Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
You know what I love most about Bob Odenkirk? He's been willing to tell the tough truths that no one else goes on record about as he's made his way through the tricky maze of compromise that can be the production of a major motion picture. In this case, it's the first film based on MR. SHOW, the groundbreaking sketch comedy show that Bob starred in with David Cross. At the film's recent wrap party, I got my first look at footage from the movie, and I was impressed by just how cinematic it is. This isn't just sketches from the show slapped up on the bigscreen. Director Troy Miller has done a kick-ass job creating a movie, a real film that happens to feature characters familiar from the show. Even if you've never seen an episode of MR. SHOW, this has a chance of being one of those great comedies that you see over and over. It hasn't been all peaches and cream getting it from the page to the theater, though. For example, the guys had their first real exposure to the insidious marketing machine on this film, and today's story by Bob Odenkirk should serve as a perfect example of just how far filmmakers will go in order to raise the extra money a major corporation can kick in. Read and learn...
The movie “Run, Ronnie, Run: The Ronnie Dobbs Story, a Mr. Show Movie”, will feature a new form of subtle product promotion developed by the movie’s creators, Bob and David.
“Product Dis-placement is when you dis-respect the products of a competitor,” Bob explains. “For instance, the Coca-Cola Company was willing to pay us a hefty sum for a major anti-mention. The climactic scene of the movie takes place at the World Series. Ronnie is about to be sent in, (having won a raffle to play for the Boston Red Sox), in the bottom of the ninth, with his team losing by three points, three men on base, two outs. The original dialogue goes like this:
INT. RED SOX DUGOUT
COACH
Dobbs, get in there and give it your best shot.
Ronnie is hesitant, he fingers the metal plate in his head, as his eyes search the stands for Wendy-Lou.
COACH (cont’d)
Dobbs, you okay?
RONNIE
Sure Coach, but if I get beaned and lose the powers that Professor Bhigtitts procedure gave me, will you promise to tell Wendy-Lou I love her and I always have, and I never loved none of them other girls, not even the ones I married?
COACH
Sure Dobbs. Sure I’ll tell her.
Ronnie heads into the game, hits the winning grand slam and the movie ends.
Okay, great scene, right? Dramatic, touching, human, and it’s got a guy hitting a homer in it. Better than a homer, a grand slam! But how did we ever afford to shoot it? Well, Coca Cola agreed to underwrite the entire scene’s production excesses, (40,000 Extras, 2,000 bags of chamomile tea – part of David’s rider), for a simple, anti-mention of it’s main rival, Pepsi. Here’s how the scene reads in the final shooting draft:
COACH
Dobbs, get in there, and give it your best shot.
Ronnie seems hesitant, fingers the half empty can of Pepsi Cola in his hand nervously.
COACH (Cont’d)
Dobbs, you okay?
RONNIE
Sure, Coach...
Ronnie hands his Pepsi to the Coach.
RONNIE
Oh—here, you finish this. I can’t. Not ‘cause I gotta go out there and win the game, either. But because it tastes like liquid poo with bubbles.
COACH
Really? Let me try it.
He does, and spits it out.
COACH (CONT’D)
Damnit! Aww! Awful! It’s like yak poo.
RONNIE
Right! That’s what it always reminded me of, too! That Should be their slogan; Pepsi—Yak poo in a can!
They both chuckle, then Ronnie gets really sad.
COACH
Dobbs, this is no time to be thinking of Wendy-Lou.
RONNIE
Aw, I ain’t thinking about her. I’m just feeling sorry for all the yaks whose diarrhea goes undrunk cause people are filling up on that damned Pepsi shit.
Ronnie heads into the game, hits the winning grand slam and the movie ends.
Did you catch the subtle reference to Coke’s rival soda? The almost imperceptible put-down?
Obviously, this works best when there are two main rival products. We’ve got another great scene, reminiscent of the boat sinking scene in “Titanic”, paid for by Fritos, in which we compare Doritos to the “dried vomit of a Tijuana whore the morning after Cinco de Mayo.” Also there’s a scene that was shot in the real Oval Office of the White House, in which Ronnie Dobbs, (now the President), averts a nuclear threat and, in the moment of the greatest tension, takes a bite out of a Burger King Whopper, spits it out, and says, “Gentlemen, if you thought that wing-ding with Pakistan was a shit sandwich, you haven’t tried this here Whopper.”
