You shot this film on location in San Diego at locations such as Kearny High School and San Diego State University, with principle photography beginning on July 12, 1999, and wrapping on September 10, 1999. With the film slated for an August 25, 2000 release date, that seems like a lengthy post-production process.

Peyton Reed explaining to John Loy that he has to double for Chris Lloyd underneath the DeLorean on the set of ``Back to the Future - The Animated Series''!

We finished mixing the movie, the movie's done, the final cut print's done, so now, I've been an extreme control freak for a year, getting the movie the way I want it, and I have to let go and let it do what it does. [Laughs] Which is a weird feeling. We had preview screenings in January and February, then the rest of that time we've tweaked the movie and locked the picture, which is the final edit. We could've either really rushed and gotten it out in the spring, but then once you get past spring you get into the crowded summer. A film like this probably wouldn't stand a chance going up against those giant summer movies.

So then it becomes Universal Marketing and the producers figuring out the smartest time to release it. They talked about October or September, and then they moved it to August, which I think is great. It's very much a back to school movie, so I'm really happy.

It's been a relatively painless process for me, I have to say. It was kind of surprising. I think young filmmakers today come out and assume “I'm either going to get the financing or I'm going to do my movie as an independent. That's where I'll have creative control, on an independent movie.” And they're right. If you start going to a studio sometimes, you get involved in lengthy development processes and stuff, but it's interesting because Beacon has a relationship with Universal where they finance and make the movies and Universal distributes them. So Universal didn't even see the movie until we had our first preview screening. They had a few notes on that, and that was it. So I was really lucky to be working for Beacon and was really sort of shielded. They were very protective and very supportive of the filmmaker. It was a great situation.

Beacon does big movies like The Hurricane and End of Days, The Family Man with Nicolas Cage coming up, 13 Days with Kevin Costner, Spy Game with Brad Pitt and Robert Redford.... They make these giant, star-driven movies, and at the same time they make these smaller movies, and I hope they keep doing that because I definitely benefited from the experience.

Let's back up a minute, and talk about some of your most recent projects. Probably the most recognizable project you've worked on in the last few years was The Weird Al Show. I've been a fan of Weird Al since he first debuted on the Dr. Demento Show in 1981. Tell me about working with such a zany guy, and what it was like with that series.

Al is great. How I got hooked up with The Weird Al Show.... actually, my wife Beth has a music video production company called Daisy Force, and she represents a handful of music video directors. She also reps “Weird Al”. He directs his own videos and he's also directed videos for John Spencer Blues Explosion and Hanson and various other people. And he's a really good director.

The set of the CBS Saturday morning show ``The Weird Al Show''

I'd heard from Beth that he'd gotten this really good deal to do a Saturday morning show, and they were looking for a director, so I met with Al and it seemed fun. I'd always been a Weird Al fan, so I decided yeah, that would be great. We did thirteen episodes and, again, that was an extremely hectic thing. We did a bunch of single camera stuff that we would go out on location, but the bulk of the show was set on the old Tonight Show set, actually. We built Weird Al's underground cave for a three camera shoot. I have never done a three camera TV shoot before; it was just something that didn't interest me. This show was originally going to be a single camera, but then when we got into it and looked at the budget, we were like, “We're going to have to do this with three cameras.” So I had to learn it really quickly, and that the difference being instead of one camera you have three or four cameras swinging around, and instead of being on the set, I'm in a booth somewhere saying, “Take camera one! Take two! Take three!” It's a whole different thing.

“Weird Al” has managed to be around for a long time now and has this rabid following. We went to some of his concerts when we were doing his show and they were packed! I also didn't know: what's “Weird Al” really like? And I'll tell you what he's really like: he's the nicest guy on the planet. He's the most hardworking guy, but he's just really nice. I'd love to give you dirt on “Weird Al”, but there is none! I got along with him great and it was a fun experience.

You've had a couple of short-lived experiences working with CBS on Saturday morning shows. Are ratings really that important to networks like CBS for shows such as Weird Al and Back to the Future, as they would be for a prime time series?

On-set of ``Back to the Future - The Animated Series'': Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown with Writer/Director Peyton Reed discussing an upcoming shot

In those two cases, the good news is the bad news. One of the reasons I think they were short lived is that these were pretty high profile shows and in the world of Saturday morning, they cost a lot to do. In that way, I was really fortunate to be able to shoot the Back to the Future stuff in 35 mm film and have Christopher Lloyd; I mean, it's almost unheard of! I was really fortunate to be involved.

And the same thing with the Al show. He really wanted to get into doing a Saturday morning thing. As with any TV show, it's ratings driven, and it's also cost driven. I think it would be tough for almost any Saturday morning show in those price ranges to generate those kind of ratings because television is really different now than it was 10 or 15 years ago. You used to have three networks; now you have five or six networks and cable. So the audience is so fragmented that it's really hard to get a giant group of people on Saturday mornings to watch one thing.

And then, creatively, it's interesting to because not only do you have certain restrictions on TV, but it's also Saturday morning and there's an educational concept that has to be met. It was always a challenge on the Al show. There were things that we wanted to do that were really really funny, but we had to be careful not to be irresponsible and because Al is a role model. The show changed so much from Al's original concept to what you ended up seeing and, frankly, Al's original concept was much better and I wish we could've done it. Most of the stuff I didn't think was irresponsible at all. But when you're working with a large network who people send letters to every week, taking changes is not what they're best at.

I had a great experience on those two shows, but at the same time it made me sort of like, “I don't ever want to do a kids' thing where I have to be always watching.” It would boil down to where Al would write a simple gag, a simple throwaway gag, where Al would have a plate and he'd smash it over his head. You'd go to a meeting, and they'd be like, “Al can't do that, that's IB.” “What's IB?” “Immitatible behavior”. You don't want kids to be at home, taking their parents' plates, and smashing them on their head.” I think most kids are smart enough to not smash plates over their heads! When they see “Weird Al”, who's a funny guy, smashing a plate, I think they understand that and the context of what it is. But no.

There's five or six of those types of gags every minute for someone like “Weird Al”, who's humor is really gag driven and parody driven. You can imagine what these meetings were like. Every line, every movement he made was scrutinized. It was crazy. So that got pretty grueling; I think it was the single most grueling job I've ever had. They also assigned an educational guide, an educational advisor, to us. He had worked on the Fat Albert show in the '70s and he was not up for anything that was slightly controversial, like smashing a plate on Al's head. His big thing was, “I think we need to teach the kids to be courteous.” It was crazy.

When you watch the final show, I think it was amazing we were able to do what we were able to do. That's an interesting thing about working in the business. When you're a kid, or an adult, or anybody, watching TV and going to the movies, any of us all of us have seen stuff and gone, “Come on, I could do better than that! I could make that so much better!” And maybe you could. What you learn in the business is that so much of it is predicated on what you are allowed to do and you picking your battles. But I digress.

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