Jason Schwartzman
has never been someone I’ve paid attention to one way or the other.
The best way I can describe the guy is chicken broth. By that, I
mean, he’s a good person for other people to play off of and he’s
reliably consistent. But if people rave or complain about something
you make with it/him, it’s unlikely they’ll attribute it to this
particular ingredient. Fortunately, either through people he knows or
people who know him, he tends to get matched up with some fairly
interesting elements both in front of and behind the camera.
Fresh off of the
latest Wes Anderson pic, The Darjeeling Limited, he’s just
signed to star in character actor/writer/director Todd Louiso’s The
Marc Pease Experience. The plot concerns one Marc Pease, who’s 10
years out of high school, but stuck in his high school glory days
when he was a star of the school musicals. On one fateful night,
however, he discovers that his former teacher is opening another show
and he somehow involves himself in order to confront his issues.
The former teacher
is due to be played by Ben Stiller.
What interests me
about the project, however, is Louiso. The name probably is
unfamiliar to most, but a quick look on IMDB will probably inspire
you to exclaim “Oh!…..that guy!!!”
His only prior directing credit was the Phillip Seymour Hoffman
downer Love Liza, but I’ve always liked the quirky sense of
humor and timing he brings to his small character roles in film and
TV.
What’s more is that the film is set up at Paramount Vantage, which is
the “artsy/indie” wing of Paramount Pictures. So (hopefully)
neither Louiso nor the performers should be constrained by some
aspirations for this to be some broad, wacky comedy that has to open
huge.