We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason why they write so little. — Anne Lamott
String theory
While in Venice, I had dinner with several journalists, buyers, and Gabriele Veneziano, who is the father of our international sales rep.
Veneziano, a physicist, is one of the pioneers of string theory — which is ironic, considering some of the related issues in The Nines. In fact, there used to be a scene about it in the movie, which got cut for time.
This is from Part Two, which is structured as an episode of the reality TV show “Behind the Screen.”
INT. MODERN HOUSE IN THE HILLS – DAY
Gavin talks with HOWARD RODMAN in the living room of Rodman’s mid-century modern Lautner house. They both have iced tea.
HOWARD
How’s the writing going?
Howard Rodman
Screenwriter/Mentor
GAVIN
Good. It’s really easy, actually. Effortless.
HOWARD
There’s poison in your drink.
GAVIN
What I mean is, I don’t feel like I’m doing anything. I’m just an observer, documenting what happens. I can tell you what every character is wearing, the color of the leaves. It feels more real than sitting here talking to you.
HOWARD
Maybe it is real. Multiple dimensions, string theory...
GAVIN
Explain string theory.
HOWARD
Ah! Well. In the end, it all gets tangled. And the more you try to untangle it...
GAVIN
The worse it gets?
HOWARD
...the more you appreciate why God made scissors.
GAVIN
You’re saying I should cut my losses?
Howard’s not willing to say that.
HOWARD
In life’s great drama there are Actors, and there are Creators. In this reality, you are a Creator. You know that if your show doesn’t get picked up...
GAVIN
...that whole universe goes away. Boom.
HOWARD
Tough call. Who do you save, your friend, or the universe?
The Nines expands
We did well on our opening weekend, racking up a per-screen average of $14,586, the highest of any movie in the country. That, along with some really good reviews, is allowing us to expand to new theaters for week two.
For Los Angeles:
For New York City, we’ll be holding on to our screen at the Sunshine Cinema on Houston.
As before, tickets are available on MovieTickets.com, Moviefone, Fandango et al. (Remember that these are the theaters beginning tomorrow, Friday. So you may need to change the date on the pop-up menu.)
A big public thank-you to everyone who supported us on opening weekend — even when the movie wasn’t playing in their neighborhood. Or state. As the movie expands, I hope more of you will be able to see it on the big screen.
Also, for readers in Austin, we’re confirmed for a Q&A with me and Ryan on September 28th at the Alamo Drafthouse.
Back from Venice
I’m back from the Venice Film Festival, where The Nines had its international premiere.
The movie screened three times, but the main public debut was 2:30 p.m. on Monday. At lunch that day, both the sales agent and the publicist separately pulled me aside to say, “So, John, you should know that if the audience doesn’t like the film, they might boo. Or they could throw things.”
And somehow I’m supposed to be psyched about giving a Q & A? Yikes.
So I drank more champagne and looked for escape exits.
Fortunately, during the end credits we got nice, sustained applause (better than Sundance, in fact) and pretty good questions after that. I really love doing a Q & A, though it was challenging dealing with the real-time translation, trying to pay attention to both the person asking the question and the woman whispering in my ear.
One woman asked a question about the ending which was actually a revelation to me, a misassumption made clear only because of the awkwardness of translation. This is really not a spoiler, but I’ll put it in the footnotes so it’s more easily skipped if you want to go in blind.1 The Nines invites speculation and alternative interpretations, so I’m not about to say one version is “wrong.” But it’s helpful for me to finally understand why some viewers insist on re-contextualizing the entire film in a way I never intended.
The movie was shown in English, with Italian subtitles. It played differently, with a lot of comedy not making it through translation. Part Two, which is about American television, might as well have been about Martian sodomy. But the audience really responded to the bigger, religious-adjacent stuff in Part Three.
We had a major storm on Tuesday, which knocked out power and made our press interviews challenging. Our main office was actually a temporary, tent-like structure, which held out the rain but kept flapping constantly.
Other observations:
Ryan Reynolds is a apparently an action star in Italy. They have no idea he’s ever been in a comedy. Most of the journalists cited “Smokin’ Aces.”
We stayed in Lido, the island where the screening themselves are held, which is a 60 euro water taxi ride from Venice proper.
Our hotel was where Death in Venice was shot. It hasn’t really been updated since then.
If you’re going to not speak a language, Italian is a good language to not speak. Compared with many places I’ve traveled, it was a lot easier to wing it.
We sold a bunch of territories: Argentina (Telexcel), Eastern Europe (Blue Sky), Greece (Village Roadshow), Israel (Forum Film), Middle East (Italia Film), Scandinavia (Non-Stop) and South Africa (Ster Kinekor). Optimum Releasing had already bought U.K. rights. As always, I’ll keep you posted about release dates. More will be announced at Toronto this week.
The plan you pick for your iPhone makes a huge difference. Ryan was able to get (almost) full internet on his, while my partner’s iPhone was phone-only, and mine was basically just a pretty iPod. If you think you’re going to be using your iPhone overseas, consider getting the fancy plan.
- About the ending: Some viewers exit the movie believing it to be a hallucination on the part of one of the female characters, in the vein of Mulholland Drive or Swimming Pool. As the author, I can say that was never the intent, nor is it backed up by the evidence of the movie. But as someone who’s had to write college term papers, I would never claim that any interpretation is wrong. Just less defensible, perhaps. ↩