Lost Script by Jules Feiffer—Who Wrote Films for Nichols, Resnais and Altman—Sees the Light
29 years after he wrote it, Pulitzer Prize-winning Village Voice cartoonist and now-and-again screenwriter Jules Feiffer’s “Bernard and Huey” will finally live on the big screen.
Director Dan Mirvish and Bugeater Films more than doubled their Kickstarter goal this week, raising over $22,000 to mount Feiffer’s comedy about two rekindled old friends and the women who complicate their lives. The characters were first introduced in 1957 in his eponymous Village Voice comic strip. (Check out the story of how Mirvish unearthed the script here.)
Feiffer later wrote scripts for Mike Nichols’ scabrous sex satire “Carnal Knowledge” (1971, based on his un-produced play), Alan Arkin’s directorial debut “Little Murders” (1971), Robert Altman’s “Popeye” (1980) and Alain Resnais’ “I Want to Go Home” (a 1989 comedy about a cartoonist), among others. A WGA Lifetime Achievement Winner, Feiffer also wrote the 1961 Oscar-winning animated short “Munro.”
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Mike S. Ryan, who has worked with Hal Hartley and Todd Solondz, and Dana Altman, grandson of Robert Altman, are producers on “Bernard and Huey.” To sweeten the deal for crowdfunders, Mirvish devised a new lens system called MirvishScope as a reward. “In short, it’s a unique two-handed way of shooting,” Mirvish wrote in a recent Indiewire editorial, “with your left hand holding a magnifying glass and your right hand holding the camera with a small, fixed lens. By varying the distance, angle and position of the magnifying glass, you can get all kinds of reflections, flares and distortion for any still or moving image.”
What makes these lost movie campaigns click with crowdfunders? It might be about realistic expectations (and cool swag, of course). The pricey Indiegogo campaign to mount Orson Welles’ left-unfinished “The Other Side of the Wind,” with four days to go, is sadly not even close to its goal.
