We got a chance to chat with director Seth Gordon for his holiday comedy Four Christmases, opening this Friday. But since this is UGO.COM, you guys probably know him from his documentary, King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, the story of Donkey Kong champ Billy Mitchell who's score stood as a record for almost 25 years. Four Christmases is a change for Gordon who tends to work on smaller films, although Kong is about to be made into a feature! Gordon tells us about working with Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, what kind of Kong film he'd like to make and a tiny bit of, maybe, (don't want to get him in trouble here) dream casting. Oh, my fingers are crossed on this one!
UGO: Your film history is largely documentaries. How did you get involved with a feature?
Seth Gordon: Vince saw Kong. And then I think he had Reese see Kong. And I talked to them both about it, and we were like-minded about different things in the script. They definitely took a big chance and I don't think the studio would have done it of their own volition, but because both of them supported the choice, it was real. They made it happen.
UGO: What do you think you bring from your documentary background? You've got some heavy hitters in this film. Did you encounter any resistance?
SG: There was no resistance. Everybody wanted something different, in the sense that (Robert) Duvall wanted a certain kind of feedback and a certain kind of input. And Vince is very different from that, and (Jon) Favreau is different than that. Everybody's got their own thing, you know? It was a great learning experience for me because they all...none of them did any posturing. They're just so good. Those games don't exist for them. It's just all about the work and what we're going for here and what our point of view is, and what we're trying to do.
UGO: I loved the scene with Jon Favreau..
SG: The fighting?
UGO: Yup!
SG: "Soldier boy!" That's him! He just started, (yells) "Soldier boy, soldier boy!"
UGO: He just came up with that?
SG: Just on the spot. I was like, that's genius. We didn't even know why that was so funny, but it's so funny. Keep that. Let's keep doing that.
UGO: Vince has a whole bunch of friends in this. I'm assuming Favreau and Peter Billingsley came with him.
SG: Yes, they're all in Iron Man, so he joined the project later, once they were out of the thick of things. And I think whenever Favreau and Vince work together, they do...they're working on another one right now...they always work together. Patrick Van Horn was from Swingers too. So that was cool. I mean, he has so many relationships from his years of doing this and he calls on them. And everyone wants to work with him again. It's fun. You never know what's going to come next. It's really nice.
UGO: So you'd certainly work with him again...
SG: I would. I don't have any plans to. I want to work on something small. Because this was so big and Kong was so micro and I'd love to do something in between. And I think he...just the nature of him, it's hard. And his fee...you'd end up with a big film. I think it's important for me to do something without all of that.
UGO: Do you think you could convince him to do a smaller piece with you?
SG: Maybe. Um, I think if the material were right. He doesn't make decisions based on the fee. You know? So maybe, maybe.
UGO: Speaking of smaller things...you're doing a feature version of King of Kong. Do you have any dream casting ideas? Anybody you've been talking to?
SG: I haven't talked to anybody about it. I got in trouble talking about dream casting before, so I shy away from that. Because if people say it's happening and it's not...what I really know is that whoever is Billy, it's got to be a hard core actor. It's not comedy. It's got to be gravely serious. And that's all I care...if that's Robert Downey (Jr.)...whoever it is, it can't be just straight comedy.
UGO: Robert Downey would be hysterical. Yeah, I vote for him.
SG: He would be great. Billy's 6'5", so we'd just have to let go of that. (laughs)
UGO: So how big a gamer are you?
SG: I considered myself a gamer until I went to FunSpot that summer and then I saw the truth. What extreme dedication to gaming is all about. Extreme commitment. I personally am nowhere near the gamer that these guys are. They're the real deal. I'm, well, I'm just a visitor in these parts.
UGO: Do you have a script already?
SG: Yeah.
UGO: How closely does it follow the documentary?
SG: I had originally proposed that the remake actually be a sequel. So that we could go ahead and just go further. But what we ended up doing was sticking to the structure of the film because it's so good. It just happened to be true, but it's also very, very good. About a guy who was almost the best his whole life and now he finally is the best, and it's taken away from him. That's good.
UGO: Do you have any dates floating around yet?
SG: If it weren't New Line, we'd probably be working on it already, but because they knew I'd been doing this, I think that it's just waiting it's turn. But soon enough we'll get our hands dirty and get it going.
