Every year, when the Hamptons International Film Festival rolls into town, filmmakers and producers do their best to get their offerings to stand out from the dozens and dozens of other movies competing for audience and industry attention.
And every year, for the benefit of—and to appeal to—East End audiences, if not industry insiders, a few films get to capitalize on the gravitational pull of a solid link to the local community. For the 2009 installment of the festival, “Paper Man,” featuring Jeff Daniels, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Kieran Culkin and Lisa Kudrow, has a clear edge in the local connection category: exterior shooting for the film was done exclusively in Montauk just about a year ago.
“Paper Man,” written and directed by the wife-and-husband team of Michele Mulroney and Kieran Mulroney, tells the story of failed writer Richard Dunn, played by Mr. Daniels, who rents a cottage in Montauk in an effort to finish his latest novel and possibly save his troubled marriage. His mission is complicated by the ubiquitous presence of Captain Excellent, played by Mr. Reynolds, an imaginary friend who has been his shadow since childhood.
Of course, as with every film, the story of the making of “Paper Man” goes back a lot further than last year’s shooting schedule in Montauk.
Ms. Mulroney recounted in a telephone interview from her home in Los Angeles last week that she and her husband, who is the brother of actor Dermot Mulroney, have been writing partners for 12 years now. In 2004, she said, they had taken a draft of their script for “Paper Man” to the Sundance Film Institute’s writing lab and, after working on it for a bit, they arrived at a conclusion.
One of the biggest hurdles to clear in getting the movie made, beyond securing financing, was casting the lead and the supporting actors.
Once shooting started, exteriors in Montauk and interiors in Nyack, New York, Ms. Mulroney and her husband started to reap the rewards of the successful casting process, and she had high praise for all of the actors.
After casting, the next critical choice was tied to the real estate mantra: location, location, location.
The two writers’ story was originally set, at least on the page, in Cape Cod. But when the writer-directors started scouting on the Cape, they quickly discovered that nothing had the texture they were looking for. So they decided to start looking on Long Island and agreed to hold off on re-writes until after a new location had been picked.