The biggest thing that happened was that I got signed by a big agency from the script. Creative Artists Agency signed me as a writer/director so right away the script was put into a lot of people’s hands. Everyone in town was all of a sudden aware of this new script.
A lot of people were responding to the script, but when they heard I wanted to direct it, they were like, “No.” (laughing) It was, “This is a great writing example. This is un-producible. Come rewrite ‘Valentine.’” They wanted me to write 13 slasher films. “Great writing example, come write ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer 3.’” That kind of thing. Then Jason Schwartzman, we heard that he liked the script. We got a meeting with Jason and he attached. When Jason became attached Drew Barrymore – someone sent the script to her and her partner Nancy Juvonen at Flower Films. They kind of accosted my agent at ShoWest in Vegas and said, “We love this script. We want to help this guy. We want to help get this script made somehow. We love Jason Schwartzman. Can we be a part of this?” My agent tells me that and I’m like, “Get me a meeting with these people.” I met them on the set of “Charlie’s Angels” and asked, “Drew, would you like to play the English teacher who gets fired, Miss Pomeroy?” She’s like, “I’d love to if you let my production company produce the film with you guys.” (Laughing) I’m like, “Let me think. Of course.” We just shook hands there in the trailer and all of a sudden that allowed us to get $4.5 million, which was the bare minimum we needed to make the film.
All of the other actors, because of Drew mostly, felt comfortable working with a first-time director. She kind of stepped up to the plate. It takes one actor to break the ice or to RSVP to the party, then everyone feels comfortable RSVPing. A first-time director 9 times out of 10, they end up being a last-time director. They don’t get another chance because they can’t hack it or it doesn’t work out.
How did you get the bigwig agency to read the script?
My producing partner Sean McKittrick at the time was working at New Line Cinema as an assistant. All the assistants at all the studios, they spend the whole day on the phone and they talk to all the other assistants at the agencies. He’s like, “Okay, I’m going to send it to the assistants.” Beth Swofford at CAA, [etc.] - three of the biggest agents in town. He’s like, “This is like the longest of long shots, but I’m going to beg their assistants to read it. If they like it, I’m going to beg them to give it to their boss.” Endeavor and UTA, they just said, “Yeah, sure we’ll read it,” and they just threw it in the trash. Beth’s assistant at CAA was a friend of Sean’s. He’s like, “Okay, I’ll read it, I’ll read it.” He read it and was like, “Whoa, this is really good. I never do this but I’m actually going to go into Beth’s office and I’m going to make her read this because I really like this script.” And he did and she read it over the weekend and at a Monday morning staff meeting, she gave it to four other agents and looked out for it. That never happens – I got really lucky – but it happened to me.
What inspired you to write this?
I think Stephen King was a huge influence on me growing up, Kafka, Dostoevsky, Graham Greene was a big influence. My high school English class, really. I stopped reading after high school. I don’t read (laughing). Who has time to read? I think just watching a lot of movies and trying to think of an exciting new story to tell.
I had an idea about a jet engine falling on this house. I remembered an urban legend about a piece of ice that falls from a plane and kills people. Wasn’t there an episode of “Six Feet Under” where something like that kills? Frozen urine or something? It became a jet engine and it became this mystery of they can’t find the plane, and how do I solve the mystery, and it has something to do with time travel. And this coming of age story and do it about the 80’s and make the jet engine become like a symbol, like the death knell of the 80’s. It’s all coming to an end. I spewed out this story – and here we are.
What message did you intend to have people get out of this film?
Ultimately the film is critical of the public school system. That’s probably me saying the public school system sucks. It does perhaps a lot of unnecessary damage to kids that it doesn’t need to do. Maybe something about suburban communities and suburban life can be suffocating. I think also trying to create a lead character [who] was an archetype for anybody who feels alienated or feels different or feels they don’t fit into the system.
