The unstoppable, perversely evil high school bully. For years, he has been a staple in film comedies – the iconic obstacle standing between childhood innocence and the start of adult life. Now, the larger-than-life bully is back and terrorizing a trio of outcasts who will go to hilarious new extremes to save their hides and restore their right to be just a little odd without being pummeled, teased, tormented or stuffed into lockers.
The first year of high school is hard enough when you’re a slightly goofy teenager – but it’s positively unbearable when you’re the victim of an unconquerable tormenter who makes it his business to make your life unbearable. To make matters worse, no one will listen to your cries for help. Parents are too busy, teachers uninterested and the other kids only look away in horror, fearing they might be next.
Which is why Ryan, Wade and Emmit must come up with a desperately clever solution. Why not do what mobsters, politicians and celebrities do whenever they’re stalked and targeted – bring in some professional muscle? And this leads them to a bad hombre named Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson) – someone they think is a ruthless, deadly soldier of fortune. In the end, it’s Drillbit – who’s got grown-up problems that are far scarier than theirs – who needs rescuing.
The uproarious story of “Drillbit Taylor” and his unlikely path from life on the streets to hoped-for adolescent savior emerged from a collision of inventive comic imaginations. It began with an idea that writer Edmond Dantes came up with more than 20 years ago, which never got beyond a 40-page treatment. That idea then fell into the hands of one of today’s top comedy producers, Judd Apatow, who created such super-hit comedies as “Superbad,” “Knocked Up” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” Apatow turned to two formidable comedy writing talents: Kristofor Brown, best known for helping turn “Beavis and Butt-Head” into pop-culture icons; and film comedy star Seth Rogen, who has co-written such Apatow films as “Superbad” and the upcoming “Pineapple Express.”
Apatow is joined on “Drillbit Taylor” by producers Susan Arnold and Donna Arkoff Roth, whose credits include such acclaimed comedies as “Benny & Joon,” starring Johnny Depp, and “Grosse Pointe Blank” starring John Cusack. “It was a great idea and a great title,” states Arnold. “We thought it would be a lot of fun to kind of run with this story and reinvent it.”
Continues Roth: “We started to think about who would really be able to bring in ideas that would lend it a true contemporary feel and, of course, the first person that came to mind was Judd Apatow, who we both knew and had always wanted to work with. It took about one minute to know that Judd was exactly the right person to do this. His love and understanding of kids this age and his reverence and appreciation of this kind of world are the perfect mix. ”
The story seemed perfect for Apatow, whose trademark appeal is his unique ability to blend the outrageously hilarious with the movingly human. For Arnold and Roth this idea was an opportunity to do what the recent Apatow comedy hit “Superbad” had done – bring Apatow’s edgy brand of humor, which is laced with underlying honesty and humanity, to a younger audience.
“The movies Judd is doing now are really capturing our time in a way people of all ages can relate to,” observes Arnold.
Apatow brought the story to his frequent collaborator as an actor, writer and producer, Seth Rogen, and yet another acclaimed comic voice who has worked with both of them before, Kristofor Brown. “I thought they would really relate to this material and bring something fun to this high school world,” says Apatow. “Since Seth and I had worked on ‘Freaks and Geeks’ together, it was sort of familiar territory. And we were all really inspired by the idea of trying to create a 2008 version of one of those great John Hughes movies from the ‘80s.”
Brown and Rogen began with only the germ of the original storyline and went in their own direction from there. “Seth and I actually never saw the original treatment,” recalls Brown. “The basic premise was that these high school freshmen get in trouble with some bullies and hire an actual soldier of fortune out of the back of a magazine to protect them. So we took that idea and kind of subverted it, because we thought it would be fun if, instead, Drillbit Taylor turned out to not be at all who he says he is.”
Rogen notes that both he and Brown had an instant affinity for the story, which was close, perhaps too close, to their own reality: “I was bullied when I first got into high school and didn’t know how to deal with it and so was Kris,” he says ruefully. “Let’s just say we had a lot of personal experience with this stuff.”
In sketching out their hapless, but ultimately heroic, characters, Brown and Rogen drew amply on their own less-than-stellar high school memories, not to mention fantasies about what might have been different if they’d had professional bodyguards at their behest. “I was about five foot two when I started high school,” admits Brown. “Everyone else went through a growth spurt but I didn’t so I was about the size of Emmit when I started and I had both braces and glasses. I actually was pretty popular in grade school and then I got to high school and I very quickly realized that my survival technique was going to be not to draw any attention to myself. So, yeah, Seth and I both drew from our own lives.”
For further inspiration, Rogen and Brown, as well as Apatow, went back to review some classic high school bully comedies – including Tony Bill’s 1980s hit “My Bodyguard” and Phil Joanou’s cult classic “Three O’Clock High.” “We had a great time re-watching the greatest bully movies of all time,” says Apatow, “especially ‘My Bodyguard,’ which had such a great tone.”
They also researched the increasing reality and unfortunate brutality of bullying in today’s schoolyards. A growing phenomenon, it is estimated that some 5.7 million American kids experience bullying every year. “We kept in mind that what Ryan, Wade and Emmit are going through is a reality for a lot of people,” Brown notes.
Brown and Rogen were equally fascinated by how ridiculously ineffective the adult world’s response to bullying often seems. “We found these high school pamphlets about how to deal with bullies and it was clear a lot of the advice was just completely unusable and unwise,” says Brown. “The pamphlets also made it clear that if a kid was really worried a bully might do him in, he might have no choice but to take matters into his own hands.”
Additional research went into creating the menagerie of mercenaries the boys interview and the language of Drillbit Taylor himself. “We actually used a military field guide so we could get the language of these guys right and learn about things like traps and snares,” notes Rogen.
But when it came to creating the actual character of Drillbit, they went outside regulations, crafting a true original, someone who is more than just a hilarious fraud, a misfit who stumbles through his own relatable human flaws towards really caring about other people. “The original writer came up with the name, but me and Kris made up the reality of who Drillbit really is out of thin air – we came up with his voice and then the rest of his story developed from there,” explains Rogen.
Equally key to Rogen and Brown was keeping Ryan, Wade and Emmit funny and believable. “We really wanted them to feel honest and real and to talk the way kids really talk,” explains Rogen. “They’re three physically extreme people – but they’re also a classic trio. You’ve got the loud guy, the louder guy and the guy who can’t do anything right. It’s a mix that has worked really well since ‘The Three Stooges.’”
Apatow also had an indelible effect on the development of the story. “Judd’s fingerprints are all over this,” notes Brown. “He was the one who said ‘let’s open the movie with two kids just talking on the phone.’ He wanted to kick things off with a kind of intimate scene that lets you get to know the relationship between Ryan and Wade a little bit before everything gets crazy when they start getting bullied.”
The final draft of the screenplay had Arnold and Roth in stitches – but what also impressed them is that, just as they had hoped when they kicked off the project, the story managed to be as sweet and poignant as it was outrageous and edgily funny. “Owen Wilson as Drillbit Taylor is probably the least likely person you’d ever hire to be your bodyguard. But what’s interesting is that Drillbit does take care of the boys in his own way and they, in theirs, also help to take care of him,” sums up Arnold.
With the screenplay completed, the producers next set out in search of a director. They quickly came to the conclusion that Steven Brill – who co-wrote the Ben Stiller comedy “Heavyweights” with Apatow, and made his directorial debut with the movie before going on to direct a string of box-office hits with Adam Sandler – was their man. “Steve has demonstrated that he really knows how to get great performances out of young kids who aren’t yet polished performers and that was what we needed,” says Arnold
For Brill, “Drillbit Taylor” was a chance to simultaneously reunite with Apatow and work for the first time with Wilson, with whom he has long been friends. As for the story, Brill says “This movie is kind of a right of passage, about becoming a man while your life is being threatened. I think it’s a story that, perhaps sadly, everyone can really relate to, because everyone I know has to some degree been picked on or bullied in life, including myself.”
Brill encouraged improvisation on the set to bring the characters more fully to life and to sharpen the humor. He and co-writer Brown subtly enhanced the story as it was being filmed, taking advantage of serendipitous moments and the chemistry between the actors. “This story was like a living organism with everyone always thinking of ways to make it better and make both the logic and heart of it really work,” says Arnold. “I don’t think Kris Brown got much sleep during the shoot. He was coming in every day during production with new pages.”
For Brill this form of controlled chaos is exactly what leads to the most spontaneous and memorable bits of humor. Explains Brill: “For me, the most fun you can have on a film is to come in everyday with amazingly talented people who are completely unpredictable. At the end of the day, the story remained what Kris and Seth wrote, but we were constantly improvising beats and jokes and takes on the characters in wildly varied ways that brought them vividly to life.”
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