Doug Liman's Swingers, a hip comedy-drama about two young Los Angeles guys coping with the problems of the fairer sex, cost Miramax a cool US$5 million dollars after a bidding war broke out among distributors earlier in the year. Not bad for a film made independently by guerrilla filmmakers for approximately US$250,000 using a group of relative unknowns. 'Swingers is basically a home movie,' says star and scriptwriter Jon Favreau. 'Except that in Hollywood, all your friends are professionals who know what they are doing.'
The backbone to Swingers is Favreau's screenplay a story told in the language of the 'cocktail nation', a 90s retro-swing movement that is beginning to sweep metropolitan America from its base in the Hollywood clubs. The film follows a close group of friends looking for love in some of LA's hippest back alley night spots clubs like the Derby, Three of Clubs and Dresden which are household names with the young club crowd.
'If I'd known Swingers was going to be made, I might have changed some of the facts,' says Favreau. 'I had to move out of my apartment, since we shot the movie in it. We also cast my friends and shot in all our hang-outs. Once the film comes out in LA none of us are going to have any privacy.'
Swingers is inspired by the daily triumphs and failures of Favreau and his friends and much of what is shown on screen actually has happened to the cast members. 'The funniest shit came right out of their own mouths,' he says. 'I just took it down.' The result is a forthright depiction of male bonding and men's private insecurities.
Favreau believes male audience members will sympathise, while women will feel they are being let in on a closely guarded secret. 'Swingers is a guy's movie but I think we've been successful in inviting women along for the ride,' says producer Victor Simpkins. 'It's a fun journey behind the scenes into the world of guydom, in all its ridiculous colours, language and flavours.'
Christopher Pickard
Prod: Victor Simpkins, Nicole Shay LaLoggia, Jon Favreau
Dir: Doug Liman
Scr: Jon Favreau
Ph: Doug Liman
Cast: Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Ron Livingston
Running time: 96 mins
Int'l Sales: Miramax
[Home ] [Content ] [The Sponsors ] [The Team ] [Comments ] [Help ]
