‘Modern Family’ director boards ‘Arthur’
Jason Winer, a key figure behind the ABC freshman hit “Modern Family,” is set to direct “Arthur,” Warner Bros.’ remake of the 1981 comedy that sees Russell Brand stepping into the role originated by Dudley Moore.
Winer, repped by ICM and Mosaic, has directed 10 episodes of “Family,” recently winning a DGA Award for his work on the pilot.
Good luck Jason!
Read the full story on The Hollywood Reporter
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‘Modern Family’: Co-creator Steve Levitan
Co-creator Steve Levitan, one of the brilliant men behind “Modern Family,” talked to Zap2It at PaleyFest 2010:
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PALEY FESTIVAL: ABC’S “MODERN FAMILY”
The cast and crew of Modern Family (Steve Levitan, Jason Winer, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Sofia Vergara, Ed O’Neill, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Eric Stonestreet) were the guests of the Modern Family panel at the Paley Festival last night.
If you want a full line by line of what happened – check The Futon Critic.
Here are some highlights from EW‘s visit to the panel:
Funny guy Ty Burrell earned the biggest applause from the audience. Sofia Vergara also got a cheer for not playing the typical golddigger and proved to be very popular among her coworkers. In addition to getting praised for her comedic skills, Burrell joked that “we Google her everyday.” “I’m Googling her right now,” Eric Stonestreet added.
Spoilers: Bowen recently filmed a scene at the Grove shopping plaza in Los Angeles, in which she gets into a brawl with a security guard. Fred Willard will return as Phil’s father.
Will Mitchell and Cameron ever show some physical affection for each other? Stonestreet said they’re too busy raising a child, but if the show goes on for many more seasons, it’ll happen “in due time.”
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“Modern Family” creator Steven Levitan talks about gay couple Mitchell and Cameron on hit comedy
As the gay marriage debate continues to rage in the United States, two gay dads played by Jesse Tyler Fergusonand Eric Stonestreet on ABC’s hit comedy Modern Family could be doing a lot to change hearts and minds.
Greg in Hollywood has an interview with “Modern Family” creator Steven Levitan that talks about this subject. Here are some of the interview highlights:
“I think once people watch the show, those are two characters who are very, very hard not to like and I think that has probably diffused any of the negative energy that people were feeling”.
“We haven’t had much pushback on it,” Levitan said. “There’s always a fringe element that before the show came out, you know, ‘let’s boycott ABC,” and it was probably like 20 guys in a cellar someplace.
Said Levitan: “We have an episode that will air in January in which Jay is with a bunch of his buddies and he runs into Cameron and he introduces him as a friend of my son and Mitchell takes great offense at that. And through dealing with that issue, I think they come to a better understanding. It’s a very funny episode that’s really about something.”
Ferguson is an openly gay actor who previously played a straight character on the CBS comedy The Class while Stonestreet is straight and among his many roles was a recurring part on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
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Jason Winer talks ‘Modern Family’
Baltimore Sun has an interview with the director and an executive producer of Modern Family, Jason Winer. The pilot that Winer directed, which debuted Sept. 23, was far and away the most-talked-about comedy pilot of the fall and touched on multiculturalism, gay identity and family life.
Here’s what Winer says about the filming of the show: “Instead of a normal comedy where you would be in right up in the actor’s faces with the lenses, I thought, ‘Well, if this is supposed to be a documentary, let’s back way off and really shoot like a documentary.’” So, Winer says, he and the crew “moved way off across the field and used lenses to zoom in on the actors — with all the business of the soccer game running back and forth in front of us.” The result for the viewer: “You make the dialogue feel like it’s captured accidentally and spontaneously,” Winer says.
Modern Family’s Steven Levitan Interview
Movie Line has an interview with Modern Family‘s Steven Levitan. Here are some interesting Q&As:
How is running Modern Family different than the shows you’ve run in the past? How have you modified the process?
Well, I’m running it with Christopher Lloyd, so that’s automatically different. We’re sharing the leadership so we have to constantly check in with each other and sometimes battle it out, you know, “Which way are we going to go here?” But otherwise, you hope to make fewer mistakes with time but there are always new mistakes to be made. I’m not as freaked out by all of this as I was at the beginning. It’s becoming more natural to me. We’re just trying to get as far ahead as possible. I always say, that breaking stories is like Indiana Jones and the big ball. You try to get as far ahead as possibly but by the end of the season, that boulder is right behind you.
How long does it take to shoot an episode?
Five days.
Did you have a sense while writing the pilot that ABC was the best place for the show?
We wanted to do a show about family and we thoughtABC was the right place for it. We pitched it around and several people wanted it. ABC wanted it the most and we took it there. We’re not really good at filling orders. We feel like it’s got to come from our hearts and what we want to write about and then you find the right place for it.
And when you pitched it, did you already have the script?
Actually, for the first time ever, for me, I did a Key Note presentation on the computer because we had so many characters. I thought it would be too confusing otherwise for people to keep it all straight. So I used actors that I wanted or liked or pictures of people that looked like what was in our heads and we took it in and said, “This is our show,” and did a five minute Key Note.
Wow. A PowerPoint.
Yeah, the Mac version of PowerPoint. It was cool. We pitched it three places and three places wanted it. It worked.
The biggest concern was, where does this have the best chance of succeeding. ABC, NBC and CBSwanted it. We didn’t pitch it at FOX. And Steve [McPherson] really wanted it and you know, he’s an old friend, and the series just felt like ABC.
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Going to a wedding?
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