An air of celebrity flair and Hollywood panache swept over Grounds in a Wilsonian manner Sunday night.
The Virginia Film Festival brought Luke Wilson and producer Mark Johnson to the University for the showing of "The Wendell Baker Story," written by Luke and co-directed by Luke and his brother Andrew. The comedy also happens to star Luke and his other brother, Owen, with whom he collaborated in popular movies such as "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Bottle Rocket."
"Mark Johnson, who produced the film and is a U.Va alum, supports the Virginia Film Festival, so he wanted to come and show the movie here in Charlottesville," said Kate Malay, a fourth-year College student and the festival's publicity intern.
This was the movie's third showing after the South by Southwest and Vail Film Festivals, and was an effort to raise funds for the festival as well as provide publicity for the movie, according to Malay.
"The ticket prices were $15, which is higher than we usually ask for students, but this price provided us with tremendous funding for the festival," Malay said.
Malay explained that those running the festival were only informed last Tuesday of the event, which prompted the publicity crew to work extra hard -- given the limited amount of time to prepare for a large audience.
"I don't exactly know how many people were in there, but Newcomb holds 437 people and it was full," she said. "The tickets did sell out really quickly very early on Thursday morning."
The University community was informed of the event through e-mails sent out by Malay to various student groups on Wednesday -- less than 24 hours before ticket sales began.
"The Wilsons wanted to have the film students there, so the first emails were sent to students involved in Cinematheque, Offscreen and the FilmMakers Studio at 4 p.m.," she said. "Then I released it to as many students as I could at 10 p.m. And as far as I know, the film students also forwarded it to many people."
Although Owen and Andrew Wilson were also slated to attend the event, neither was able to accompany their brother due to scheduling conflicts and an extremely difficult flight respectively. According to Luke, even "Lynyrd Skynyrd had a smoother flight than [Andrew and I] did."
Many students said they were disappointed Owen was unable to attend the event.
"I am definitely an Owen fan -- however, I am sure there was an important reason for him not to be there," Malay said. "He was definitely missed."
The movie was Wilson's first writing and directing effort. He said he was constantly teased by Owen, who had previous writing experiences with movies such as "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums."
"I mean, when we were shooting 'Tenenbaums,' he was much more uptight about it, and I always said, 'You worry too much about what people think, what you wrote,'" Wilson said. "And when were shooting this one, he was like, 'Not quite like "Legally Blond 2," huh?' You got a lot more invested in it."
When it came to writing, Wilson said there were not many changes in the script during the shoot, but he always could rely on his actors to make beneficial changes.
"The writing changed during the filming, here and there," he said. "But I mean, my brother Owen always has good ideas. And Harry Dean was always on me about the dialogue, telling me when it didn't flow well."
Wilson said he has been working on the movie for the past couple years.
"Well, you know you got a lot of time on your hands when you are an actor, even if you are working," he said. "So I started a few years ago. It was one of those things where you can do what you want. Because there are times when you can't find something you really love, and so I thought instead of complaining about it, I should write one of my own."
Wilson's brainchild "follows the altruistic attempts of the upbeat, dreaming-scheming titular character to set things right wherever he may be, from prison to a retirement home" and includes many references to the '70s, according to the Virginia Film Festival website.
Wilson attributed the cultural references to the era of disco to the experiences of his childhood.
"The '70s is when I grew up and started going to the movies," he said. "I always loved those guys like Warren Oates and Harry Dean [Staunton]. Movies back then just seemed like, maybe not in the lead roles, but the secondary characters and even the smaller roles, one scene here and there, were really good and really realistic. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is one of my favorites."
Second-year College student Nancy Hulgrave said she enjoyed the overall look of the movie.
"The character that Luke Wilson plays, Wendell Baker, wears a seersucker suit, a red polo shirt and aviators pretty much throughout the entire movie," Hulgrave said. "Although you do think his outfit is very retro and even outrageous at times, it really does fit in perfectly well with the character and the comedic aspect of the movie."
Malay also mentioned the technical aspects of the movie.
"I thought the film was very fun," Malay said. "I really do enjoy Luke in his work. You could tell that he really did enjoy taking charge of this character and taking him places. I also thought the cinematography was great. It was very innovative and well composed."
Other students added that they were impressed Wilson took on the role of both the star and director of the movie.
"I really think Wilson did a good job being both in front of and behind the camera," Hulgrave said. "I can only imagine how hard that would be."
Wilson said that it was indeed a hard task, but co-directing with his brother Andrew made the job easier -- not to mention double tasking provided him with some relief in daily life.
"The best thing about [both acting and directing] was that I used it as an excuse for everything in my life, whether in a relationship or I didn't return a phone call," Luke joked. "But I mean it was me, so I could block out the shot with other actors, figure out what the shot is going to be like. Also, Andrew was there directing with me, so I could rely on him as well."
In addition to talking about the cinematic and thematic aspects of his movie, Wilson answered questions regarding his experience working on an independent movie as opposed to a big studio production.
"When you are in a big movie, you get to the set at 7 [a.m.] and you don't do anything till 4 [p.m.]. After a while, you ask 'Are they setting up production? What's going on?'" he said. "I guess it's wastefulness or something. It is interesting to work on both kinds of movies to see how they are done. With an independent there's a smaller team, everybody is more in tune and everybody knows each other."
When asked about the level of fame that he has reached since he acted in his first movie "Bottle Rocket" in 1997, Luke responded that it has been quite unexpected.
"Ten years ago, the thing was, we felt like we worked so hard to get that movie [Bottle Rocket] made, it was so much fun to do," he said. "People said 'These guys are weird, they look weird, they sound weird, the stuff they are sending back is weirder.' We thought it was fun to do, but didn't really think we would get to do it again. Long way from then to now, but I guess that's just the way it goes."
University students and Charlottesville community members got to see more of Wilson at the after-party for the showing at Station restaurant.
Hulgrave, who also attended the after-party, said that she found him very personable.
"He was very interested in talking to all of us, but I think at times he was overwhelmed by all these people inviting him to after-parties at their houses, saying that they are like the Mitch-a-palooza," she said. "But I think he responded so well, even when he found out that the house didn't have a high-dive"
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