The filmmaking Polish brothers - writer/director Michael and writer/producer Mark - aim to please the entire family with their latest movie, The Astronaut Farmer, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Virginia Madsen. Thornton plays Charles Farmer, a loving husband and father who has not let go of his dream of being an astronaut. With the support of his family, Charles has his eyes on the stars as he builds a rocket in his barn.
The Astronaut Farmer is the first studio movie from the Polish brothers who've achieved success making independent films including Northfork and Twin Falls Idaho.
How do you actually work together as a writing team?
Mark Polish: “Each screenplay has been pretty different. On this particular one Mike had the idea and he came to me, and then we did an outline together. He did a real shallow draft and then I redid the whole thing.”
Michael Polish: “We kind of keep going back and forth.”
Mark Polish: “We don’t ever write together. I mean, we’re never in the same room.”
How collaborative is the process?
Michael Polish: “If we’re going to remove something you always ask, ‘How precious is this line or scene because I’m gonna move it out to get to where I’m going?’ And if we can find a place for it, we’ll move it. So yeah, it’s a very respectful way of working.”
Do you feel more possessive of it because you came up with the idea?
Michael Polish: No, because it’s a basic idea and it has to turn into a story.”
Mark Polish: “But there’ll be a movie that I do that’s my idea. So I mean, it’s give and take. We’re not really competitive where we’re saying like that’s mine or that’s yours. It’s always for the better of the movie, or the truth of the movie. If he has an idea I think is good or just an idea that he’ll throw out sometimes I won’t go with it. I might say, ‘I think maybe some day we’ll get more than 20 pages out of this idea, but right now we don’t.’”
How did you figure out this was the project to make the leap from doing independent films to a studio movie?
Mark Polish: “It wasn’t planned that way. We thought we were going to be an independent film.”
You believed The Astronaut Farmer would be an independent film?
Michael Polish: "It was cast with Billy [Bob Thornton] involved. We were shopping it around and Warner Independent made this movie. They’re just a boutique company of Warner Brothers. They get their financing foreign made, so they’re a separate independent company that has some administration ties to Warner Brothers. So this made independently with them. After it was screened, it became bigger."
Mark Polish: “It had a wider appeal, so they said, ‘You know, would you guys be opposed to us taking it and doing 1500, 2000, 2500, between 1800 and 2500 screen thing? Would you be opposed to that?’ We’re like, ‘Hell no!’ Warner Brothers took it so it became a studio picture after it was made.”
And then you get a bigger budget to promote the movie...
Mark Polish: “Yeah. People ask us, ‘What’s the difference between doing it for 2 million and 12 million.’ It’s the promotion. That’s a huge difference.”
Once Warner Bros came on board did they want you to make any changes?
Mark Polish: “No. They had a few questions and concerns, but they were like, ‘Okay, let’s test it. Let’s show some audiences and get some feedback because right now it’s a family movie. Are we going to alienate anybody?’ So we showed the film to a few people and they kind of reinforced what everybody thought. This is a really family film in the best sense of every age can come to it.”
The Astronaut Farmer appeals to kids as well as senior citizens. Was that always what you intended with this film? Was that always the approach you wanted to take?
Michael Polish: “It was a character piece. It was a character piece where this man is going to do what he’s going to do. His family’s going to be involved. But we weren’t going to make a family movie and make it like a family film. It was just a character piece where he had a balance between family and the family dreaming and keeping it all together. It just happened to be like that.”
Was it written with Billy Bob Thornton in mind?
Mark Polish: “No, we write characters from who we know. And it was a composite of a little bit of me, a little bit of Mike. We put in a lot of our dad. And then you try to find the actor you think could bring that to life with the same characteristics. You’re not going to go outside, to go to someone that we never think could play a farmer and an astronaut. He had both the characteristics. The believability that he had as the farmer was a real big foundation for us. Because there’s a lot of actors that could play the astronaut, there’s not a lot of people you can believe as that common man, that could work the fields – as Billy Bob does.”
This may not be the type of role most people envision when Billy Bob Thornton’s name is brought up.
Mark Polish: “There’s a perception you’re fighting with Billy Bob because of his previous three films before this. You just don’t think, ‘Okay, Billy Bob’s a family man now.’ He’s Bad Santa now to a lot of people.”
Michael Polish: “People who know him know his range, how successful he is in that range.”
When did Virginia Madsen get involved?
Mark Polish: “A couple of weeks right after. We weren’t as concerned. We got him involved and then we got the financing. Then we focused on her. We didn’t want to wait and go, ‘Okay, we’ll get both these people.’ We got Billy, got financing and went right to her. We were fortunate because she jumped on board quick.”
