A Cameo In The Tucker Max Movie
Fun fact: Drew Curtis, the guy who runs linky website Fark, went to high school for one year with professional asshole (but not moron) blogger-turned-film writer Tucker Max. So Drew somehow got handed a cameo role in I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. Drew-who's big enough on the internet to not give a fuck what we or Tucker Max think-sent us a full report, saying Tucker is "out of control" but the actors are doing a good job, considering the material they're working with. And pictures! Click through now: The actors at work (Tucker character in white t-shirt):
Tucker and a rapt crowd:
Drew Curtis' experience:
I spent three days on set, here's my take on things. Tucker is completely out of control. As he explained it to me, he's spent so much of his life not having to report to anyone that it's killing him having to work with other people. Judging from the agitation I'm seeing, that's an understatement. The first day I was there, Tucker and Nils (the other screenwriter guy, who's really the brains behind the operation) were in a heated argument in the corner. I asked Nils what it was about, he tried to downplay it. But from what I saw personally, this is a normal occurrence for Tucker. Nils tells me that the actor playing Tucker, Matt, who really seems to have his shit together, is the complete opposite of Tucker (super nice guy, etc etc). I've spoken with Matt a few times and he really couldn't be nicer to a guy who's only got about 3 lines. Bob Gosse, the director, is the brains behind it and seems to butt heads with Tucker pretty much constantly. Tucker apparently thinks that the actor playing him has to actually be him in real life. Or something. I have no idea what the deal is. To me it looks like Matt's doing a fantastic job. I think Tucker's just a control freak. He interferes constantly with the acting, the directing, even sometimes the lighting. He doesn't know shit about any of this stuff. The sad thing is apart from him this is a really good group, who all seem to have their shit together. My previous experience with filming is limited to a few episodes of FarkTV that I was in. That was pretty much 6 guys and a handicam. There's a full film crew out here, easily 100 folks working just on logistics. I was kinda surprised, I figured I was gonna see 6 guys and a handicam. It's a full blown production. The actors are doing a great job with the material. And speaking of which, I read the previous articles about the movie on Gawker. The script does read pretty lame, but the main actors are delivering it extremely well. It all sounds very natural. I think also that this pretty much isn't a movie the Gawker demo is going to like anyhow. NASCAR-loving fart-joking middle America will eat this stuff up. If this succeeds it will be in spite of Tucker and not because of him.
[Previous Tucker Max coverage. Please note the relative balance of this post.]