"Taking Woodstock" is set entirely in upstate New York. But the genesis for Ang Lee's latest film took place in the San Francisco Bay Area, in the green room at KRON-TV.
"I was downtown at some television station. It was Jan Wahl's show. She gave 'Lust, Caution' four hats. So I was there," Lee says, remembering his first meeting with author Elliot Tiber, who was also a guest on the show. "Elliot was behind me, and when the taping was done, he took maybe two minutes to give me a pitch. He's a hilarious guy — very funny. All kinds of jokes (about) Jewish parents and Woodstock anecdotes I didn't know about."
After reading Tiber's "Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert and a Life," something in Lee's mind clicked. His film "The Ice Storm" was about the hangover after Woodstock, so a more inspiring movie about the event seemed like a good endeavor. And Lee was looking to film a comedy with life-affirming qualities.
"Up until 'Lust, Caution,' I did six tragedies in a row," Lee says. "I was really looking forward to something happier and feel-good. I thought, 'What could be happier than Woodstock?' "
"Taking Woodstock" isn't all sunshine and rainbows. The corporate machinations of the event are played mostly for laughs, and the protagonists get caught up in the greed. But the journey taken by the movie's Elliot, played by Demetri Martin, is ultimately joyful. And his parents, including Imelda Staunton as his scene-stealing, price-gouging mother, go through their own positive changes as well.
James Schamus, Lee's longtime collaborator and "Taking Woodstock" screenwriter, says the shoot was a great deal of fun, and the filmmakers hope their enjoyment of the project translates onscreen.
"Very few American films are actually about being happy, or wanting the audience to feel a connection with other people in a happy way," Schamus says. "Even comedies don't necessarily work that way. What was the last movie you saw that when the credits came up you said, 'I'm feeling kind of happy'?"
"Taking Woodstock" takes place mostly in the fleabag hotel that Elliot's parents have been running into the ground. Elliot's role as a low-level local bureaucrat allows him to approve the license for the concert, and possibly generate enough money to save his parents' business. He pursues his own romantic interests and — with the help of some unique characters — looks for the courage to live his own life.
This is anything but a Woodstock stage film; moviegoers looking to see who plays Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin will be disappointed. Lee and Schamus became students of the era, and the travelers walking down the road include a lot fewer longhairs than the hippie legend has cemented in our collective minds.
"The first thing I told the crew is that we're not doing 'Hair' and we're not doing 'Austin Powers,' " Lee recalls. "I love those movies, but it's not what we're doing. I think just by doing research and talking to people, we tried to work hard to make it real, and just hope that the fun is going to come out."
The biggest risk was in the casting, which included Martin taking on his first feature-film role after his successful contributions to "The Daily Show" and his own hit Comedy Central series, "Important Things With Demetri Martin."
Schamus says he first heard about Martin from his then-teenage daughters, who introduced the comic with a YouTube clip.
"I instantly fell in love," Schamus says. "I'm not a big fan of stand-up comedy. It can be so negative. His comedy was so gentle and observant. And later on, when we were starting the process on Woodstock, I started hearing that voice: An outsider guy who is just kind of looking at the world and trying to make things happen and doesn't quite get there."
Martin says the part came from out of nowhere. Known for his standup, he had quietly been looking for feature-film starring roles. He once auditioned for Woody Allen's "Melinda and Melinda" and says he was the runner-up for the Joseph Gordon-Levitt part in "(500) Days of Summer."
Martin says "Taking Woodstock" was an incredible experience, with the detail-oriented Lee sticking to the script and forcing Martin to try new things.
"The most fun was the mud-sliding day," Martin says. "It was one of those cold, wet days, but once we got in the mud ... all I could think is, 'This is so crazy that this is my job right now, to come here and make believe. And all these people are working so hard to make it real.' "
Scripps Howard News Service