Photo credit: Courtesy of Dan Mirvish
Dan Mirvish is a man of many talents – American filmmaker, author and co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival. He is also the co-creator of the Martin Eisenstadt hoax during the 2008 Presidential election. In 2009 he co-authored the satirical novel I Am Martin Eisenstadt: One Man’s (Wildly Inappropriate) Adventures with the Last Republicans. We first met Mirvish at the home of Joe Lockhart – former press secretary to the Clinton administration – at his Kalorama home where he hosted a book party for the authors.
At the time, Hollywood on the Potomac had this to say about that: “Will the real Martin Eisenstadt please stand up? “Martin Eisenstadt” is every journalist’s nightmare. In a climate where getting scoops is often more important than getting the facts right, a hoax perpetrated on the Internet by a phony McCain staffer went farther and faster than a NASCAR driver on speed. The duo of Dan Mirvish and Eitan Gorlin “punked” many of the nation’s cable outlets into thinking they had the ultimate scoop on Sarah Palin, e.g., that she thought Africa was one big country. In reality, Mirvish was not a McCain aide. He and Gorlin, his collaborator, are both filmmakers. Also written under the name of the fictitious consultant, their recent book, I Am Martin Eisenstadt: One Man’s (Wildly Inappropriate) Adventures with the Last Republicans chronicles their deceitful adventures. Did it embarrass the news outlets? You betcha! Did it stop a good party? Heck no.”
Co-authors Eitan Gorlin and Dan Mirvish at the home of Joe Lockhart – Photo credit: Janet Donovan
Mirvish has a kind of quirky personality coupled with an analytical business sense. Hollywood on the Potomac was curious as to where that came from, so we asked him. “I had a wonderful childhood and am very grateful to my parents,” Mirvish told us. “I was not disciplined much at all. It was sort of an interesting childhood or interesting set of parents to have. My father is a scientist, researcher and a biochemist. I’m very analytical and got the scientific side from him. My mother is an artist and a copyright-er and was involved with advertising. I definitely got my left brain from one and the right brain from the other. I’m not sure which is which. It seems to have worked out pretty well though because that’s sort of what you need to do when you make films. You’ve got to be analytical and number-crunching on the one hand and artistic and creative on the other hand.”
Dan Mirvish
“I had an interest in film growing up, but I grew up in Omaha where it wasn’t really even on the radar that one could be a film-maker or director. It was only really when I was in college that I spent a summer taking film classes at UCLA Film School. This was the summer of my freshman year so I was nineteen. I loved it there. Convincing my parents to go out there was something. I think actually when I was twelve my mom took me to Universal Studios and she claims that that’s really when I got the bug for film-making, when I was twelve going to Universal. In college ….. I went to Washington University in Saint Loui s……. the school didn’t really have a film program, just one or two classes. Then I took summer classes at UCLA, although I majored in political science. When I graduated, I came to DC and I was an intern at the Washington Monthly Magazine for about four months and then got a job as a speech writer for Senator Tom Harkin.”
Dan Mirvish and Senator Tom Harkin
“I had a wonderful time working for him and just a wonderful experience in DC in general. While I was working for him, we did a lot of speeches that were pre-recorded in the summit studio which is in the basement of the Capitol. About once a week I would spend time in this recording studio, this video studio, and I would sort of talk to the tech guys there. These weren’t like creative films; he was just a senator doing a speech, but it kind of kept my interest in film alive. Then I found after a couple of years, the thing about DC is if you stay in DC for ten years, I think somebody just gives you a law degree by osmosis – you hit thirty and you become a lawyer. I thought, ‘I’m not sure that I really want that. I’ve done my time in here. I’ve done a couple years in DC, so why don’t I try film school and see if I even get in. If I don’t get in or it doesn’t work out, I can always come back to DC.’ It worked out.”
Between Us – The Trailer:
In 2013 Dan’s movie Between Us, based on an off-Broadway play, was a successful Indie hit. “When we were making that film,” he said, “I used Carnal Knowledge as a real reference point thematically and also visually. I think I was in post-production with Between Us, while we were editing it and I happened to read about it and I Googled up Jules Feiffer and I’m like, ‘Oh I wonder what he’s up to.’ I happened to read an article that mentioned that he had several un-produced screenplays. It just kind of struck me. He’s a guy who’s won a Pulitzer, an Obie, and an Oscar. Whatever those screenplays are, they’re probably good. I knew he had this connection with Robert Altman, because he had also written Popeye, and I had a connection with the Altman family. My producing partner on a lot of my films has been Dana Altman, who’s Robert’s grandson and Bob Altman was my mentor on my first film. I knew Robert as well.”
“Dana and I kind of together sent Jules an email, which in and of itself was a little hard while trying to track him down, but it turns out he lives in the Hamptons. He’s eighty-six now but still very active. Anyway, we tracked him down. We said, ‘We’ve read about these screenplays. What are they? Where are they?’ He said, ‘Everything’s in storage. I’ve got to hunt them down. It will take another four months. Reach out to me again in four months.’ So four months went by, we reached out to him again. ‘Oh no, I still haven’t found anything. Try me again in another four months.’ This went on for about a year and a half. We were persistent. Meanwhile, Between Us was on the festival circuit and getting distribution so this was just every now and then we would email Jules.”
Jules Feiffer – Photo credit: Comics Alternative
Jules Feiffer is an American syndicated cartoonist, most notable for his long-run comic strip titled Feiffer. He has created more than 35 books, plays and screenplays. In 1986, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his editorial cartooning in The Village Voice.
The short of it goes like this on finding the original scripts by Feiffer: “He seemed to remember that his assistant had sent him an edited version of Bernard and Huey, like a shortened version of it. I said, ‘Let’s call your assistant.’ He said, ‘Oh, no. She’s dead.’ I said, ‘Well, let’s try your agent.’ ‘Oh, no. He’s dead too.’ I said, ‘What about your lawyer?’ He said, ‘No longer among the counted. Dead.’ After many months of trying to track down the original screenplays a friend of mine in DC tracked down the original handwritten copy of Bernard and Huey in the Library of Congress. Turns out Jules had donated it about twelve years ago. My friend was able to go in there and actually found the original, handwritten script which was written on yellow legal pads and had little doodles all over it. That was great. You can take cameras to the Library of Congress, so that worked out well. Bernard and Huey is a screenplay by Feiffer based on his timeless characters. Jules himself didn’t have a completed copy. The article mentioned a producer. There was an article next to the publication, next to the screenplay, and it mentioned a producer. They had spelled his name wrong, but Jules remembered how to spell his name – a guy named Michael Brandman. He’s still alive. He was in LA and was able to track down a typed version of the script, which was great.”
Jules in his Hamptons Studio
“I didn’t go out to the Hamptons until after we had sent him the script. Jules picked me up at the bus stop and within literally the first minute, we almost got killed by two different cars. He was driving, which is probably not a good idea. Thankfully, I think everyone else in the Hamptons was also eighty-six so everyone’s going a little slowly, but dangerously. Anyway, we survived. He took me back to his house and introduced me to his new girlfriend. She’s age-appropriate I think. She’s still younger than him, but when you’re eighty-six most people are younger than you. Anyway, we just had a great afternoon and went out to dinner with them. I was explaining the concept of making the film on a low budget, the ultimate low budget, which is kind of weird to him. The last time he had worked in Hollywood, he was getting real money to write blockbuster movies like Popeye. It’s a different era now where if you’re making curious adult films, you’re going to make them independently and with a low budget. I think we come from having sort of a similar sense of humor and similar perspective on creativity and politics. It seemed like from when we first met it was like a good match to be working together. He was just very happy that this script from twenty-nine years ago is finally going to get made.”
“On the second trip, I went with my producing partner Mike and that time we made sure we had a camera and we sat down with him for close to two hours which is really amazing. He’s got such incredible stories and a lot of this stuff has been on the Kickstarter campaign. He’s just telling stories about Stanley Kubrick and Altman and Roy Cohn. His life has crossed so many different, interesting people over the years. Phillip Roth was a friend…….just really amazing, interesting people. There’s a story he tells where he’s the one who introduced Jack Nicholson to Warren Beatty because they were shooting Carnal Knowledge just down the road from where Altman was shooting the McCabe and Mrs. Miller. So Feiffer, who’s already friends with Altman, took Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel to this party that Altman was having and they stand outside the party and Nicholson says, ‘I can’t go in there. Warren Beatty’s there. He’s a big movie star. Look how tall he is.’ Feiffer’s like, ‘Nah, nah, you’re going to be a big star too Jack. You’re going places.’ Yeah.”
Feiffer in the Hamptons
Things we don’t like to talk about: Funding. Where does it come from, what are your obligations to the funders and how much and how long will it take to make the movie? “The first money is partially to pay the lawyer. It’s taken a good year and a half … After we found the script, it took a year and a half just to make sure we could get the rights to it. I’ve had a lawyer working pretty much on just that. But then really one of the first next steps is going to be to get a casting director. Then starting probably in August or September between the money that we’ve raised through Kickstarter as well as other money we have been raising and will be raising through private equity and donations and continuing to raise money that way, we’ll probably be close to around a hundred thousand. Once you get to that point, that’s enough to set a start date. This is really a lesson that we’ve learned from our experience in it which is that once you set a start date it’s the train leaving the station. Then everybody is on board and you can really get actors. You can get big actors in a small, independent movie as long as they have a window of availability in their schedule, but you don’t know that until you set your start date. Then you can kind of play with everyone’s schedules and see who’s available. You can get a big actor in a low budget movie if they’re available. If they’re not doing anything else, they’ll be in anything. These parts are written great and they’re written brilliantly. I think people will be inclined to be in the movie.”
So you don’t feel bad if your funders lose their money? “No. Terry Gross (NPR) is getting paid a salary. It’s not like people are investing in her. They just donate. I think that’s the kind of interesting thing that’s happened in the last few years with the advent of crowd-funding. It kind of changed the whole paradigm of how we think about funding for films. For a hundred years, you’d try to get investors. You’d lie to them and tell them, ‘Oh, you’re going to make a million dollars off of a thousand dollars.’ Then you wouldn’t and they’d break your knee caps. Now, with crowd-funding, just even the language has changed. You back a film rather than investing in a film, which is much close to the language that theater has used for years, or public radio has used for years. I think that’s kind of changed the way people think of film, which is great because film is as much of an art form as theater or radio or opera. Why not think of it in those terms? If you can make money, great, but that’s not really the reason people should be getting involved. Anyway, that’s kind of been my approach on my last few films. It really seems to work. We get people involved in the films that are doing it for fun. If we make money, great, but if we don’t make money, it’s not the end of the world. The Kickstarter is the easy part. We still have a budget to raise and make the movie and finish it, but yeah, this is the fun part and it certainly has a great pass towards success.”
Jules and Dan
“Bernard and Huey” is an upcoming film by director Dan Mirvish from a screenplay by Jules Feiffer based on his timeless characters. While the first Kickstarter campaign has reached it’s goal, you can still be a part of the effort by clicking here.
