press day. C: Well I was talking to Ken [Marino, THE TEN's co-writer and star] earlier. I think it’s fantastic that you somehow derived inspiration for THE TEN from THE DECALOGUE. I absolutely love that; I own it, actually. Which of you saw that first and what was it about that that kind of made you think that would be a good place to start on a comedy like this? DW: When I had seen it, they had played it at this theater that is now the Tribeca Cinema in New York. What did they used to call it?…Anyway, I just thought it was a really cool context and, obviously, a completely different kind of movie in every way you can imagine. Initially, I was thinking what would be a thing to do for our old group “The State,” which had around 10 people in it, if each one wanted to do one separate story. It just seemed like the perfect thing: The Ten Commandments. Let’s do just these 10 stories, ten commandments. C: When you finally decided that this was just going to be you and Ken doing the writing, did you each take on different commandments, or did you work on it together? DW: We did it all together. We basically locked ourselves in a room for a week and worked 12 hours a day. We live on separate coasts, and we just wanted to bang out a first draft in one push. And, that’s what we did. So, we just sat there and said, ‘Okay, Thou shall not murder. What’s the story?’, and we just brainstormed and brainstormed and wrote it out. The first draft that we wrote in that first week had all of the elements that ended up in the final film. C: I know this is probably a silly question, but did you have some sort of religious background that you were rebelling against by making this film? DW: Not at all. I mean, I did have a somewhat religious background, growing up in a Jewish community, and Ken is Catholic. But, it really had no bearing or relevance to the film. We were interested in using the commandments as a thematic jumping off point for these stories. But, we had no agenda, whatsoever, of trying to make any sort of religious or political statement of any kind. C: I know when people sort of shorthand what this film is about they’re going to focus the Ten Commandments aspect, so I was asking Paul, “Are you guys kind of going for THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST crowd or, maybe, the NARNIA audience?” He said, “I think we’re going to get it.” DW: I think we’re hoping for THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST numbers. That’s for sure. C: Is there something in particular about the Ten Commandments that makes the topic ripe for satire? DW: Well, I think that’s the sort of understandable, but definitely wrong way of labeling it. We’re really not satirizing the Ten Commandments. We’re just using them to play. It’s almost like saying a movie that takes place in a city is satirizing that city. It’s really just using it as a setting. C: During the writing or during the filming, was there a particular joke or situation that you said, ‘Well, maybe we’re going a little too far here”? DW: Our barometer was always, Is it funny? I feel like really being offensive and really making you laugh don’t overlap. That’s my own opinion. So, you know, if something went too far, it probably wasn’t funny, and then we would cut it because it wasn’t funny. But, I don’t have rules for myself that are, like, Oh, this can’t be touched, or "Somebody wrote a joke about THIS?!" I don’t think it’s true. I think it depends entirely on context and execution and how well it works. C: So, tell me, what is the secret to making the phrase ‘ass rape’ funny? Is it just that if you say it enough times, it becomes funny? Because that’s sort of what happened with me. DW: Yeah, I think it was just finding that delicate execution where we would, you know…That particular scene was played as a very straight-forward romantic comedy between two people who were getting to know each another, but one was already committed to somebody else. And, just sort of overlaying that it happened to be that they were prisoners, and the interaction was ass rape. C: It’s fantastic. That’s probably my favorite segment. DW: It’s interesting. We found, more and more, we hear your reaction, that it’s a lot of people’s favorite segment. And, for other people, it’s the point when they give up on the movie--the one that made them walk out. C: See, I would have guessed for that, it would have been… DW: I apologize. Can you hold on just one second? [Takes a phone call] It’s our premiere tonight, and so we’ve got a lot going on. Where was I? C: You were talking about the point at which people might have given up on the film. DW: Some people…We’ve seen it, too, like, people who aren’t buying it and aren’t grooving on it, when they get to the prison rape, they walk out. C: See, I would have guessed the Winona Ryder sex-with-the-puppet scene would drive people over the edge. DW: That doesn’t seem to get as much backlash. Again, for us, none of it’s offensive at all. It’s all silly, it’s all in good fun. None of it is meant to…There’s no mean-spirited anything, as far as we’re concerned. It’s all just, you know, a goof. C: Yeah, and we see where goofs get you in the long run. Or at least in your film. [The reason Ken Marino's surgeon character ends up in jail to begin with is because he leaves scissors inside a patient on purpose as a goof.] DW: [laughs] Maybe so. C: WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER is such a wonderful film, and it was really well received when it first came out, and think it’s even become even more popular on video and people discovering it on cable. DW: I think it has a similar quality to THE TEN, which is that some people need to see it more than once before they really get it. And, I think that was WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER’s doom at the box office. Not enough people got it the first time. C: Was it always your intention to try to get most of the cast of that film back together to make something different? DW: I actually never really stopped working with most of the people. We’re just an ongoing organism of the community, and we’ve just always worked together every chance we get. C: I was telling Ken before, I was such a huge fan of “The State,” and I’m really glad to hear it’s finally coming out on DVD. Why is it important for you to keep working with your old “State” partners? DW: I met a group of people my freshman/sophomore year in college that I just felt, like, these are the guys that I think are really great, funny. And, I continue 20 years later to really trust these guys and know and admire and laugh at them as much as anybody. And, there’s a group of people who have come in, too--A.D. Miles and Paul Rudd. As that goes, it becomes a larger group. But, basically, I like to work with the people that I really have a comic shorthand with. Also, we taught each other comedy. People ask me what my main influences are, and there are a lot of influences, but more than anything, I feel like we taught each other. We all learned comedy together when we were 18, 19, 20, 21 years old. C: You were one of the sort of primary directors on the show, right? DW: On “The State”? C: Yeah. DW: Well, Michael Jann was, like, the director of the larger-scale part, and I did the smaller, like, guerilla--we called the second unit--stuff where we’d run out with the camera, and I shot maybe a third of it. C: Did you and Ken write together on “The State”? DW: We did. Everyone on “The State,” we wrote it all the time in different pairings and stuff, but Ken and I did write a lot of material together. C: Other than THE TEN, have you two written something in between the show and this movie? DW: You know, we haven’t, but since THE TEN, we’ve written a bunch of stuff together. We’ve gotten some TV scripts we’ve written and another screenplay, and we’re working on yet another one. We had such a good experience working together on THE TEN. But, in between was a long period where Ken was in L.A., primarily pursuing a career as an actor, and I was in New York doing what I was doing. And, we kind of got together again creatively when Ken wrote DIGGERS. I read that script, and I just was blown away. So, I worked on it with him for three years, developing it and getting it financed. Then, at the last minute, DIGGERS and “Stella” were green lighted the same day. So, I had to go do “Stella.” And, we got a different director for DIGGERS. C: So, you were supposed to do DIGGERS? That’s a great movie, I didn’t realize you were slated to direct it. DW: Yeah, I was an executive producer, but I was supposed to be the director, until the last minute, and we had to switch horses. [Katherine Dieckmann ended up as director of DIGGERS.] C: Does having Paul Rudd as a producer on THE TEN have any bearing on the casting decisions, such as having these two completely hot love interests [Famke Janssen and Jessica Alba] be on him for most of that movie? That doesn’t really seem fair. DW: Well, I’d say [laughs], most of our other producers on the movie were not as appropriate to be the one to kiss Jessica--because they’re mostly, like, older, Jewish guys. So, we figured Paul was the best of the producers to do it. C: Right, that makes sense. And, even his off-camera marriage to Dianne Wiest kind of made me a little jealous. I remember Ken mentioned to me that you guys were doing a polish on something that Paul was starring in. Is that the film that you’re talking about? DW: We’re writing a script called BIG BROTHERS that Paul stars in. C: That’s it, right. Okay. What is that about? Can you talk about that a little? DW: It’s about two guys, big brothers, and I can’t really talk about it beyond that. There’s not really much more to say about that. I think we’re going to start shooting that, though, in about five weeks. C: Five weeks? That’s soon. Who’s the other brother? DW: Seann William Scott C: Okay, right. I have seen something about that. Excellent. Well, I'm looking forward to you and Paul working together again. Thanks for taking the time out to talk to us on your big premiere day. DW: It was great. Thanks. -Capone capone@aintitcool.com
