You also tried your hand at directing episodes of some really bizzare cable comedy series, such as Mr. Show With Bob and David, Upright Citizens Brigade, and The High Life. What was that like?
Mr. Show was a dream to do. I don't know if you've ever seen the show, but those are just two of the funniest guys in the world! I love to work with them and the caliber of writing on that show was really, really great. I think a lot of people have an attitude of, “Oh, I'm doing features now, I don't want to do television anymore.” But some of the caliber of writing, especially the comedic writing on television, is so much better than a lot of the feature comedic writing now, which I find baffling.
If they decided to get Mr. Show up and running again, I'd do it in a heartbeat. It was really fun to do and it was kind of a niche show. It was on HBO, it was never huge, but it was hilarious. Same with Upright Citizens Brigade. It was kind of refreshing to be like, “Well, can we say that?” “Yeah, it's HBO, of course you can!” That was kind of fun. And this movie, Bring It On, is kind of the middle ground. It's PG-13 and only a couple things got cut from the MPAA after a couple of discussions. I think the movie is really, really fun, and we'll see how it does.
It may not be widely known, but you actually have had a hand in the research & development portion of the upcoming Back to the Future DVDs, having worked with Laurent Bouzereau, I'm assuming, on the new documentary. What exactly has been your role in this highly anticipated digital release and what can you tell us?
Writer/Director Peyton Reed and Host Kirk Cameron on the set of ``The Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy''
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My participation on the DVDs is actually zero. When Laurent was starting it, we had discussions on where he could find some stuff in the Amblin vaults and some stuff is in the ZM vaults, and it was really Laurent calling so I could help him locate some of these materials. To this day, I still don't know what the current release plan is for these DVDs. When the time comes for me to sit down with Home Video and talk about this DVD, I'm sure I'll be able to find out more. But, obviously, it is something everyone is awaiting, and they just released Jaws. We got to mix Bring It On at the Universal Dub Stage. I am just thrilled -- the movie sounds so good. The guys who were the mixers had done the remix on Jaws and were getting ready to do the remix on E.T., because I guess they're gonna re-release E.T. theatrically, and then on DVD.
But my feeling is if they're doing all these, Back to the Future can't be that far away. I know we've heard this off and on now for a few years. But I've really been impressed by how Universal is doing these special edition DVDs. All the studios were sort of waiting around to see how DVD was going to get along, and I think only now Fox is really starting to do great stuff. They've got this Planet of the Apes boxed-set coming in August.... New Line has been terrific with their DVDs. Some studios, like Paramount, are still way behind on their DVD activity. I think that Universal seems really enthusiastic about it.
All the studios are rather reluctant to spend too much money on these things, because it does cost money to do them, but I think they're seeing now that there is a market for it. And one of the key things in the market is that the more “bullet points” you have on the back of the DVD, the more supplemental stuff you have, the more marketable it is and the more people want it. People feel gypped now if they buy a DVD and it's just a movie and a trailer.
My favorite thing, obviously, about DVD is the fact that you get to see a movie in its proper aspect ratio. I can't even rent VHS anymore because I cannot watch a movie full frame, especially now having done a movie and knowing how carefully you've done the framing. I'm thrilled that I'll be able to release this movie at 1:85 on the DVD.
It's been nearly ten years since you wrote the script for Back to the Future..The Ride. Do you know anything about the rumors that Universal & Amblin are replacing the ridefilm at all parks next year and replacing it with a new Back to the Future ride-film?
Oh, wow, I have not heard anything, but I've really been sort of out of that loop. That would be great! I'd love that if they changed it up.You figure with the amount of people they shuffle through there every year.... I would love that. I think that'd be really great. When we were mixing at Universal, I kept wanting to... I thought, “I need to get away and ride this thing, it's been so long!” I never got a chance to, but I'm hoping that it's not in some state of disrepair!
There were different versions of the script originally. The first one, we had a two column format because the whole idea was that the preshow was on two different video monitors. And then we revised it.
Do you think if they did that that they would release the first one on DVD or anything like that?
I don't know, but I've been to science fiction and comic book conventions out here and I've seen the preshow and the ride film on tape for sale. And I wonder if you could go on ebay you could find it.... But I know that at the L.A. Comic Convention that happens every month at the Shrine Auditorium they're dealers who have bootleg films and everything, and I've seen that. Mark Cowen and I were at the convention a couple years ago, and I was like, “Hey Mark, come over here”; they had a tape of the thing! And I was asking the guy, “So what's this? The preshow and the Ride material?” And he said, “Oh yeah, I got it from the Ride and blah blah blah.” Then I was like, “Well we wrote this thing!” [Laughs] I was actually kind of happy, you know. I should've grabbed one of those. But I have no problem with that because the amount of people who want that are so few, that's not going to deter them from spending their money and going on the Ride. I think it's great because the ridefilm that Douglas Trumbull did is amazing to me -- I'm still amazed by it! -- but it would be great if they did a new one. I'd like to see what they come up with now.
What have you got on board in the near future? Any immediate plans for following-up this film by directing or writing another?
Well, I just finished this thing so I'm sort of chilling out for a couple weeks, getting ready for the premiere and stuff, But, you know, I'm reading scripts right now and trying to figure out what to do next, which is always hard.
It's looking like I'm going to do a couple episodes for this new show on the WB called Grosse Pointe, which is not confirmed yet. It's by Darren Star, the same guy who created Sex and the City and he was one of the creators of Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. This is a half hour comedy and it's a behind-the-scenes look at a Beverly Hills 90210-type show. I saw the pilot episode, and it's hilarious! It's pretty scathing humor. One of the girls who's in Bring it On, Lindsay Sloane, is one of the lead characters in it. She plays a Tori Spelling-like character who's on the show because her dad owns the network. It's a really, really funny show. So I'm hopefully going to do a couple episodes of that.
And then I had written a feature script and finished it right before I got Bring It On. I'm hoping to go out with that sometime in the next few months and see what happens with that.
A very thanks to Peyton Reed for the extensive interview and use of his photographs! Thanks also to Kristen Sheley for her editing and transcription contributions.
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