todd louiso Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Once upon a time, Marc Pease (Jason Schwartzman) flipped out during his high school's production of The Wiz, despite every assurance from his drama teacher, Mr. Gribble (Ben Stiller), that he was at the very least capable ("You set the bar... so that others can go beyond it!").

Eight years later, Gribble's giving The Wiz another shot, while Pease tries to keep the remaining half of his once mighty a cappella group together and heading towards some modest goal of stardom. The two of them share a common love with present-day senior Meg (Anna Kendrick), and all three of them have a love for performing -- and an aversion to anything resembling comedy over the course of The Marc Pease Experience.

You'd think that the next movie featuring the star of a very recent blockbuster would be a surefire candidate to get a splashy theatrical release. Yet despite the presence of Ben Stiller in its cast, chances are that you won't see The Marc Pease Experience this summer.

Stiller, who starred in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian -- which has earned nearly $400 million worldwide since its release in late May -- plays a supporting role as a mentor to Jason Schwartzman, who must come to terms with his dream of becoming a musical star on Broadway. Rising starlet Anna Kendrick is also featured. As reported by The Playlist, Paramount will be releasing The Marc Pease Experience on August 21 in just 10 markets: Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle ... and "maybe" Boston, according to director Todd Louiso. Those are definitely major markets, but New York and Los Angeles will be avoided, and I'm guessing those of us in the selected markets will need to search out where exactly the movie will be dumped be playing.

Production on the film began under the Paramount Vantage banner, a division that has since been shuttered. The Playlist speculates that "there was basically a mandate from Paramount to all the Paramount Vantage movies 'on the way out' that 'We're just not going to put any more money into them.'" Whether that's true or not -- and I'm inclined to hope that they evaluated each movie on its own merits -- you might need to buy a plane ticket to see another Ben Stiller comedy this summer. Failing that, The Marc Pease Experience is expected on DVD before the end of the year.

Newcomer Anna Kendrick (Rocket Science, Camp) has landed her first big-time role (if you consider starring alongside Ben Stiller big-time) in the comedy The Marc Pease Experience. Pic, which looks to be a more commercial, Stiller-esque version of Rushmore, marks actor Todd Louiso's (Love Liza) sophomore directorial effort; Jason Schwartzman also stars. After being nominated for a best actress Tony for the musical High Society, Kendrick has made a fairly smooth transition to the big screen, and was already nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her debut performance in the indie hit Camp.

In The Marc Pease Experience, Schwartzman plays a guy who's stuck living 10 years in the past, back to when he was the star of all of his high school's musicals. The entire film takes place over the course of one day, while Stiller (who plays Schwartzman's former teacher/mentor) is preparing to unveil the school's latest production. Kendrick enters the picture as love interest to both Schwartzman and Stiller's characters. This is one of those films that I'm very much anticipating; back in high school, I spent four years in one of those drama classes, watching these types of kids demand all attention. Not only that, but my drama teacher -- who also happened to be the guy in charge of all the staged productions -- supposedly liked to seduce some of his students. Needless to say, I'm a tad close to the subject. Since I'm also a huge Rushmore fan (and you can't help but notice all the similarities here), I hope Louiso and co-writer Jacob Koskoff give us enough of a fresh take so that us Wes Anderson nuts don't leave the theater and immediately cry foul.

Todd Louiso endured too many Moby jokes in School for Scoundrels and too much hype in Snakes on a Plane, but now all that suffering for his art has paid off. His sophomore directorial project The Marc Pease Experience, has just received final funding, according to a press release from Paramount Vintage and Groundswell Productions.

Jason Schwartzman plays the title character, a successful performer in high school musical productions. Ten years later, he's still living in the past. The story takes place over the course of one day as Marc's former teacher, Mr. Gribble (Ben Stiller) mounts a new production that allows Marc to exorcise his Broadway demons once and for all.

Louiso's directorial debut, Love Liza (2002), was the extraordinary, underrated story of a recent widower (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his pathetic attempts to cope with his loss. Since Hoffman's brother Gordy wrote the Liza script, The Marc Pease Experience marks Louiso's first produced screenplay.

Louiso is also known for playing a record store nerd opposite Jack Black and John Cusack in High Fidelity (2000). But now that he's a working film director, he has a much better chat-up line at parties.