If you were asked what your perception of a movie producer is, what would your answer be? Stuck up? Uninterested in what their fans think? Unappreciative? Well with Giovanni Agnelli, producer of the new movie Welcome to the Rileys, it is a totally different story.
Welcome to the Rileys, released on October 31, is a story about a couple, Doug Riley (James Gandolfini, The Sopranos) and his wife Lois (Melissa Leo, Everybody’s Fine) who after losing their teenage daughter, just can’t seem to get back on track. But while away on a business trip, Doug meets Mallory, (Kristen Stewart, Twilight Saga) a down on her luck stripper and he takes her under his wing.
During the phone interview with Agnelli, he said that being a producer is not an easy job.
welcome-to-the-rileys-saturday
“A day in the life of a producer is like getting up in the morning, and then someone punching you really hard in the stomach, and then going out to lunch and somebody kicking you in the back. And go to bed and someone punching you in the face before you go to sleep. You just get beat up every single day,” Agnelli said.
According to Agnelli, it takes a lot of work along with rejection to make a movie.
“It’s almost impossible. So that’s kind of like what my day is like. Everyday is spent trying to move one of these scripts or projects to another stage to another level.”
Agnell’s suggestion to students who want to have a career in the movie industry is to finish school and work your way up from there.
“I think my advice is don’t go into the film industry from high school. After high school, you really need to continue your education, and finish school,” Agnelli said.
The director of Welcome to the Rileys, Jake Scott brought the script to Agnelli and his partner and almost immediately they wanted to jump in and start telling this amazing story.
“My partner, Jake and I were sitting in his office and when we heard him tell all the nuances of the characters and all the things that weren’t on the page, the story that was underneath the story was really incredible.”
Watching the development of the movie characters during the production of the movie was very different than how Agnelli imagined it would be.
“When it is actually developing and happening on set, and to be honest, and every single time it is better than I imagined it. The acting, James, Kristen and Melissa, the level they took it to was so honest and real. In my head, it was like very Hollywood and very dramatic and over the top and kinda just you know silly. The way it happened in front of me was really honest and raw and heartfelt. And I didn’t expect that. It was wonderful.”
Going back and forth between favorite scenes, Agnelli says that his favorite scene of Welcome to the Rileys used to be when Mallory and Doug are talking in her apartment and they discuss the death of his daughter. But when he saw the movie in theatres Agnelli changed his mind and said that his favorite scene in the movie was when Doug and his wife, Lois, are reunited.
Being the first movie that Giovanni Agnelli has ever produced, everything surrounding Welcome to the Rileys was new and exciting. That includes seeing a television ad for Welcome to the Rileys for the first time.
“I was just walking past the television and then out of the corner of my eye I saw the commercial and went ‘Oh my god oh my god oh my god,’ and I just started running around looking for my family.”
His excitement even continued when he saw the midnight showing of Welcome to the Rileys.
“I walked into The Rileys theatre, and there was like 65 people in there. And everybody cheered when I walked in. They were like ‘Hey there’s Gio!’ They all knew me. It was really bazaar. It was really nice. I spent a lot of time talking to the audience, and getting all excited.”
Agnelli says that even though he is a producer he gets excited about his favorite things and his fans can relate to him because he just a fan himself.
“Because I’m not this producer guy that’s like mean and lives up in this big house in Hollywood that is you know behind the gates. I grew up in Colorado so I was just a guy that came to California trying to do something and it worked out. But I’m just like everyone else, just a fan. I get excited when I see a movie star and I get excited when I hear a song on the radio. So I think that’s why I got this relationship with the fans is that I am a fan.”
Welcome to the Rileys is an independent movie and was only released into a few cities in the beginning. Agnelli hopes the movie to expand the movie into the other cities. He says that even though he wishes he could choose how the movie was released nationwide that it is up to the fans and audience of the movie to decide where the movie will eventually end up.
“They look at what movies do really really well, and which movies don’t, and then they decide on how to expand. So it really is based on the audiences connecting to the movie. I do believe that it will expand I think that next week we are going to a few more cities. And then if it does well then it will continue to expand. If it finds an audience, I have no control over that.”
To date, there are rumors swarming that there might be an Oscar in the future for Welcome to the Rileys and Agnelli feels that it is much deserved.
“I can’t think of an actress in Kristen’s age group that did a better job this year. I just can’t. I think there have been some really great performances, but I think that Kristen knocked it out of the park. And I think Melissa Leo was phenomenal. And James has won so many awards over the years. Everybody knows that he is amazing. He is so good in this.”
However, Agnelli is uncertain if Welcome to the Rileys will receive any Oscars.
“There has to be a campaign done, and a campaign can be $500,000 a month to run an Oscar campaign. I don’t know if the studio will be willing to do that. So even though I think it will be nice and that they deserve it, I don’t think that it will happen.”
Agnelli communicates with fans, talks about the movie and shares his experience throughout the movie- making process with them. He frequently corresponds with his fans on Twitter and Facebook.
“It’s not like some man behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz just making all this fantasy. It’s just real people working hard. I just wanted people to have direct access to something that they cared about.”
Agnelli announced to his fans via Twitter that he had undergone treatments for lymphoma, a type of cancer, during the production of Welcome to the Rileys. After collapsing at the Sundance Film Festival where Welcome to the Rileys was going to premiere, not very many people would publicly announce a sickness that they are trying to overcome, but because of his concerned fans Agnelli decided to share his story.
“There were a lot of fans that were there and they were wondering what was going on.
And some of the fans I had become very close with before Sundance. And they were so supportive and so helpful. And they were scared. And I wanted to share with them that I was ok I was just over stressing myself. I was just honest with a couple of them.”
Agnelli says that what motivated him throughout the process of treatment and recovery was surrounding himself with loved ones and staying positive.
“I’d like to think that all that love really got me through it.”
His advice to patients that are undergoing treatment, and their friends and family is to always have a positive attitude, stay determined and support each other.
“I think that medicine does a lot. I think medicine does what it can do. But I think that a positive attitude will take you further.”
When he is not Tweeting about Welcome to the Rileys, Angelli often speaks of his nephew that he is raising. Little Pete is blind, autistic and nonverbal. He requires a lot of attention, however Agenelli says that Pete has changed his life and is absolutely amazing.
“This is my joy. I want to have every single second of his accomplishments and his achievements to be mine. I don’t want my assistants to be like ‘Oh he finally got his shoe on in one try.’ I don’t want them to have that joy. That is my joy. So I do everything myself with him, everything. And he makes me incredibly incredibly happy. So it’s changed my entire world.”
Welcome to the Rileys has yet to be released nationwide, but continues to be released into more cities each week. It is currently available for pre-order on dvd from www.amazon.com.
Via : my.hsj.org Thanks!
~Robstenfan
0 comments:
Post a Comment