I was really psyched when I got the chance to visit the set of The State and Stella co-founder David Wain's new movie The Ten. I loved 2001's Wet Hot American Summer and any project that Wain is involved in is guaranteed to garner a cult following, so I knew that being able to say that I was there would give me mad amounts of street cred. I took a cab to an abandoned prison in Queens that is used almost exclusively for movie shoots now, chilled with Paul Rudd, and watched Wain direct Ken Marino (The Ten co-writer and State alum) in a scene where he gets ass-raped in prison.
The Ten is a series of vignettes based The Ten Commandments. The particular vignette I watched being shot is taken from the commandment Thou Shall Not Covet Thy Neighbor's wife. Marino plays a prisoner who is made into a bitch by his cellmate, but soon the magic is gone and another prisoner wants to make Marinos character his bitch. Nobody but Wain and Marino can make a tender moment out of a prison ass-rape.
I had a chance to interview Wain during his short lunch break on the set of The Ten.
Check out the official website for The Ten
Daniel Robert Epstein: What are you shooting today?
David Wain: Today is one of the stories of the ten and I guess this ones called Thou Shall Not Covet Thy Neighbors Wife. Ken Marinos character Dr. Richie gets put in prison as a result of something that happened in the story before. He is taken on by Big Buster and then he meets another guy named Duane played by Rob Corrdry in a scene were going to shoot in Mexico. It becomes this romantic comedy triangle in prison among these three guys. Then ultimately its about who gets ass-raped and when.
DRE: Ken told me that he said We are going to write something together so you come out to me and well sit in the house and do it.
Wain: Thats what happened about two years ago. We sat for a week, shut the doors, turned off the phones and in between watching viral videos of that woman who fell off the platform while she was stomping grapes in Atlanta we were coming up with this.
DRE: How is working with Ken different than working with the other guys from The State?
Wain: Ken is an Italian-American. But he is also Ukrainian, so thats where we overlap because Im a Russian Jew by ancestry so we just agree on certain things. We can always have vodka and discuss the old country. Thats what keeps things going. But a lot of times, its like he wants pizza and I want bagels. So we compromise and we have fried dough in the shape of a bagel.
DRE: Was this script always meant for you to direct?
Wain: Yeah, we just figured that this was a movie that we would do together and be the creative team behind it but I would be the director. Similar to the way we did Wet Hot American Summer.
DRE: What do you like about directing ensembles?
Wain: I love directing ensembles because every day you work with a group of people and theres nothing greater than really great actors. Watching them come in and take the material youve been working on and watch them raise it to a new level and show you things about it that you never realized. If it wasnt an ensemble wed probably have the same actors every day and get sick of it.
DRE: Did Paul [Rudd] refuse to be in it unless he got to produce?
Wain: He said Let me in the door.
DRE: What does he do in terms of producer related stuff?
Wain: He mostly does stuff like massage the budget and crunches numbers. He is mostly a back room number cruncher. He also spends most of his time going to the various equipment rental houses and making deals.
DRE: Are you making an appearance in this film?
Wain: I will make a brief appearance. Tom Lennon from Reno: 911 and I play close friends of Paul Rudds character Jeff. We give him some advice on what to do in his romantic quandary.
DRE: How did you pick Yaron Orbach as your cinematographer?
Wain: Well, hes Israeli so we picked him. We looked everywhere for a DP. Haifa, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Negev and we just figured Yaron was the one to pick. But the serious answer is that we wanted someone who was on our page, understood the material, flexible, fast and gifted and hes all of those things.
DRE: Why has it taken so long for you to direct another film since Wet Hot American Summer?
Wain: We just wanted to wait for the swell of that movie to slide. I was basically just collecting the money from Wet Hot and counting it up and by the time that was done, here we are.
DRE: [laughs] What can fans of Wet Hot expect from The Ten?
Wain: I would say if you loved Wet Hot you will also love The Ten but it is far from a retread on any level. It has a very different style and a lot to offer that is new and a step beyond.
DRE: Did you direct any episodes of Stella?
Wain: I directed the pilot and two of the episodes and I was the overseer creatively.
DRE: Do you feel like youve settled into directing?
Wain: Well last summer when we did Stella I did a lot of directing while also acting at the same time. That was fun but very grueling and almost so tiring I didnt enjoy it. This has been much more fun for me.
DRE: I spoke to Michael Showalter about the DVD of The Baxter and the fact that it didnt do well. Did that make you shy away from doing anything more reality based?
Wain: Yes and thats why were doing The Ten.
DRE: For real?
Wain: No.
Any independent film that isnt designed from the get go to attract the right streams of money is a great risk. Mike took a great risk by steering away from what hes known for and doing a more serious film. It didnt find a huge audience but it came out really well and The Ten is also not designed to necessarily appeal to a big mainstream audience but its a movie that we love and we think its great and funny and were so excited to do it so we feel like well find a good size audience.
DRE: I talked with [producer] Jon Stern and Paul [Rudd] about the amount of people in the cast that arent especially known for comedy. Are you surprised by how well theyre doing?
Wain: Well, right from the beginning we decided the approach for this one was to cast a lot of people who arent known for comedy and more than that, for everyone to give it a very serious approach. Not that we knew for sure that it would work and we still dont but as were shooting were finding that thats really coming out very funny. Working with people like Winona Ryder and Famke Janssen underplaying these stupid stories has been wonderful.
DRE: How was shooting the big scene in Reno 911: Miami with the entire cast of The State?
Wain: So great. It was so much fun to be together with everyone. We got into this big five hour fight about something. That was a magical day. It was the first time in many years that the entire cast of The State was in the same place at the same time.
DRE: Is it a big secret what the scene is?
Wain: Well were not all in the same scene. Were all in the same storyline and we all work at the same place basically.
DRE: I was just at San Diego Comicon and Ben Garant and Tom Lennon said that The State is going to be released on DVD by the end of the year. Is that true?
Wain: Maybe. The first season is definitely going to be out on iTunes relatively soon. Weve been working on that actively for years.
DRE: Will the CBS specials be in this round of DVDs?
Wain: The CBS specials are a completely different set of ownership and thats also a possibility. Maybe with the success of the Reno movie, The Ten and Stella there may be some interest in The State DVDs.
DRE: Have you done any commentary for The State yet?
Wain: Not yet. Right now its really just a process to prepare the material to go on iTunes and then the next step would be a DVD.
DRE: Michael Showalter told me that Stella is in limbo until Comedy Central sees how the DVDs do.
Wain: Well, Stella in limbo at Comedy Central would be a charitable way to say it. I guess never say never, it could be a Family Guy thing. If the DVD goes through the roof they might try to bring it back, but I think Stella as an entity definitely has a future in other TV projects or movies or who knows what depending on how much interest there is among the audience.
DRE: Did you and Chris Elliott ever get in touch after he told me how much he liked Stella?
Wain: No we havent yet. Im so moved by the fact that he loved Stella. I absolutely worship him.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
The Ten is a series of vignettes based The Ten Commandments. The particular vignette I watched being shot is taken from the commandment Thou Shall Not Covet Thy Neighbor's wife. Marino plays a prisoner who is made into a bitch by his cellmate, but soon the magic is gone and another prisoner wants to make Marinos character his bitch. Nobody but Wain and Marino can make a tender moment out of a prison ass-rape.
I had a chance to interview Wain during his short lunch break on the set of The Ten.
Check out the official website for The Ten
Daniel Robert Epstein: What are you shooting today?
David Wain: Today is one of the stories of the ten and I guess this ones called Thou Shall Not Covet Thy Neighbors Wife. Ken Marinos character Dr. Richie gets put in prison as a result of something that happened in the story before. He is taken on by Big Buster and then he meets another guy named Duane played by Rob Corrdry in a scene were going to shoot in Mexico. It becomes this romantic comedy triangle in prison among these three guys. Then ultimately its about who gets ass-raped and when.
DRE: Ken told me that he said We are going to write something together so you come out to me and well sit in the house and do it.
Wain: Thats what happened about two years ago. We sat for a week, shut the doors, turned off the phones and in between watching viral videos of that woman who fell off the platform while she was stomping grapes in Atlanta we were coming up with this.
DRE: How is working with Ken different than working with the other guys from The State?
Wain: Ken is an Italian-American. But he is also Ukrainian, so thats where we overlap because Im a Russian Jew by ancestry so we just agree on certain things. We can always have vodka and discuss the old country. Thats what keeps things going. But a lot of times, its like he wants pizza and I want bagels. So we compromise and we have fried dough in the shape of a bagel.
DRE: Was this script always meant for you to direct?
Wain: Yeah, we just figured that this was a movie that we would do together and be the creative team behind it but I would be the director. Similar to the way we did Wet Hot American Summer.
DRE: What do you like about directing ensembles?
Wain: I love directing ensembles because every day you work with a group of people and theres nothing greater than really great actors. Watching them come in and take the material youve been working on and watch them raise it to a new level and show you things about it that you never realized. If it wasnt an ensemble wed probably have the same actors every day and get sick of it.
DRE: Did Paul [Rudd] refuse to be in it unless he got to produce?
Wain: He said Let me in the door.
DRE: What does he do in terms of producer related stuff?
Wain: He mostly does stuff like massage the budget and crunches numbers. He is mostly a back room number cruncher. He also spends most of his time going to the various equipment rental houses and making deals.
DRE: Are you making an appearance in this film?
Wain: I will make a brief appearance. Tom Lennon from Reno: 911 and I play close friends of Paul Rudds character Jeff. We give him some advice on what to do in his romantic quandary.
DRE: How did you pick Yaron Orbach as your cinematographer?
Wain: Well, hes Israeli so we picked him. We looked everywhere for a DP. Haifa, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Negev and we just figured Yaron was the one to pick. But the serious answer is that we wanted someone who was on our page, understood the material, flexible, fast and gifted and hes all of those things.
DRE: Why has it taken so long for you to direct another film since Wet Hot American Summer?
Wain: We just wanted to wait for the swell of that movie to slide. I was basically just collecting the money from Wet Hot and counting it up and by the time that was done, here we are.
DRE: [laughs] What can fans of Wet Hot expect from The Ten?
Wain: I would say if you loved Wet Hot you will also love The Ten but it is far from a retread on any level. It has a very different style and a lot to offer that is new and a step beyond.
DRE: Did you direct any episodes of Stella?
Wain: I directed the pilot and two of the episodes and I was the overseer creatively.
DRE: Do you feel like youve settled into directing?
Wain: Well last summer when we did Stella I did a lot of directing while also acting at the same time. That was fun but very grueling and almost so tiring I didnt enjoy it. This has been much more fun for me.
DRE: I spoke to Michael Showalter about the DVD of The Baxter and the fact that it didnt do well. Did that make you shy away from doing anything more reality based?
Wain: Yes and thats why were doing The Ten.
DRE: For real?
Wain: No.
Any independent film that isnt designed from the get go to attract the right streams of money is a great risk. Mike took a great risk by steering away from what hes known for and doing a more serious film. It didnt find a huge audience but it came out really well and The Ten is also not designed to necessarily appeal to a big mainstream audience but its a movie that we love and we think its great and funny and were so excited to do it so we feel like well find a good size audience.
DRE: I talked with [producer] Jon Stern and Paul [Rudd] about the amount of people in the cast that arent especially known for comedy. Are you surprised by how well theyre doing?
Wain: Well, right from the beginning we decided the approach for this one was to cast a lot of people who arent known for comedy and more than that, for everyone to give it a very serious approach. Not that we knew for sure that it would work and we still dont but as were shooting were finding that thats really coming out very funny. Working with people like Winona Ryder and Famke Janssen underplaying these stupid stories has been wonderful.
DRE: How was shooting the big scene in Reno 911: Miami with the entire cast of The State?
Wain: So great. It was so much fun to be together with everyone. We got into this big five hour fight about something. That was a magical day. It was the first time in many years that the entire cast of The State was in the same place at the same time.
DRE: Is it a big secret what the scene is?
Wain: Well were not all in the same scene. Were all in the same storyline and we all work at the same place basically.
DRE: I was just at San Diego Comicon and Ben Garant and Tom Lennon said that The State is going to be released on DVD by the end of the year. Is that true?
Wain: Maybe. The first season is definitely going to be out on iTunes relatively soon. Weve been working on that actively for years.
DRE: Will the CBS specials be in this round of DVDs?
Wain: The CBS specials are a completely different set of ownership and thats also a possibility. Maybe with the success of the Reno movie, The Ten and Stella there may be some interest in The State DVDs.
DRE: Have you done any commentary for The State yet?
Wain: Not yet. Right now its really just a process to prepare the material to go on iTunes and then the next step would be a DVD.
DRE: Michael Showalter told me that Stella is in limbo until Comedy Central sees how the DVDs do.
Wain: Well, Stella in limbo at Comedy Central would be a charitable way to say it. I guess never say never, it could be a Family Guy thing. If the DVD goes through the roof they might try to bring it back, but I think Stella as an entity definitely has a future in other TV projects or movies or who knows what depending on how much interest there is among the audience.
DRE: Did you and Chris Elliott ever get in touch after he told me how much he liked Stella?
Wain: No we havent yet. Im so moved by the fact that he loved Stella. I absolutely worship him.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
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